1954 Nu-Age Products, Smoke-Ring Gun in Original Box
Super cool Smoke-Ring ray Gun manufactured by Nu-Age Products, Beverly Hills, CA. It comes complete with its original box. This was one of those really neat toys that was the greatest thing you ever saw, UNTIL you ran out of ammunition smoke pellets. Then it became a nice looking piece that stayed in the back of your closet forever. Fortunately this example comes with three original unused packs of super scarce Nu-Age smoke pellets, plus three unused "striking" surfaces to light the pellets. Similar to Whammo's air guns, this heavy plastic ray gun uses a rubber membrane to force air through its nozzle. Squeezing the trigger mechanically pulls back the internal membrane. Releasing it relaxes the membrane which pushes a stream of forced air through the front nozzle. The problem was how to get a smoke producing material inside the sealed chamber. This was ingeniously accomplished using an automatic, two part smoking mechanism. (See second from last photo below) The pellet chamber in front of the trigger is pulled down. From the strip of three, a single striking surface is applied to its stationary holder inside the chamber. A single smoke pellet (which looks remarkably like a wide match) is locked into its holder located in the pellet housing. Sharply snapping shut the housing ignites the pellet by rubbing it against the striking surface. Now it starts smoking and the chamber is closed. Pulling the trigger sucks back a volume of smoke. Once released the smoke is forced through the front nozzle creating a smoke ring. Ingenious! Only problem was there was no way to "partially" use a smoke pellet. It had to be used until it burned out which quickly used them up. The membrane is intact. The pellets and strikers are original from 1954 and in mint condition. They're also very difficult to find. I didn't try to actually use the gun, nor would I recommend it. It could damage the gun plus it uses the valuable, scarce pellets. The gun is heavy solid plastic except for the pellet housing which lithographed metal. The top fin includes an embossed "smoke ring gun" logo. To contrast the overall neutral gray exterior the membrane ring around the barrel was painted maroon. The smoke pellets look more like matches than pellets. They're nearly identical in size and appearance to a pack of matches. The "pellets" are color printed on one end to resemble a rocket exhaust. The strikers are identical to a match striking surface. One striker would light 15 pellets. A strip of three unused connected strikers is included (one for each pack of 15 smoke pellets). Both the strikers and pellets were required to make the gun work. The awesome original box has a terrific photo illustration of the Smoke-Ring Gun in action. The blows rings which look remarkably like an atom bomb! A list of instructions for its use are laid out in excruciating detail on one of the end flaps. An adolescent 1950's type kid in the top left corner tells prospective owners, "Hey Fellas! Look! It's Terrific!". Additional enticements state that it "shoots real smoke rings". "It's the real thing", and "No Fire, No Fuss, No Fumes". Size: Gun 9" x 6" with a 3½" diameter smoke chamber. Sold: Jun. 2006
Price Sold: $ 619
