Welcome to the Retro Page!
This page is dedicated to any and all things retro! Here, we'll talk about retro and nostalgic toys, games, doodads, and gizmos. If it looks old, is fun, and defies explanation, you will find it here.
Featured Retro: Potato Gun
Description: A small plastic tool for firing potato pellets.
History: The first potato guns were made of die cast aluminum metal. Created in the 30's by an unnamed manufacturer, the potato gun started off as a flop. The original production consisted of 100,000 units, but only 10,000 had been sold.
Enter E.J. Cossman, entrepeneur and salesman. Cossman had recently discovered that the United States was in the worst potato glut in decades. He decided to purchase the potato gun production machinery for $500, in addition to 5 tons of excess potatoes. He then preceded to dump the whole 5 tons of potatoes on a sidewalk in New York. After being arrested, Cossman was quick to soak up the media interest with all of his potatoes. He was immediately solicited onto the morning talk show circuit, where he happily discussed his potato gun. The gun sold 2 million units in the first 6 months.
Packaging: Cardboard box, 1 potato gun per box
Interesting Fact: Potatoes have almost no smell when intact, and release very little odor when sliced. However rotten potatoes have an incredibly strong odor and shoud be avoided. Definately use potato guns outdoors - unless you are willing to pick up all of the potato pieces when shooting indoors!
Guinea Pig Writer Says: My first potato gun was sitting at my desk today, but I needed ammunition! A quick trip to the food mart, a strange look from the cashier, and a $.17 potato later, and I was now ready to fire.
My first impression of the potato gun was its simplicity. The gun consists of the handle and the chamber. They are fitted together and connected by a spring. This is the only moving part. The chamber spring automatically "springs" the potato gun open every time you compress the two peices. The potato gun is loaded by pressing the tube-like barrel directly into the potato. A small peice of potato, about the size of a pencil eraser, then breaks off into the barrel. The handle is then sqeezed towards the barrel, and the air pressure fires the potato pellet. I was surprised at how much force (from squeezing) was required to fire the potato gun. Even with a strong grip, you will notice that quite a bit of pressure is required to fully depress the trigger.
Loading the potato gun takes a little practice. The first time I tried to load the gun, the potato pellet stayed attached to the potato. After 3 tries, I eventually got the pellet into the barrel. My first shot went a grand total of 3 feet. Definately safe, but hardly interesting.
Apparently there is a bit of a trick to the device. I recommend inserting the potato gun into the potato, and then angling the gun at a 45 degree angle from the potato. After moving the gun back and forth a few times, the pellet should cleanly break off. It seems that removing the potato gun's barrel while the pellet was still atached to the potato (and attempting to use the "stuck" piece), diminishes the power of the shot. Once you have removed a pellet on your first try, you will notice that the potato gun is capable of a fairly high velocity shot. I would estimate 10-15 feet.
Safety: The potato gun's pellets can get going pretty fast when loaded properly, so you might want to supervise a child's useage. If you would allow the child to use a toy gun that shoots plastic pellets or foam-suction-tipped darts, a potato gun would probably be an equivalent.
Final Verdict: The potato gun was easy to use, difficult to master, and fun all the way through. My coworker and I spent about 15 minutes thoroughly amused by this simple little toy. A potato gun is an excellent gift for a coworker or anyone with a mischevious streak, just make sure to include the ammo. I recommend a dryer potato variety such as a small red. We still haven't found 5 of the pellets - guess we'll have to get an air freshener in the cubicles...
