One of the first toy guns that I remember is a Buck Rogers Ray pistol that my father had when he was young. Die cast bronze metal decorated with black metal rings on the barrel end. A friction motor generated sparks that lit up the coloured plastic window near the but off the gun. Great toy from Daisy Manufacturing originally produced in 1934!
The guns that kids played with ranged from space toys (Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Superman) to the western style-Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Lone Ranger. As recently as 10 years ago, I saw a Red Ryder BB gun style rifle for sale in a toy store. Unwisely, I chose not to purchase it.
Where the market was flooded with gun toys decades ago, there exists but a small selection today. You can go into a toy store or toy section and find less than 20 gun toys. In terms of western style guns, I recently checked Walmart and found only 4. One double pistol and holster set, one single pistol and holster, one rifle, and one 'deluxe'set. The water pistol marker is now heating up though, and the 'Super Soaker' craze is alive and well. Time will tell, but I don't think that water guns, not character related, will never become collectible. There were also a couple of 'laser' type guns and some disc guns. The spirit of pacifism is alive and well in the toy stores I guess.
The better known manufacturers of toy guns were largely the big players in the toy market as well. Louis Marx produced many licensed character weapons-Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Johnny West. Daisy, the well known gun manufacturer, produced the early pistol/holster or cap pistol sets that were everywhere in the 40's to the 60's. Mego, produced space related guns/lasers from the mid 60's onward.
If you are fortunate enough to have an old pistol/holster set, look at the construction. You will notice quite a difference in the belts, (leather to plastic), holsters (thick leather to thick plastic), and the guns. The guns were originally die cast metal, and quite heavy. As metal became 'expensive', and lighter alloys were available, the guns changed to a more detailed (in some cases) lightweight construction. As the manufacturing areas switched, plastic guns became prevalent.
In addition to the Daisy/Marx/Remco/Mego toys, there exists on occasion the opportunity to purchase a true collectors set. The Roy Rogers Museum has approved 2 awesome items in the past years. The first was a Roy Rogers signed and numbered Peacemaker/holster set. Designed and executed well it had pearl handles, real gun feel, but it had no firing pin. Truly the mark of a die hard Rogers collector, it was issued in a run of 2500 and was priced at $2950 us. The second special issue was the Roy Rogers BB gun from Daisy. Again issued in a run of 2500, it sold for a mere $69.95, and became the fasted selling gun in recent history.
