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41-464: Initially, All Metal Products Company specialized in toy guns, including pop guns, water pistols, and air rifles. Their slogan in the 1920s was "Every Boy Wants a Pop Gun." By 1927 they had become the world's largest manufacturer of toy guns. Wyandotte Toys stopped manufacturing air rifles in 1929, but continued to dominate the toy gun market throughout the remainder of their history by producing pop guns, clicker pistols, dart guns and pistols, cap guns and

82-561: A 40-inch (100 cm) long barrel, and an overall length of 56 inches (140 cm). Three rifle bands held the barrel to the stock. A shorter two band version, generally referred to as the Harpers Ferry Model 1855 rifle, was also produced. This shorter rifle had a 33-inch (84 cm) barrel and an overall length of 49 inches (120 cm). A pistol-carbine of the Model 1855 was produced as well. The Model 1855 rifled musket

123-400: A firing mechanism in the nose capable of holding a single cap, either plastic or paper (cut from a strip), though types are not interchangeable due to the mutually exclusive design. With the newer designs they have both the paper cap or plastic cap. When dropped on a hard surface, the impact detonates the cap. "Exploding pens" are devices that look like ink pens but these contain an anvil where

164-433: A science fiction theme are particularly desirable. These toys are only loosely based on actual guns and vehicles, and are often referred to today based on the vehicles to which they bear the closest resemblance. Wyandotte toys produced after World War II can be easily distinguished from pre-War toys by the elaborate lithograph markings that decorate them. These toys were manufactured using much thinner metal, and weigh less than

205-522: A series of up to ten caps from a sprocket-fed roll. It was made initially for a Dick Tracy line of toys, then camouflaged for a Green Beret Guerilla Fighter line of weapons, then restyled again as a tie-in with the Planet of the Apes franchise. Ring cap guns are usually modeled after revolver pistols, with the cap ring placed in the cylinder section of the toy gun. Like its real-world counterpart, when

246-523: A variety of plastic pistols. In 1929 the company added girls' toys and toy vehicles, as well as lithographed novelty toys in 1936. Metal toys were banned during World War II because the metals were needed for the war effort. The company survived by producing wooden toys and die-cut cardboard "build your own" play sets during the war. All Metal Products also manufactured en bloc clips for the M1 Garand rifle. Clips of this nature will be stamped with "AMP1" on

287-564: Is desired. One example would be the "Thunder Punch" version of the He-Man action figure from the original 1980s Masters of the Universe toy line. Ring caps were placed in a "backpack" integrated into the figure, which contained the striking mechanism for the caps (as well as tiny vents to allow smoke from a triggered cap to escape). This mechanism was triggered by drawing the figure's spring-loaded right arm back and releasing it to swing forward;

328-439: Is often used today as the explosive, but previously the tiny powder charge was a simple mixture of potassium perchlorate , sulfur , and antimony sulfide sandwiched between two paper layers that hold in the gases long enough to give a sound report when the cap is struck. Cap guns are also used as blank guns but still aren’t safe as they fire small amounts of gun powder like material. Real guns that used caps first appeared around

369-660: The Pacific Northwest at the Battle of Four Lakes (Spokane Plains) where the Northern tribes greatly outnumbered U.S. troops. The attacking Native Americans were dispatched by U.S. troops armed with the Model 1855 rifled musket before they could get in range with their smoothbores. Lt. Lawrence Kip noted: "Strange to say, not one of our men was injured...This was owing to the long range rifles now first used by our troops... Had these men been armed with those formerly used,

410-456: The U.S. Army showed that the smaller .58 caliber was more accurate when used with a Minié ball. The Model 1855 also used the Maynard tape primer, which was an attempt at improving the percussion cap system that had been previously developed. Instead of using individual caps which had to be placed for every shot, the Maynard system used a tape which was automatically fed every time the hammer

