Toy gun buybacks...

[fireheart17]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/s...-1226538565645

So in response to the shootings overseas, this lady in Adelaide has taken it upon herself to do a TOY GUN "buyback".

Thoughts?

My comment was along the lines of "What's stopping me from walking into a $2 shop (you folks across the way call them "Dollar stores"), picking up a cheap toy gun, then going and making a profit from it?" (she's offering $5 per gun)

My friend went "Entrepeneurism...I like it!"

[anakhouri]

I think what she's doing is silly (and costly).

But truth be told, my son has no toy guns and since his interests generally lie in things where guns aren't widely used (superheroes, Transformers and TMNT) they don't show up very often in his play. I don't necessarily have anything against toy guns, but we aren't a gun-owning family (my husband has a vintage Russian WWII rifle but it won't function until he replaces the bolt) and don't hunt or target-shoot.

Kids have to be exposed to things before they can incorporate them into their play. As Khan gets older and is exposed to other children more, I'm sure he'll become more interested in guns. But that's when we explain how dangerous real ones are and how terrible the consequences of using one can be. His grandfather has a nice collection of guns and if he's interested we'll encourage him to learn gun safety and how to shoot from his grandfather.

There's nothing wrong with toy guns in my mind but as soon as a kid is old enough to understand fantasy vs. reality they need to be schooled in how toys are very different from real weapons. This goes for any weapon though, not just guns.

[RedRoseSpiral]

The closest I had to a toy gun was a little wooden pop gun some country relative got my brother when they went on vacation. I got a doll...I hated dolls as a kid. Since bastard was around 3, I got to play with the gun and he made me doll his baby. ^_^

[bex1218]

My mom never let me touch a toy gun. Actually she didn't like when I had my fingeras in a gun shape. My dad did. Funny how I'm not confused. Though prolly cause of my mom I don't have much like for guns. Don't hate and shot a few before. I just don't like them much.

[Bloodsoul]

A bit of a tangent, but did something happen to The Transformers in the 15+ years since I've stopped playing with them that guns are no longer a major part of their arsenal? Hell, Megatron/Galvatron had a cannon strapped to his right arm!

I remember once owning a toy gun that shot out little, plastic pellets as a tyke, but Heaven knows what had happened to it; likewise we used to have waterguns that were shaped like a particular real gun which I dare not take out of the house anymore.

[lordlundar]

Megatron's transformation was changed in Gen 2 from a gun to a tank more for scaling purposes than anything. They had trouble explaining how he shrunk down during transformation.

Then Beast Wars came out where Megatron's Arm was his transformed form tail and from then on Hasbro decided not to worry about the cannon arm for the character. From then on he's been a chimera, a jet and a tank, though the barrel attached to the arm was no longer a factor.

[Bloodsoul]

I recall Megatron's tank mode well, although his cannon had moved from his arm to between his neck and shoulder if I remember correctly (if not, I can just look over the first issue of the Generation 2 comic book or the cross over with G. I. Joe).

On the other hand, the Beast War's Megatron can be explained away for no other reason than because he was a different Transformer entirely, simply named after the Decepticon leader of old (just as Optimus Primal named himself after Optimus Prime).

Even then I recall a number of Beast War's figures having some sort of handheld, projectile weapon (that became hidden in beast-mode), such as a rifle or crossbow.

[lordlundar]

I recall Megatron's tank mode well, although his cannon had moved from his arm to between his neck and shoulder if I remember correctly (if not, I can just look over the first issue of the Generation 2 comic book or the cross over with G. I. Joe).

Fair point, and apparently there must have been multiple crossovers with GI-Joe because the omnibus I have has Gen 1 Megatron.

And in terms of arsenal in general, guns always have been part of it. Maybe not the be all end all solution (early on it was like watching a battle between artillery but more recently more close range combat was used) but was and still is a part of it. The most recent animated (Transformers Prime) has starscream with a missile rail on his arm.

I do think the less pronouncement is more a result of trying to make the transformations more accurate and explainable. Early on the transformations were for the most part amorphous blobs midway. now it's not so simple.

[Ginger Tea]

IIR at the time of the original tank Megatron it was due to a clamp down on realistic toy guns, mind you this was over a decade ago so who knows without google/wiki.
True it was always odd that a however tall they were robot would shrink to a human sized gun, but as Hasbro transformers was an amalgam of two different but similar Takara ranges, one designed to have the toys be 'life size' replicas of something you may find or have in the real world, Gun 2 tape recorders (and tapes) and Microscope being the ones that really stick in my mind (gesault (sp) camera too I guess).
If they just went with the diaclone range (ditching megatron soundwave (blaster and percepter I only ever saw in the movie as we didn't get much of the 2nd season or I never caught it) from the microman range (think that was the name or was that some other show/toy range?)) then the show would have had a far different group dynamic, hell bumblebee cliff jumper and alot of the midi sized cars would have to be ditched too as they didn't match up scale wise to optimus and the jets, which seemed to be the only offering to the decepticon ranks other than those from the other range.