Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage Conditions May Apply Usage Conditions Apply There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer

When Daisy Manufacturing Co. introduced this first Buck Rogers metal gun for 50¢ in 1934, its popularity sparked a brief price war between Macy's and Gimbel's department stores. Although cardboard Buck Rogers guns had already been created, as the comic strip and radio program gained popularity, Daisy asked Buck Rogers writer Philip Nowlan and illustrator Dick Calkins to redesign the guns, holsters, and helmets drawn in the comics to make them easier to replicate as toys.

Fictional space heroes often carried space-themed versions of the Western's ever-present six-shooter or rifle. As a result, for several generations, pretend gun play with ray gun toys formed a central part of many children's imagined space adventures. Exactly how one blasted space enemies often reflected the newest technologies. In the late 1940s, "atomic" guns proliferated. "Laser" guns followed the creation of the practical laser in 1960.

Collector Michael O'Harro donated this toy ray gun to the Museum in 1993.

 Display Status

This object is on display in James S. McDonnell Space Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.

James S. McDonnell Space Hangar
Object Details
Country of Origin United States of America Type MEMORABILIA-Popular Culture Manufacturer Daisy Manufacturing Co.
 Dimensions 3-D: 24.1 x 4.4 x 16.5cm (9 1/2 x 1 3/4 x 6 1/2 in.)
 Materials Overall, metal
 Inventory Number A19970782000 Credit Line Gift of Michael O'Harro; Restrictions Unknown; Trademarked Daisy Manufacturing Co. Data Source National Air and Space Museum Restrictions & Rights Usage conditions apply
For more information, visit the Smithsonians Terms of Use.