451-489: The Whitney Armory . Earlier muskets had mostly been smoothbore flintlocks . In the 1840s, the unreliable flintlocks had been replaced by much more reliable and weather resistant percussion locks . The smoothbore barrel and inaccurate round ball were also being replaced by rifled barrels and the newly invented Minié ball. While older muskets had an effective range of about 50 to 100 yards (46–91 m),

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492-460: The "muzzle" of the cap gun, or with the entire gun made in these or other bright colours. Laws requiring these markings were made because of incidents where children and teenagers were killed by police officers who mistook cap guns for real guns. While these incidents were rare, lawmakers decided that toy guns must be marked so they cannot be mistaken for real guns. Caps have occasionally been used in toys other than cap guns where an explosive effect

533-483: The 1960s such as an exploding box car, a detonating rocket on their carrier transporter and an exploding fog signal accessory to mimic the effect of track detonators . Springfield Model 1855 The Springfield Model 1855 was a rifled musket widely used in the American Civil War . It exploited the advantages of the new conical Minié ball , which could be deadly at over 1,000 yards (910 m). It

574-546: The Civil War with standard percussion caps. Approximately 75,000 Model 1855 rifled muskets were produced. The machinery to make the Model 1855 rifled muskets, at Harpers Ferry was captured by the Confederate Army in early 1861. The captured machinery to produce rifled muskets was taken to Richmond Armory , where it formed the backbone of Confederate weapon manufacturing capability. The rifled musket machinery

615-574: The Model 1855 had an effective range of 400 yards (370 m) and was deadly to over 1,000 yards (910 m). Following Pattern 1853 Enfield and the Lorenz rifle , barrel on the Model 1855 was .58 caliber, which was smaller than previous muskets. The Springfield Model 1816 and all of its derivatives up through the Springfield Model 1842 had been .69 caliber, about the same as all European muskets since 18th century, but tests conducted by

656-529: The US and companies like Lone Star Toys in the UK made millions of cap guns in various versions. While many had their names patterned after a hero or heroine, many cap guns were also named with western-sounding names, like: "Stallion 45", "Pony", "Mustang", "Pioneer", "Cowboy", "Texan", "Colt 45", "Rodeo", and such. Children all over the world emulated their heroes by collecting and playing with these toy guns. However, when

697-658: The United States Civil War era, when faster firing weapons were needed. The Springfield Model 1855 musket was fitted with a Maynard tape primer . A roll of paper impregnated with fulminate served as the detonator, but it was found to be impractical in wet or muddy conditions and the Union army reverted to using the conventional copper percussion cap . After the demand for caps declined, firearms companies experimented with toy cap guns modeled after real percussion cap guns. Cap guns became especially popular when

738-547: The Western television shows began to fade away and the heroes retired, the cap gun continued to be produced in military and secret agent modes until the popularity of the tie-in toy guns also diminished, and eventually all of the famous cap gun manufacturers either sold out to other toy companies or started manufacturing other types of toys. There were many types of cap guns, including guns from small Derringers to larger rifles, and even working miniatures of most of them. One of

779-454: The barrel. Eventually Mattel also came out with a similar model called "Shootin' Shells." Mattel produced an automatic firing cap weapon styled after the Thompson submachine gun . Pulling back on a slide, which simulated the charging handle of the real Thompson, prepared the gun for firing by tensioning a spring. When the trigger was pulled the spring power would drive the mechanism, firing

820-455: The cap. Potato or spud guns occasionally use a cap to provide a burst of gas to fire the projectile, a small cutting of potato. One design employs a small reusable metal "cartridge" which has a recess for a cap at one end and a small drilling through to the other end, which holds the potato. Due to the low energy contained in a paper cap and the poor seal around the cartridge, these spud guns usually have very modest range, barely enough to eject

861-483: The casing. In electric models, the caps are burst, and the pressure is used to propel the BB forward in a manner similar to real firearms. The leftover energy is then sometimes put to use simulating recoil and a blowback system that ejects the casings. Caps are used in toy flare guns . The cap propels one or two pyrotechnic star loads in flares . "Cap bombs" are devices roughly in the shape of an aerial bomb that contain

