Retro Gun Toys

Are you crazy, giving guns to my kid? To my little cute innocent angel??

If this is your reaction to the title maybe you shouldn't read ahead :) The idea that gun toys teach violence has very little ground. They are just a way for the kids to have some harmless fun and play the big bad boys from books and movies. We all played with many gun toys as kids but to the best of my knowledge none of us turned into a criminal. The good gun toys are educational and when presented well they can teach your kids to the honor of the brave men in the wild west, the soldiers, policemen, etc.

Maybe you don't care about such discussions, so let's focus on the toys. There are lots of super low quality plastic gun toys. Most of them produced in China, cost about $1 - $5 and often play irritating melodies. We aren't going talk about them. I want to talk about good old-fashioned gun toys. Made with attention to the details and usually representing real guns from the past.

These are types of gun toys that may be interesting for you:

• Replicas of real guns. Toys or collectibles, you decide. Have a look at some wonderful examples on this site.
• Cap guns. They were very popular in my childhood. Totally safe just a bit loudy. While we played mostly with cheap plastic cap guns, there are real treasures like those.
• Handmade guns of all kinds. Etsy is a great place to look for such ones.
• Steampunk gun toys
• All kind of really old fashioned and basic wooden gun toys like this one. Be careful with any gun toys that really shoot anything as they aren't totally harmless.

Maybe the Etsy links above made you wonder if you can make gun toys yourself. Certainly you can.

Making Gun Toys

Below are a couple of videos and instructables about making nice gun toys yourself:

This one is a very simple rubber band gun made out of plastic pipes. Be careful, it shoots.

Similar concept but made of paper and wood.

If you are handy you may prefer to make better looking guns. Here are two instructables:

• How to make a wooden toy Winchester rifle - for easy steps, requires basic woodworking skills.
• How to make a Colt Western Pistol in 3-4 hours - sligthly more complicated, but nothing is hard for the hobby woodworker!

Finally, don't forget the option to make a simple origami gun.

Did you play with gun toys as a kid?