I think we all have heard the myth of Mattel being involved with the M16 or its parts...but someone decided to dive into the subject for some facts.

The True Story Behind the Mattel M16 Rifle - The Armory Life

I will read that soon!

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Come and take it!!

Same old story. Some dummy spouts off something stupid, and thousands of other dummies latch on to it as gospel...

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Pisgah

Interesting article.

I never noticed the use of a Mattel "M-16" in the Green Berets. I'll bet the toy version is worth quite a few $$$ nowadays too.

Enjoyed the article… and you know, the first thing I thought of when opening this thread was that Green Berets scene… now I know that wasn’t a real AR!

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Uvidíme se později, aligátore.

The AK is a better rifle.

A buddy had one of those Mattel Marauders as a kid. He had a battery powered M-14 too...now that was COOL!

I had a Mattel "Tommy Gun." We were able to keep the Germans, the Japanese, the Yankee's, and the Viet Cong out of our end of the county.

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John 3:16 .

Especially the "Yankees" right??

I had a battery powered M-14! killed plenty of Viet Cong around the house

Wait! There is a video of a guy with a REAL Mattel marked M16 on YouTube as I recall!

(Actually a fairly well done April Fools gag)

We had our permitter covered as well. I'm 4th from the left with my Mettel Tommy Gun. Ah the good ol' days.......

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SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS

An interesting read. I already knew that it was an Urban Legend due to Forgotten Weapons, but it's interesting to at least get some insight into where the myth comes from.

It reminds me a bit of the whole "Tupperware" thing surrounding Glocks, in which the vast majority of folks these days who refer to Glocks as "Tupperware Guns" due so in reference to the polymer frame, thus illustrating how few folks actually know how the term originated, which was in reference to the old packaging the guns shipped in.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

It started as a derogatory term from troops issued the rifle that opined it looked like a toy. Someone dubbed it the "Mattel Shootin' Shell Rifle" and it stuck. Then some mope apparently started spreading the rumor Mattel was actually involved in the production of the guns. Pure horse puckey.

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Qui plantavit curabit

The first M16 I was issued was made by the GM Turbo hydromatic division.

I remember seeing a "Mattel" marked lower and build on one of the other forums. I want to say it was originally an 80% lower. It was probably AR15.com.

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Thread Killer.

During the 1960s Mattel sponsored advertising campaigns using the slogan "You can tell it's Mattel, it's swell!". Many of us growing up during that time period probably heard that slogan many thousands of times.

By the late 1960s some of us were young soldiers during the transition from the M14 service rifle to the new M16. A commonly heard exclamation was "You can tell it's Mattel, it's swell!". I remember wondering just how well that plastic stock would stand up to a horizontal butt-stroke to an enemy's head, as we had been trained to perform during bayonet training with the M14.

My infantry AIT company received about a day-and-a-half of familiarization training on the new M16, mostly training films and classroom instruction on basic operation and maintenance. When I arrived in Vietnam in 1969 I was issued a brand new rifle manufactured by General Motors Hydra-Matic Division.

The original 3-prong flash hiders gave way to the more familiar bird-cage design, reportedly because troops were using the 3-prong unit to break open metal strapping on pallets of C-rations, which resulted in breakage of the flash hiders.

Earlier rifles without the forward assist mechanism remained in service well after the newer versions started arriving. Another significant design change I recall is chrome-plated bolts and chrome-lined chambers and bores, supposedly to reduce corrosion-induced problems.

One of the most persistent deficiencies I remember was failures (jams) related to fully-loaded 20-round magazines. Our work-around for that was to load only 18 rounds in the magazines, which seemed to reduce stoppages.

The original M16 at about 6 pounds was much easier to carry in the field, and especially the 5.56 ammo, compared to the 10-pound M14 and a full load of 7.62mm.

Overall, those of us who first trained on the M14 were not very pleased with the new plastic toys called M16 rifles. Of course, we weren't very pleased to be where we were or doing what we were required to do.

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Life of the party until 8:00PM

GM must have made a lot of M16’s, I had one in BCT in ‘73.

Uh oh……. Now you’ve done it.

I can remember my Drill Sergeant saying "you can tell it's a Mattel, it's swell" as we were issued our M16's in Basic Training. I don't think that he was a fan.

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Only a cold warrior

Then there’s that old Story about the Glider Wing failing.
Killed 10 folks including the Mayor of St. Louis, MO.
Turns out the part that failed was made by a Casket Manufacturer.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

As a Gunners mate in the Sea Bee's,
dueing the "Change over" from 30-06 to the new "NATO" round,
we took in the new M14 rifle.
The flash depresser would come loose, spraying copper at the range and even coming off,
while the bluing job did not hold up and rust would develope, mostly in the butt plate areas.

The term, we used was;
"They're swell, made by Mattel" !!

