Elliot Handler, Co-Founder of Mattel Toys, Dies at 95

New York Times ^ | July 22, 2011 | LES DUHIGG

[dfwgator]

Lot's of quality father-son time playing this one.

[elcid1970]

My favorite Mattel toy gun (never got to own one, just saw it on TV) was the “MMP” which I guess meant Mauser machine pistol. It was a Broomhandle Mauser looking thing with a windup machine gun sound.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) We didn’t have one, but I *may* have eaten one at a cousin’s house. :’)

[niteowl77]

I don't recall the MMP... but I would have been all over that one back in the day.

I think my first cap gun was given to me back in 1957, and being that westerns were all over the television at the time, I tended toward plated die-cast "cowboy" rigs until that Mattel Tommy Gun came along. Around the time the Mattel broke, I was given a black plastic "Schmeisser"-looking toy gun that clacked and simultaneously had a red plastic piece move in/out of the barrel end... not as loud as a cap gun, but loud enough to get me ordered outside PDQ.

Mr. niteowl77

[stbdside]

I remember those thingmakers: Fighting Men, Creepy Crawlers, Fright Factory, Creeple Peeple and Fun Flowers.