Red Rider BB Gun

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

Just got done watching "Christmas Story."  I love that movie, and it got me thinking.  What was your "Oiled, blue steel beauty," your "Best gift I had ever recieved, or ever would recieve?"
For me, it was a candy blue Schwinn Stingray, with chrome fenders, whitewalls, a drag slick, ape hangers, and a banana seat!
Talk about a life-changing event!  That bicycle lit a fire that still burns in me to this day, and taught me the one true inescapable meaning of life.
    Just get two wheels, and go, man! Go!

[Protein Filled]

I once got a Leg lamp...Jeez, that thing was nice




 ;D ;D

[dylanfan53]

Ah, the memories...
It was a turquoise Godzilla dragon with a dart gun target on the tail.  When you hit the tail with your trusty plastic suction cup dart, it would turn 90 degrees and shoot ping pong balls out its back at you.   8)
I've looked all over the internet but never found it again.

Second favorite was a shoulder held bazooka gun that you pumped up that fired an awesome blast of air.  It would knock stuff off the coffee table from across the room.  I remember shooting the glass tree ornaments off the Christmas tree with that thing.  I tried to blow out the candles on my sister's birthday cake with it and took off half the icing!!

Problem was, kids were shooting them at each other.  Gee, what a surprise.  ::)   I guess some kids were hit in the side of the head with the blast of air and it broke their eardrums.  My Mom heard about that and it disappeared one day.

Kind of a variation on the "You'll shoot your eye out" theme.     :)

[SliderPhoto]

The ominous, shark-mouthed, P40 Warhawk, Flying Tigers, .28 single-cylinder Cox string controlled airplane.


My brothers would hold cars at bay flying their balsa Cox powered airplanes in circles in the middle of the street until they crashed or eventually ran out of gas.

For Christmas I wanted the P40. It must have been around 1976, I was in 4th grade. I hadn't flown very much, but watched my 3 older brothers fly these marvelous, loud, planes, around and around in circles.

I wanted the P40 with all my heart. I spotted a box under the tree and snuck a peak by pealing off some of the paper. Through the plastic window I saw it. I would finally get my P40!!!

Opening presents couldn't come soon enough. It was mine! This was no two dimensional balsa model. This was a three-dimensional plastic replica that actually flew! I had to fly it.

I grabbed my gear and headed to the school playground. I found a clearing and I prepared for takeoff. I layed the plane on the ground and ran the control lines out to what would be the center of the planes circular path. I prepped it by adding fuel and finally connecting the large red dry-cell battery to the motors glow plug. Without a helper I had to start the airplane and then run to the center to control its flight.

Now was the time. With a few flips of the prop the one-cylinder motor turned and sputtered. A twist of the mixture and a few more flips and it came to life with a high-pitched scream.

I let go of the plane and quickly ran to my position and grabbed the handle with the control lines. The airplane had begun to taxi, spewing dust in it's wake. The lines kept the plane in a circle and soon it would have enough speed to take off.

With a flip of my wrist it was off. My magnificent plane was airborne.  I spun in a circle seeming to fly as my surroundings rotated around me. The plane screamed, the shark mouth on the front of the plane and menacing eye was climbing like a rocket. Up it went. Up and up. Wow, this plane was fast! Time to level off. With another flip of my wrist and a resulting tug on the control lines the P40 changed direction and now with a roar was diving as if to strafe the enemy.

The P40 dived toward the ground with no regard as I tugged again in the opposite direction on the controls--all the while spinning. Again the P40 climbed like a rocket and again I corrected. Now the P40 dived even more violently then before. No amount of tugging would change its direction. It was in attack posture and there was no turning back.

At zero-eight-hundred, after ten seconds into my P40's maiden voyage and a completion of three circles, it augered into the ground at full speed. Its plastic wings and various components exploded as they separated from the fusealage into a smoldering pile of unrepairable shrapenel.

As I looked in dismay at my now broken airplane, I wondered what I would tell my dad. How I could hear him saying I should have waited for my brothers to help. It was all gone.

I placed the pieces in a box along with my gear and sulked all the way home. My beautiful plane lasted a mere ten seconds and never would fly again.

Twenty years later, after graduating college and getting my first job, I began flying RC airplanes. Probably 20 years to they day I got, once again, a P40 for Christmas. But as I had grown so did the plane, for this was a three-dimensional kit with a wing span of nearly 6 feet. For months in my spare time I built the individual spars, the wings, the fusealage ribbing and covering, along with all the controls. But to this day I've never flown it fearing it would last for nor more than 10 seconds. :)

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

Run Forest run! I mean, Fly Jack Fly! :)

[r1owner]

Great writeup Jack!!!

Made me LOL...

As a kid my brothers and me flew a ton of those planes as well.  Had a lot of the blue and yellow low wing trainers and several of the blue F4 Corsairs.  Lots of fun with those planes.

You really should fly your R/C plane.  Shame to let it set there collecting dust.  I find flying R/C planes to be very relaxing.

I have to admit flying the plane I built the first time to be a little scary.  A lot of time and money into it.

BTW, do you think BHF would let you fly some R/C stuff after the races from their access road?

[SliderPhoto]

Geez, I'm a chatty Kathy late at night. :)

I never completely finished the P40 project. I never sprung for the big motor.  Maybe next Christmas. :)

[SliderPhoto]

I once got a Leg lamp...Jeez, that thing was nice




 ;D ;D

Fra-gee-Lay... Must be Italian. :)

That's one of my favorite movies. I love how the dad goes downstairs and with a flurry of explicatives does battle with the furnace.

Is there a better story? There are just soooo many funy things in that movie. It's hilarious.

[r1owner]

I saw one of those lamps in a store the other day.

[cornercamping]

1990 (I think that was the year) Yamaha Razz.  Badest moped ever.  I crashed it a few years later and broke my ankle so my parents took it away and sold it.
I use to baja that thing like no tomorrow.  Use to drive 38 miles one way on that thing to go visit my girlfriend.   8)

[tzracer]

I got one of these a few years ago. Haven't put my eye out yet.
It is a Feinwerkbau 603, a 10m air rifle.

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

I feel so cheated. I never got a Red Rider BB gun when I was 10. Damn parents only got me a Sears Model 45 .30-30 lever action (renamed Marlin 336). ;D