I never got the see the M16 before I was sent home to "TI" in San Francisco, to get my release papers.

When I was in the Army (1972-75) we had the M-16A1. Having grown up around hunting rifles, I wasn't impressed. A lot of my fellow soldiers weren't either. Frankly, the A1 version was a piece of junk and prone to malfunctions.
The rumor was that Mattel made the plastic parts. We didn't particularly like the idea of going into combat with a rifle made by GM and Mattel. And nobody ever said they were swell.

Most of the problems I had were caused by worn-out magazines. Leave it to the Army to cheap out on magazines (like they later did with the M9 Pistol) that were supposed to be disposable to begin with. When my girls were in BCT (one at Ft. Leonard Wood and the other at Ft. Jackson) they both had the same problem so I sent Magpul Pmags to them.

To add to it, toy guns of the era had a short service life. I had a Marx Tommy gun with a sound effect, and that internal mechanism broke quickly. All my other toy guns broke well before I was done playing with them. Another reason why “Mattel” is a derogatory term for the M-16.

I looked one up on eBay. They had one for sale on the whole site and it was $500.

This article is running On the Armory life form as well. Several participants Are swearing up and down That they were issued M16s Made by Mattel stamp on them.

I went and looked on the internet for myself and I found multiple articles that say that Mattel did make plastic furniture for M16s and multiple articles that say that they did not.

None of the articles that I have seen have a photograph of an M16 with a Mattel logo on it

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Retired Career Security Guard

That's interesting. When I was in Basic Training the only place that they let us anywhere near a magazine was on the Range.

Anytime anybody received a package in the mail it was opened by the drill sergeants before they got it.

I'm imagining what would have happened if a drill sergeant opened up a package full of M16 magazines.

ETA I want to clarify that I absolutely believe this happened. I'm just saying that I'm also positive that the posters daughters caught a ration over it and very likely did not get to leave basic training with those magazines

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Retired Career Security Guard

Me too. Basic Training Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri (1986). I was envious of my fellow trainees with their relatively new Colt manufactured M16 rifles until those newer rifles started breaking and my clunky 60s era General Motors M16 kept on running.

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I type. Therefore I am.

I don't know about the Mattel "M-16" these days, but a few years ago, I decided I wanted a Mattel "Tommy Gun" like the one I'd had as a kid. I found one on Ebay for I think it was $500 OBO. I checked. It's still there. Enough that I canceled that idea.

Instead I got a Umarex, CO2, BB M1A1, that actually shoots BB's, is full sized and works like the original for less than half that price. OH...how much trouble could I have gotten into with this as a kid?



Of course I'd have never been able to keep it in CO2 cartridges and BB's anyway, so it would been reduced to machine gun sounds just like the Mattel one.

To be honest, I've never fired it, but it looks cool in the safe.

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John 3:16 .

My dad wouldn’t let me have one of those back then. Now…

About this same time frame, most likely after the John Wayne Green Berets movie was released, I recall seeing a store mannequin display with the toy M-16 and a green beret for sale. My buddy bought the beret thinking he was cool .

It’s been close to twenty years so I might have sent them to them after BCT, I don’t remember exactly when. They definitely did use them after BCT, the younger one (who went from PV1 to 1LT before leaving) used them for yearly qualification (Expert) in 4th ID. (She always took her shooting seriously when she was a kid. Neither one of them can remember NOT knowing how to shoot.)

When I attended BCT at FLW (JAN-MAR 1973) our M16 magazines stayed in our ammo pouches when not in use. When we arrived at the range, we loaded up using stripper clips and when we left we had to say “No brass, no ammo, Sir,” to an Officer. I have no idea how things are done now.

In BCT (Fort Sill 1988) we didn't have magazines. Idon't know this but I suspect it was so a trainee couldn't load several rounds into a magazine (Like Gomer Pyle in Full Metal Jacket) and shoot a Drill Sergeant.

After BCT I was issued magazines by my Unit Armorer. I kept them in my LBE. I managed to scrounge 7 20 round short magazines that I kept throughout my "career". I just never turned them in until I outprocessed my last unit.

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Retired Career Security Guard

As an Air Force SP each shift we were issued, and had to return at the end of shift, three full 20 rounds magazines. One for the rifle, set but no round chambered, and two for the belt.
I remember the armorer pressing down with his thumb each magazine as it went in and out of the window to verify it was full.
No issues with the side arm as they were model 15 revolvers that we loaded and unloaded at the clearing barrel. Same load though. Sixfor the cylinder and two more reloads for the belt pouches.

Download by 2 is a pretty common field expedient for the fact that the original design mags were specified to HOLD 20, not feed them. Ooops.

As for P-Mags, they have an NSN and are the standard issue now as far as I know. A quality AR platform works well, at least when properly lubed.

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NHI, 10-8.

