Progress shots

Rust removal in process. So far I've only scrubbed down the back half of one side of the raygun. Look! Steel!

I might get some mother's metal polish after it when I'm done.

For now, back in the acid.

And, coincidentally, I found this while I was out today.

It uses the same body as the later, smaller, "Wilma" model ray gun, but was produced much later and has a litho print.

Here's a photo of the 1935 raygun before it soaks in vinegar over night.

I have the later, smaller "Wilma" model, and I have the 40s bronze Atomic model.

At the time (nearly 20 years ago) I was seeing the other models much less often than the original.

This is the first original model I've come across in five years.

My first job out of highschool was doing online sales, web development, and marketing for a high end antique store. I built a custom e-commerce platform. I shouldn't have! But it worked reasonably well.

While working there, I handled a lot of antique toys. I got to know the market really well. I specialized in space toys. I built a small personally collection, and I flipped a Lot of toys.

I have purchased a number of this raygun, but I've never kept one.

It's the original Buck Rogers ray gun, made by daisy in 1934. Steel construction. Once I've cleaned and polished it, it should look pretty dang good.

It's my first 1934 ray gun.

That's a slightly misleading statement. I'll unpack it.

In significantly worse condition, one of the spaceships sold on eBay for $250 a few weeks ago.

In much better condition, $600.

I would have happily paid what I paid for just the ship. The ray gun is an added bonus.

In good condition, either of these can fetch $350 or more. I've sold this model of ray gun for $850 (in truly exceptional condition.)

I got the pair, from a dude off the street, for $200.

The other space toy I got was a buck Rogers ray gun. I'm going to clean some of the rust of it before I post photos. They were, apparently barn finds, and the ray gun is pretty rough. (Originally, they were unpainted. The metal was exposed to the elements for half a dozen decades.)

A gentle bath in a light acid or some wd-40 should get me to a better surface finish.

It's kind of blasphemous to clean and restore some toys like this, but the ray gun usually cleans up so well that no one minds that it's been cleaned.

Here's a picture of one of the 90 year old space toys I bought for myself from a customer. It's a Marx Buck Rogers Wind Up rocket ship. It was manufactured in 1934.

I have another one, in better condition, but I wasn't about to pass this one up for the price, especially considering that a man just walked in off the street and offered it to me.

"I heard you might want this."
"You heard right, buddy."

I didn't post pictures tomorrow because I forgot to take pictures tomorrow.

I bought myself a gift.

Two, even.

Space sci-fi toys from the 1930s.

I'll post pictures tomorrow.

We survived.

It was in our top 5 busiest days of all time by dollar, which is a welcome respite after a couple of slow weeks.

I don't think we were ever really stressed. That was nice.

Some face jugs made by a local potter for sale at Apple Arts in #ellijay this weekend.

The marching band has arrived.

Here's hoping this parade doesn't feature the sons of the Confederacy like the last one did.

Parent and kid arguing over books.

Kid: "I really just want something to read"
Parent: "I already told you it's a waste of money."

Apple fest is in full swing.

We did two average September days' business in an hour.

There's a parade under way.

There are more people than I've seen in months. And they're all between me and my coffee.

I'm in kind of a charmed position in that I have no need for an Android or Apple device.

There are a few ways that *life* is trying to conspire to make me keep one in spite of that, but most of them are things I can currently route around.

But I'm no longer in an oncall rotation. I no longer use Okta. I can do 2FA a dozen ways that don't mandate google.

I'm not normal.

When you couple this with the recent change in the EU outlawing unlocking bootloaders, the DMCA in the US making any kind of digital tinkering illegal if Washington says so, and the various Chat Control and other "For the Children" legislation ...

We're shuffling full steam ahead into a surveillance machine the likes of which are unprecedented.