Collecting Western Toys: Books For Western Toy Pistols

I only have two books on the subject of collecting Western cap pistols of which Backyard Buckaroos is the best. It not only has pistols and rifles but Cowboy outfits for kids, badges, knives and a bunch more. Because absolutely no reference book has everything, I bought the Cap Guns book as well. It's far thinner having less pages and covers far less but does fill gaps left by the other book. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

"Backyard Buckaroos COLLECTING WESTERN TOY GUNS"  by Jim Schleyer

(Krause Publications 1996)

"Cap Guns with Values" by James Dundas

(Schiffer Publishing 1996)

Leslie-Henry Maverick Pistol with Stag Grips 1960s

Another cap pistol joins the arsenal. This time it's a Leslie-Henry with 'stag' grips (the grips that have vertical lines). Real stag grips are antler, not horn and are denser than horn. It was a popular material for knife grips as well as kitchen utensils. 

This toy is a 1960s era piece from what I can gather and is a character named item. The hugely popular Maverick TV series ran from 1957 to 1962 starring James Garner and Jack Kelly as two poker playing brothers traveling the American frontier and in the process fighting the ever-present bad guys. Without the original packaging it can be hard to pin down who made the guns and when (I'll cover my reference material in another post). Although, generally speaking, character branded toys were made at the same time there namesakes were popular in American culture. Western toy pistols are still being made today but are not too likely to be branded for our TV heroes of the past. 

This is a larger size gun - I guess calling it "full size" would be appropriate for Western toy cap guns. They're still smaller than a real life pistol though because hey, they're meant for kids! Until then - Enjoy! Opa Fritz

The cap chamber is different on this pistol vs. the ones posted previously. The chamber is spring loaded, released by a little latch just forward of the finger guard. The chamber is situated in the center of the pistol.

(T) Maverick pistol (B) Pony Boy

Halco Western Cap Pistols x 2

These Halco cap pistols were added to the collection recently and unlike my TootsieToy Pony Boys, these are quite a bit smaller. I know nothing about the company but Halco appears to have been major player in the cap gun arena alongside Hubley, Mattel, Marx, and Nichols. These are on the small size of the Western toy pistol spectrum at 8 1/4" (20.95cm) L. They are more 'child sized' compared with the Pony Boys which are 9 3/4" (24.76cm) L. Fortunately these are fully functional, as sometimes these old cap guns no longer 'shoot' - pull the trigger and the hammer simply doesn't cycle and fire - but these work just fine. The caps are loaded on the side of the pistol by swinging up the bullet 'chamber' and inserting the cap roll. According to my sources on facebook these are a fairly universal pistol. Where the rectangular scrollwork below the chamber is can be altered to read 'MARSHAL' or 'PINTO' and apparently the tooling is still around and being used for new production. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

(T) Hubley (B) TootsieToy Pony Boy

A New Cowboy Toy For The Collection - TootsieToy Pony Boy Pistol with Holster

While I've amassed a nice collection of Old West toys, including a couple of derringer's and a rifle (which I haven't gotten around to blogging yet) I just never got around to buying six-shooters and a holster, so last year I bit the bullet and got this rig, a double holster in good condition and one pistol. The holster is made of a thick plastic embossed avery Western-style Maple leaf and acorn motif and having a metal buckle and rivets and is in excellent shape.

I had several six-shooters as a kid but for the life of me couldn't tell you who made them so this was a good enough start for me. The pistol is a 'Pony Boy' made by TootsieToy and has black grips and no sight in the front. The nickel plating has oxidized with time but it's still an attractive piece just the same. It turns out - as I have quickly learned - that Pony Boy pistols are very common, making them quite inexpensive! Yay

Here's the problem: is the holster original to the TootsieToy pistol or were the two simply mated by the seller??? I don't know of any collector books covering Western toys like this, so the search for information goes on.

The story doesn't end here though - more to follow! Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Nichols Dyna-MITE Derringer with Original Box

I'm not through with Alamo postings by any means but while we're on the subject of the Old West, let's look at a couple of other toys. Here's a nice cap gun made by Nichols: the Dyna-MITE derringer. These were fun to have as kids playing Old West or Cowboys and Indians because you could hide them in your pocket and surprise your opponents just when they thought your were disarmed - but you only get one shot! LOL Enjoy! Opa Fritz

 

Ohio Art No. 701 Sheriff's Derringer

Yesterday I posted the JAK-PAK derringer cap pistol and mentioned this Ohio Art version. This is the one I seem to remember as a kid. A tad smaller, it fit into the jeans pocket just right, however this one doesn't shoot off a whole roll of caps, instead single caps have to be loaded onto the 'bullet' similar to the action of a real derringer in that only one round at a time can be fired off. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

JAK-PAK Derringer Hide-A-Way Cap Pistol

Having bought this earlier this year it's one of the last Cowboy-&-Western themed toys added to the collection before deciding to pare down that mess out in The Cave. I have one more toy derringer out there but it's mint on the card and this one was loose in a nice presentation box so I could pick it up, handle it, admire it, and so on. Unfortunately I don't have rolls of caps around here so I haven't yet fired it. Just looking at this brings back the memory of the aroma of fired-off caps - a smell we were so used to as kids as we played Cowboys-&-Indians, or Civil War, or Army Men. All the neighborhood boys had cap pistols or rifles and we would blow off a whole roll of caps  just to get our fix of that acrid smell hahahahaha - Glorious :-)

As a kid I didn't have a JAK-PAK derringer, mine was the smaller Ohio Art version but I enjoyed the heck out of it. It could be tucked away in a pocket and used as a back-up or as a 'get-away' pistol when the 'bad guys' captured us. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina