BuzzBee toy company made the toy .50. I haven't seen it anywhere other than K mart, though toy guns seem to be making a comeback. Walmart, Kmart, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree and Dollar General were all well stocked, and Target and ToysRUs generally stock the Nerf guns, many of which are quite interesting these days including the belt fed full autos.
BuzzBee is best known as sort of the lower end "Nerf also ran", but makes two very interesting foam dart guns. One is a double barrel shotgun where the little foam darts are fitted into orange plastic shells. The gun opens and loads like a real SxS shotgun and the empty shell casings eject. There's a magazine fed lever action that they make on the same principle. I bought the boys the SxS some time back. It knocks over little green army men relatively well and has survived a long time for a ten dollar toy. (The .50 ran $25.)
The orange barrel tips are mandated by law, and I remember red plugs in the barrel even on my toys in the 80s. However the receiver looks whiter in the photos than it is. It's actually molded in a somewhat decent attempt of a gray suggestive of a metal receiver.
The Nerf guns are well advertised on TV these days. Most don't look like real guns, but the features promoted on the box are amusing. Some take accessories like lights or sights mounted to rails. Higher capacity magazines and drums are touted, and some are fully automatic. One that Nerf sells is a special long range sniper model. Spare magazines, bandoleers and even tactical vests are to be had, along with night vision goggles that actually work.
Dino won't be 3 until next year and I've been wrestling a bit with the whole toy gun thing..I had them when I was a kid with no ill effect but think I will try and avoid them so he doesn't associate toys with guns...when he's ready for the real thing, I'll take him shooting...besides, living in this anti-gun craphole, there won't be any other kids with toy guns so he'll have to play lone sniper all the time...
I opted to go ahead with the toy guns. My theory was that lots of other toys are actually representing things that are horribly dangerous - toy tools, toy cars, toy planes, well armed soldiers.... Hmmm, now that I think about it, most everything boys play with seems like it'd kill you in real life. Teddy bears - bears eat people, dinosaurs - well those would be dangerous if one was running around...
I let Liam shoot at the birds, but most of the time he simply likes toting a toy gun along. Somewhere he got the idea in his head that if a person goes out and about, they need a gun. The middle child Brody is much the same.
Gun safety wise, I went with the idea of taking all the mystery away. The toy guns become "Liam's" or "Brody's". Other ones are Daddy's and not to be messed with, though if asked about, I'm happy to let them see, touch etc. I took to propping an old Carcano that I don't even have ammunition for (I forgot my stash of 6.5mm Carcano in storage and haven't dredged it up) in the corner. It shortly became utterly ignored since it was seen as just another household appliance to be approached with care.
Kids seem to like to "shoot" each other and appropriate sticks, GI Joe guns, or fingers if nothing better comes along. I figure in a few years, let them shoot each other in the butt with airsoft pistols and learn that getting shot isn't pleasant.
Of course I live almost literally across the street from the 3rd recruit training BN. The boys see guys marching around toting their M16s whenever they go outside.
a young lad,christmas,and his new 50 cal....brings a tear to my eye....