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902-724: The company cut costs. The effort was not enough to prevent All Metal Products Company from going bankrupt in 1956, resulting in the sale of part of its product line, including the former Hafner trains, to competitor Louis Marx and Company . What remained of the company attempted a comeback in 1957 but failed. Today "Wyandotte" toys are highly sought after collectibles, and since they were made mostly of metal many continue to survive today. The toy guns and airplanes produced before World War II were simply constructed from pressed metal and often painted in bright colors such as red, yellow, silver and olive green. Because of their simplicity these toys can often still be found in good condition. Toy guns with

943-566: The explosion of the cap was intended to simulate a thunderous noise caused by the superhuman power of the character's punch. Similar cap firing mechanisms for toy soldiers were produced in Germany for the Elastolin and Lineol toy soldiers and artillery pieces. A relatively new type of Airsoft , known as hybrid guns, use small round BBs in the tip of a casing, usually designed to mimic that of its respective magazine. Caps are placed behind

984-469: The explosive cap is placed, then a spring-loaded lever is pulled back and held in place by the cap of the pen. The pen is then ready to leave around or given to another person as a practical joke. When an unsuspecting person pulls the cap of the pen off, the spring drives the lever against the explosive cap for a surprise bang. Tri-ang Railways in the UK utilised caps in some of their OO gauge range of model rolling stock and accessories for toy play effect in

1025-794: The field. However, less than 80,000 Model 1855 rifled muskets had been manufactured by the start of the war. Some of them were destroyed when the Confederate military captured the Harpers Ferry arsenal in April 1861, and several thousand more were in Southern hands. Approximately 10,000 rifled muskets had also been shipped to California , and therefore were useless for the Union war effort. The Model 1855 got its first test in September 1858 in

1066-624: The heroes of cinema and television rode through the West, ridding the territories of villains. Many cap guns were named after or endorsed by leading matinee idols like Roy Rogers , Gene Autry , Hopalong Cassidy , The Lone Ranger , Tonto , Dale Evans , Marshal Matt Dillon , or any of countless others. The "Golden Age" of cap guns was roughly a 20-year period following World War II when television became popular and such companies as Nichols , Hubley , Kenton, Kilgore, Wyandotte , Classy, Mattel , Actoy, Esquire, George Schmidt, and J & E Stevens in

1107-399: The last famous ones to sell widely was a toy rifle named after the television show, The Rifleman , which aired from 1958 through early 1963. Other shows lasted longer, such as Gunsmoke (which had 20 seasons lasting through 1975), but these did not have as much 'kid-appeal' as the earlier shows, and the sales of toy cap guns began to decline. The pistols were generally offered in 3 styles:

1148-495: The potato cutting. Plug fire cap guns are almost exclusively from Japan and are more realistic in action often used by reenactors. they also fall under the category of Modelguns . Mattel introduced a modified type of roll cap that used sprocket feed instead of simple friction feed. Beginning in 1988, cap guns and other toy guns in the United States must be manufactured with a bright orange, red, or yellow tip placed over

1189-521: The pre-Civil War years. The need for large numbers of weapons at the start of the American Civil War saw the Model 1855 simplified by the removal of the Maynard tape primer and a few other minor alterations to make it cheaper and easier to manufacture, thus creating the ubiquitous Model 1861. The Model 1855 was the best arm available at the beginning of the conflict as it took some time for the Model 1861s to be manufactured and actually reach

1230-402: The pre-War toys. Cap gun A cap gun , cap pistol , or cap rifle is a toy gun that creates a loud sound simulating a gunshot and smoke when a small percussion cap is ignited by a hammer hitting the gun powder. Cap guns were originally made of cast iron , but after World War II were made of zinc alloy , and most newer models are made of plastic . Cap guns get their name from

1271-718: The rear of the clip. In 1948, die cast and plastic toys were added to the Wyandotte line, allowing it to compete with other companies who sold inexpensive dime store -type toys at lower prices than the Wyandotte pressed metal toys. In 1946, All Metal Products Company bought the Hafner Manufacturing Company , the maker of "Hafner Clockwork" pressed metal toy trains . In the early 1950s, All Metal Products Company moved from its site on Sycamore and 14th St. in Wyandotte to Ohio , hoping that closer proximity to Ohio's steel mills and cheaper Ohio labor would help

