Very Rare Vintage Circa 1950's Mattel Shootin' Shell Fanner Cap Gun (A)

Description

Very Rare Vintage Circa 1950's Mattel Shootin' Shell Fanner Cap Gun (A)
Excellent
Vintage
Condition - Light scuffs and scratches - light platting loss - See Photos & Video for any Issues!
Additional Item Information
Rare
Vintage Circa 1950's Mattel Shootin' Shell Fanner Cap Gun (A)
Note:
I am selling two of these Fanner's on eBay. This one is Cap Gun (A), and has less markings below the Chamber than the one I am selling called Cap Gun (B).
Description:
Mattel Shootin' Shell Cap Pistol from 1958. The chrome finish overall is in good condition. There is some loss of finish on the high points, holster rubs on the tip of the barrel, and some loss of finish on the cylinder. It is about 9 inches in length. Everything on it seems to work fine. No Box!
This Mattel shootin' shell Fanner has been played with very little. This Mattel Shootin' Shell fanner can be used double action, or fanned like you see in the old westerns. For double action just pull the trigger and the cylinder will rotate and the cap gun will fire. The gun is tight like it was when it was first made. The Staghorn grips have no cracks or chips. The cap gun works with Mattel shootin shell two piece play bullets or you can use the one piece bullets with Greenie stickum caps.
Circa:
1950's
Measures:
overall length is 9" long.
Condition:
Very good vintage condition, please see all pictures. Light scuffs and scratches, light platting loss. All parts work and are in very good shape. Does Not contain caps or bullets. No Box.
Note:
I recently purchased a large amount of vintage cap guns at a auction from a
seasoned
collector. Please follow us because we will be listing more of these cap guns and
accessories
over the next few weeks!
**Due to the nature of antique and vintage items, all items are sold "AS IS" and sales are final, we do not accept returns. If you are unsure about an item and need additional photos or have any questions, please notify us prior to making your purchase. We would be happy to hear from you. Thanks again for looking!
"This replica gun contains the colored markings required by law, including a permanently attached orange plug."
Mattel is one of the most famous toy companies that there ever has been.
Their Cap Guns, however, are still out there and are still being collected by very avid fans. The Mattel Fanner is one of the most famous Cap Guns that has ever been made. And who can forget Greenie Stick-M-Caps®?
Mattel Toy Company
The Mattel Toy Company began in 1945 when Elliot and Ruth Handler, who made picture frames, had scraps left over and thought of making doll furniture. He designed it and she sold it. LIKE CRAZY!
Their biggest break came when they started advertising their new Burp Gun on the Mickey Mouse Club TV show. They were the first people smart enough to go directly after the kiddies and not worry about selling to the adults. Then Barbie came along in 1959 (named after their daughter), then Ken (named after their son), and the rest is history.
When I was a kid, Mattel came out with some really nice Cap Guns. They were the "Shootin' Shell" series and also the Fanners. Naturally I hated them. But I was a little kid and I was jealous for my Uncle Talley and the Nichols guns. No need. There was a good market for all brands. Not like today!!!
Mattel also came out with "Greenie Stick-M-Caps," and so I had one more reason to "hate them." Those little caps sold like crazy. Now I wish I had a case of them! (Make that a train load!) Funny thing was that as cute as the idea was, the caps really made a good mess with the glue and all. We present some Mattel guns here and since Mattel is still a fine company, we remind you that all trademarks are theirs, etc.
For those of you who might be as old as I am and your eyes aren't quite what they used to be, here is what it says on this advertisement from the 1960's (as well as I can read it!):
SHOOTIN' SHELL® FANNER
#408   Retail: .00
Loads and shoots 6 Shootin' Shells, fires Greenie Stick-M-Caps®. Has built-in bullet-loader in handle for easy Shootin' Shell assembly. Comes with 6 Shootin' Shell Cartridges and 12 safe bullet-noses and Stick-M-Caps.
Gun: 9" long.
Std. Pack: 1 doz.: Wt.: 12 lbs.
EJECTS CARTRIDGES AUTHENTICALLY!
SHOOTIN' SHELL .45
#662   Retail: .00
Ejects cartridges realistically, has revolving cylinder, smoking barrel, single and double cocking action. Shoots safe Shootin' Shells, fires Greenie Stick-M-Caps. Comes with 6 Shootin' Shell cartridges, 24 safe bullet-noses and Target. Gun: 11" long.
