...from a time when it was still okay for kids to play with toy guns.
My sister and her 8 year old son are visiting from out of town. Of course my 5 year old always wants to be with his older cousin. Well, whenever they get together they go into my mom's attic and pull out my old "arsenal". I always forget about these until they pull them out.
Here's my old toy carbine. The FSB is broken off and you have to "reset" the trigger manually, but it's in pretty good shape for its age. Must be late '70s - early '80s. I guess it would "technically" be a GAU-5/A/A because it has no FA
:
Here's the "sanitized" maker marking. I guess even when I was little I knew "made in Hong Kong" was bad.
And here's my toy M16 made by "Empire", early '80s vintage. I remember riding my bike several miles to K-Mart to buy it with allowance money. It has a few "modifications". I specifically remember making it a flat-top with a hack saw. I don't remember ever seeing a flat-top as there weren't any in service (that I know of) when I was a kid. I guess I was ahead of times.
The paint job was done with a two-part stencil I made and Testors spray paints. The thirty round mag is made from cardboard and duct tape and fits over the factory 20 rounder. The M203 is made from a paper towel roll (of course). The barrel and FSB are broken off forward of the handguards, but I have it glued and clamped down in the basement as I type this so my son can get some more use out of it:
I hope you all enjoy the nostalgia!