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1312-404: The result of the fight, as to the loss on our side, would have been far different, for the enemy outnumbered us, and had all of the courage that we are accustomed to ascribe to Indian savages. But they were panic-struck by the effect of our fire at such great distances." The Model 1855 is generally referred to as a rifled musket, since it was the same length as the muskets that it replaced. It had

1353-532: The semi-automatic, the revolver (which actually had a revolving cylinder carrying a disk of caps), and the mock-revolver which looked like a regular revolver, but opened to load a roll of caps. Almost all of the early models used either roll caps or circular disks of caps, but in 1950 Nichols Industries came out with a large model called the Stallion 45, which had a revolving cylinder into which individual bullets were loaded, which each had two parts. The circular cap

1394-625: The small discs of shock-sensitive explosive compounds (roughly 1.4 to 1.6 millimetres (0.055 to 0.063 in) in diameter) that provide the noise and smoke, effectively the same as the Maynard tape primer and percussion caps used in real firearms of the mid to late 1800s but usually smaller and made from cheap plastic or paper. Some are arranged in plastic rings of eight or twelve. There are also single caps, roll caps (of 50 to 500), disk caps, and cap strips all of which are actually extremely small versions of percussion fireworks . Armstrong's mixture

1435-422: The trigger is pulled, the cylinder rotates a new cap into place, the hammer is drawn back, and then released; the shock causes the cap to explode harmlessly, producing the noise and smoke. Strip or paper cap guns use the aforementioned cap strip in lieu of the cap ring. As in the ring style of gun, each pull of the trigger advances the cap strip forward, pulls back the hammer to the point where it releases, striking

1476-427: The usual way with standard percussion caps if the tape was unavailable. The Secretary of War at the time Jefferson Davis authorized the adoption of the Maynard system for the Model 1855. In the field, the Maynard tape primer proved to be unreliable. Tests conducted between 1859 and 1860 found that half of the primers misfired, and also reported that the tape primer springs did not feed well. The greatest problem

1517-690: Was a standard infantry weapon for Union and Confederates alike, until the Springfield Model 1861 supplanted it, obviating the use of the insufficiently weather resistant Maynard tape primer . The Model 1855 Springfield was a rifled musket used in the mid-19th century. It was manufactured by the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts and at the Harpers Ferry Armory in Virginia (modern-day West Virginia ) along with

1558-404: Was cocked, similar to the way a modern child's cap gun works. While the powder and Minié ball still had to be loaded conventionally, the tape system was designed to automate the placing of the percussion cap and therefore speed up the overall rate of fire of the weapon. The Maynard tape system gave the Model 1855 a unique hump under the rifled musket's hammer. The weapon could also be primed in

1599-401: Was placed into the 2-piece bullet and then when the gun was loaded and fired, it seemed more realistic. Eventually several companies used this idea and a few years later Nichols invented a plastic bullet that was snapped into a hollowed-out version of the regular 2-piece bullet with a compression spring inside. When the gun was fired, the spring pressure "shot" the plastic pellet out of the end of

1640-699: Was taken to Fayetteville Arsenal , North Carolina where it too was put to use for significant arms production throughout the War. As a result of using the original arsenal machinery, the Richmond rifles and the Fayetteville rifles were two of the finest weapons produced by the Confederacy. The Model 1855 was in production from 1856 until 1860 and was the standard-issue firearm of the Regular Army in

1681-563: Was the actual tape itself. Despite being advertised as waterproof, the paper strips proved to be susceptible to moisture. An attempt was made to remedy this problem by making the tape primers out of foil, but despite the improvement this brought, the United States Army Ordnance Department abandoned the Maynard system and went back to the standard percussion lock in later rifled muskets like the Model 1861. Most Model 1855 rifled muskets were used throughout

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