Std. Pack: 1 doz.: Wt.: 21 1/8 lbs.
Sincere thanks to Sandee Thomas for this photo!
Source: nicholscapguns.com/mattel.htm
When Cap Guns Were Cool
by
Phil Spangenberger
|
Oct 28, 2019
|
— All Photos Courtesy Bob Terry, Wild West Toys Unless Otherwise Noted —
Back when I was a kid, cap guns ran the gamut from the tiniest derringers to pirate pistols, holster-sized cowboy six-guns and cops-and-robbers-style slab-sided semi-auto-type pistols, up to lever-action rifles and even tommy guns and ray guns! Despite the vast array of cap guns available, it was the “Peacemaker-styled” Western six-shooter that was the pièce de résistance. Virtually every toy manufacturer offered one or more cowboy cap pistol.
Cap guns first appeared in the mid-1860s, following the end of the Civil War, when some firearms companies began making toy guns to help compensate for the lost military contracts of the war years. However, it was the movies and television of the 1940s through the 1960s that ushered in the Golden Age of cap guns. Silver screen cowboys Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Gene Autry and John Wayne, along with fictional range riders like the Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, the Cisco Kid and Marshal Matt Dillon, stirred our imaginations. Toy companies like Mattel, Hubley, Halco, Nichols—even Britain’s Lone Star Toys—kept us properly armed so we could tame our neighborhood frontiers. Some cap guns bore the names of our cowboy heroes and heroines, like Richard Boone’s “Paladin”
or Gail Davis’ “Annie Oakley,”
while others had Western monikers like the Texan, Mustang, Pioneer, Colt 45 or Stallion 45.
Arguably the most popular and best-remembered cap guns were Mattel’s Fanner-50 series, first introduced in its Fall 1957 catalog. Mattel’s young gunslinger, “Matty Mattel,” portrayed by Paul Lars Anderson, appeared in print ads, TV commercials and later in Western films and was undoubtedly the envy of every youngster of that era!
These die-cast metal cap guns were so popular in those bygone days that during one year in the early 1950s, the Hubley Toy Company stated in February of that year, they had sold out all the cap pistols they could produce until the following year! Another, Nichols Industries, claimed it was producing one of its toy derringers every two seconds and could only fill about two thirds of its orders!
Arguably the most popular and best remembered by anyone who grew up blazing away with those perforated rolls of paper ammo was Mattel’s Fanner-50 series (the 50 designation is for the 50-shot rolls of paper caps). The series was introduced in 1957 by Mattel, a little after my own cap gun totin’ years, although my youngest brother had several. There were many different Fanner-50s, some with revolving cylinders, although most did not have that added authentic feature. Fanner-50s lasted until around 1975, coinciding with the cancellation of the last TV Western,
Gunsmoke
, and by the mid-1980s, most of the toy cap gun companies had either ceased toy gun production, or were gone.
— Photos courtesy Bob Terry, Wild West Toys & True West Archives —
Fanner-50s included models like the Ramrod, Cowboy, Gunfighter, a
Lone Ranger
double holster set, Chuck Connor’s
Cowboy in Africa
double-holster set, and even 1968’s
Planet of the Apes
Fanner-50. Mattel produced unique Fanner-50s like the swivel shot trick holster, smoking cap pistol; a Shootin’ Shell 45 model that used the Greenie Stik-M-Caps; and the Bullet Loading Fanner-50. This last model took non-firing metal play cartridges. You stuck caps on the backs of each one, which produced smoke when fired. As you can see, there were too many models to list them all here.
Cap guns aren’t as popular nowadays as they were back when I was a young’un riding my make-believe range. We now live in a different culture and many adults abhor the thought of their little ones playing with such weaponry. I feel sorry for the kids of this enlightened age who do have toy guns, but are forced to shoot it out with their pals with a hogleg that has an ugly orange plug on the muzzle. To this ol’ six-gunner, it just ain’t the same. Call me old-fashioned, but I remember when cap guns were cool!
Phil Spangenberger
has written for
Guns & Ammo
, appears on the History Channel and other documentary networks, produces Wild West shows, is a Hollywood gun coach and character actor, and is
True West
’s
Firearms Editor. Source:
truewestmagazine.com/article/when-cap-guns-were-cool/
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