Lubed, and loaded with the right powder… a lot of the early issues with the M16 platform came from .gov going cheap on the ammo specification, similar to the magazines. Totally against what Stoner designed for.

I had one when I was ten. My dad was a marine, so I got most of the really cool toy guns.

My favorite memory about it was one Sunday morning, when my mom and dad were still in bed, I let off a burst right next to their bedroom door. Then I handed it to my sister, and went downstairs. He came out of the bedroom in a pretty big hurry and yelled at her.

She still gives me a hard time over that!

It was great. Pull back the bolt. RATATATATATATAT! The only difference was that in 1964 we hadn't heard much about Vietnam, or 'French IndoChina' as it was called then. So our main adversaries were Germans. I don't know why we never fought Japanese. Probably from watching 'Combat' on TV.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

You can tell it's swell...

From The Black Rifle.

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I was working mids on Guam when a B52 doing touch and goes declared an emergency due to loss of hydraulics. Upon closer examination it was found to be perforated with a bunch of 5.56 rounds. We were, of course, the prime suspects.

An OSI guy met me at the armory for turn in. He smelled all the M16s and stripped the rounds from every magazine. I knew what was coming and warned him, but he has still surprised when several mags had empty cartridges, pencil subs, and sticks at the bottom. I tried to explain the boys would get bored out in the boonies and take the ocassional potshot at lizards, or toads, or coconuts. Before shift changed they would strip that mag, load whatever in the bottom, and put the issued rounds back on top. This would pass the push test, and since the mags weren’t assigned to a particular rifle you could just shrug if you got caught and say, wasn’t me.

It turned out to be a Guam forest ranger who was smoking dope and thought it would be fun to shoot up a B52 with his Mini-14. Some federal prison time followed.

Not long after spare mags were issued in a sealed pop-tart pouch and the one in the gun was individually assigned.

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Rule of law, not a man.

To this day I still load my AR-15 mags down by two rounds. I did it that way all my adult life and I’m too old to change now. I’ve never carried one in the chamber either (until I thought I needed to). It’s a good weapon when properly maintained. (Nothing against AK-47’s, AKM’s, & AK-74’s, I own a few of each but nothing wrong with a good AR.)

Thanks for the memories!

At Fort Leonard Wood, in the Summer of '69, I never saw anything but M-14s and for the rest of my time in the USAR I never handled or fired anything but an M-14 but the M-16 did come to my attention in the early 1970s. Hmmm....maybe I got up close and personal to one once.... Anyway, being a dyed-in-the-wool Luddite I considered anything made of that much lightweight plastic to be a useless toy and some wag called it a Mattel rifle and that was that, that is EXACTLY what I called them and thought of them for a very long time. Especially when I saw force protection shipmates on two US Navy ships carrying M-14s. So - How long? It took me nearly 50 years to come around!!!!

Army experience and later civilian experience convinced me that as excellent as they might be I didn't like AKs (or SKSs) and then I became enamored of the AR platform and I was sold on it.

Happily, done and done!

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Come and take it!!

I see a lot of IDF armed with what looks like M-4's.

It's a common sight on the streets of cities in Israel. The AR platform is very popular there. I think as time progresses the Tavor might overtake the AR; we shall see.

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Come and take it!!

Time marches on. Never handled a semi Tavor but I can see the appeal. Versatility. I guess I'm considered old school. I like the old XM-177/CAR-15.

As an aside from this thread, it sure brought back memories. I had a Rifleman Lever action and a Fanner Fifty, and both still adorn my Den wall. I also had a Thompson machine gun that made a ratatata when you wound it up. Long gone, though.

My thoughts here are I wonder what would happen if some youngsters played "cowboys" with plastic guns in this day and age?

The days of children and innocents are gone.

FWIW the 3 pronged M-16 flash hider is called “ The C ration special”. Originals can be hard to find to build an early version.
Back around 04 had to clean out the house I grew up in. In the attic found many, many of my toys from 50’s-60’s including the camo Thompson, plastic M-14 and many other toy guns. Most were broken so in the dumpster they went. Saved a few good ones and son has them now, maybe for his grandkids?

Yep, definitely M4s, but most former and current members of the IDF prefer the Galil.

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213th FBINA

Also known as the duck bill. They were handy for popping the metal strap around a C-rat case. There were also complaints about the duck bill getting caught on the "wait a minute" vines". It was, however, a much better flash hider than the compensator that replaced it.

The Israelis are famous for taking a good thing and making it better.

There's nothing like a good looking girl with a select fire weapon!

BTW, takes 2 M-16s with the 3 pronged flash hider to break the straps on a case of so called “ C rations”, they are actually, Meals, individual, combat. One on either side of the band touching to act as a shear. Some were pretty good heated, others like ham and limas had a obscene name that can’t be posted. I liked the fruit and pound cake with a LRRP ration.