raygun

It’s recently come to my attention that I dig fantasy guns.

Now, I’m a sensitive guy, and have absolutely no desire to own a real gun. They’re loud, scary, and the part of my brain that endlessly calculates everything that could possibly go wrong in any given situation simply won’t allow it. Regardless of this, the relative harmlessness of fantasy guns, and their link to imaginative fiction, is appealing to me – from Sideshow Toys’ giant Samaritan (from the Hellboy movies), to Dr. Grordbort’s steampunk rayguns, and even the long-awaited Golden Gun from Corgi, pulled directly from the James Bond film of the same name. So, when Go Hero started flashing pictures of their replica 1937 Buck Rogers Disintegrator Pistol, I knew that I had to finally start my collection – and it really couldn’t have been a more auspicious start.

Since I’m also a fan of retro pulp heroes, the Buck Rogers stuff is a natural fit. The idea of playing around with a perfect replica of a sparking raygun that kids fired off 70 years ago held more than a little pseudo-nostalgia. Sure, I was born 50 years too late, but those bygone eras have always had a way of captivating me.

Go Hero has created a piece-by-piece, functional replica of the original Buck Rogers Pistol, manufactured by Daisy. The Disintegrator Pistol comes wrapped in a yellow, cardboard slipcase that features retro artwork, and details the various parts of the gun on the back panel. Inside the slipcase is a maple box (which smells AMAZING, by the way), which is finished in a satin stain, with a few charmingly rough edges. Any collectible that involves wooden pieces is okay by me – it lends to this organic form of uniqueness that can’t be captured in any other material. And it’s like opening a treasure chest. Arrrrrr, matey.

The maple box has a lid that is held down by four small magnets, and the center of the lid holds a die-cast, inlaid plate with the Buck Rogers insignia, as well as the edition number of the Pistol. I happened to score a delightfully low number – #81 out of 1000. The inside of the lid and the bottom of the box are also laser-etched with details about the gun, and a Buck Rogers logo again. For the record, laser etching looks like a slight woodburn.

Inside of this box is a small die-cast figure of Buck, as well as the Pistol itself, which both rest in a thick, plastic tray. While the metal Buck piece is taped down and stored safely in a plastic bag, mine had come loose during shipping and was rattling around inside of the box. Fortunately, there was no damage to the Pistol or box at all.

The gold Pistol is also numbered above the trigger, next to a whole bunch of copyright information. This is the main difference between the original gun and this reproduction – all of these words. Things were simple and less litigious back in 1937. The Pistol has a real heft, and it feels cold, hollow and metal – just like it should. The other main difference between this piece and the original is the orange, plastic gun safety plug that’s been wedged into the barrel, which is mandated by US gun law. Anything that even slightly resembles a gun needs a bright orange tip, so as to avoid confusion with a real gun. While I don’t love what the orange tip does to the aesthetic of fantasy guns in general, it doesn’t really detract too much from the Pistol. Of course, the plug is removable after some effort, but the box explicitly advises against it. It also looks like the tip of the barrel is roughly cut, so I’d rather have some smooth plastic matching the contours of the Pistol than a jagged circle of metal.

It’s a beautiful, exciting piece, showing manufacturing marks and techniques that have been forgotten for more modern, cheaper methods. Whether these marks are genuine or faked is a mystery to me, but I can’t tell the difference.

The functionality of the Pistol comes in with the pull of the trigger. With a loud pop (which is amplified by the hollow of the Pistol), and a spark inside the red ‘electronic compression viewplate’ above the trigger, the gun comes to life. Something inside strikes a flint, and the gun lights up – for just a second, which is just enough. If you get trigger-happy, the package includes extra flints that you can replace. The only minor problem with this action that that is seems to have flaked off a 1/2 centimeter of black metallic coating on the back side of the trigger, so I’m using it sparingly.

The box also includes patent designs, and a numbered certificate of authenticity, as well as a thin layer of packing foam that you can take or leave. As long as you store the box with the right side facing up, it’s not necessary to keep. I’ve stored the certificates and flint safely beneath the plastic display mold.

The Buck Rogers Disintegrator Pistol is stunning and iconic, and I’m kinda in love with it, as you can see form this gallery in the community. You can order it directly through Go Hero’s website for the price of $175. Everything about this reproduction is done with the utmost class and respect, and I have to say that it’s the beginning of a beautiful collection.

I’ll oft come here and wax wistfully about the various things I trip over in my room daily – the boxes of toys, the LPs, animal skulls, comic books and DVDs – but most of the time, my brain is thinking eight months into the future about the things that I lust for and just what body part I’d need to sell to get them. Whether that body part remains attached to me or needs to be removed can be determined later.

Today’s objet du désir is actually a trinity of things. I know that the word ‘trinity’ is usually reserved for things sacred, but I’m hard pressed to think of anything more sacred than the mighty raygun. Destroyer of worlds, liquefier of membranes, obliterator of enemies – the raygun delivers science fiction violence on an unimaginable scale, sometimes instantaneous and sometimes freezing the victim in an eternity of searing agony. Rayguns were a staple boys’ toy from the 1930s until 1960s, when science fiction played an important part on the radio, comic books and television, and guns were more acceptable as playthings. Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Captain Kirk were regular raygun wielders, and their toy raygun counterparts ranged from firing caps, blowing bubbles, squirting water or just looking pretty, dangerous, or pretty dangerous.

WETA Workshop, however, has now brought the realm of rayguns to a whole new strata of awesome.

Starting now, WETA is offering the trinity of Dr. Grordbort’s Infallible Aether Oscillators… which is fancy talk for ‘awesome freakin’ raygun’. Each of the three rayguns, the Goliathon 83 Infinity Beam Projector, the F.M.O.M. Industries Wave Disrupter Gun and the ManMelter 3600zx Sub-Atomic Disintegrator Pistol are different in appearance and ostensibly serve different purposes. They’re all constructed to be retro-styled and realistic, and each comes with its own velvet-lined display case, which is really the only way to transport a raygun of this caliber. Velvet is known to withstand the harsh effects of zero gravity and cosmic rays, and also serves as a repellant to marauding lizardmen… and you KNOW how they can get into everything.

Of course, you can expect a ten-pound raygun to set you back a few bucks – about 700 of ‘em. Currently, only the Goliathon is up for pre-order, and ready to be officially released next month, while the other two rayguns will be released to pre-orders in the two months following. Additionally, WETA is running a promotion wherein if you purchase a raygun from their online shop, you’re automatically entered into a drawing to win the other two rayguns in the set. If a man can’t spend his paycheck on a raygun, what CAN he spend it on? Booze and hookers have lost their charm, guys.

It was only a couple of months ago that I saw small children loading up clips of candy at the Pez Gathering and sliding them into the collectible Pez Space Gun, darting around the halls and firing them at each other. In the amazing film ‘The American Astronaut‘, the bizarre antagonist dances and sings through a room full of human ashes, every victim disintegrated by a powerful raygun. The charm of the raygun remains though, transcending thoughts of violence, instead being dominated by fun and wackiness. Many futuristic rayguns are actually theoretically designed to not kill their victim – just incapacitate them painlessly.

The jury is still out about me adding this to my collection, but I can tell you that dropping $700 on one will be a lot more painful than anything an actual raygun could do to me.