Above is my unopened LONE STAR SPUDMATIC from several years back. I think I've also got a red one, but, if so, I've forgotten where it is. (Update, April 2020: Found it!) The blue one below is the one that most people of my age will recall from the '60s & '70s, and is (or was) on sale on eBay (not my own). I do have a blue one by another manufacturer though, which I got in the late '90s or early '00s.
Did you have a Spudmatic, readers? And if so, what escapades did you get up to with yours? Do tell your fellow Crivvies all about it!
Must be a UK thing, never heard of it.
ReplyDeleteNever seen a gold ( or red! ) one! My two were both blue. The first one got a bit bashed and scruffy and started loosing a bit of its "oomph!", so I bought a brand new replacement. I used to chase my brother around the garden with mine, but a thing that I always remember is wherever I tossed the used spud afterwards, the next year a new potato plant would grow up from the spot where I discarded it! Even on gravel! And without their being planted!
ReplyDeleteNever heard of a Spudmatic, M? You poor deprived American. Your childhood must've been hellish.
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You'd always have been all right for chips for your tea then, eh, JP?
No my childhood was idyllic. Small town, wholesome, no crime, hordes of kids to play with, places to ride your bike too etc. We had real toy guns, see, and did not have to resort to shooting pieces of vegetable matter out of garishly colored "guns". Oh yeah and we got the comics as soon as they came out. Nope, not hellish at all. Oh yeah and blue skies and warm weather all year too, plus we were all above average. I could go on...
ReplyDeleteYour sense of frustration at not having a Spudmatic is all too apparent, M, despite your protests to the contrary. It's not too late - you should be able to acquire one on eBay.
ReplyDeleteI think you are projecting, sir, after your grim, cloudy, oppressed childhood you undoubtedly suffered through. Why, in America we had things called "cap guns" that made noise and sparks when you shot them, unlike your propelled chunks of your supper. Perhaps I can find one for you, ya poor fellow.
ReplyDeleteYeah had one of those. I think I was more intrigued with how the potato looked after every piece of skin had been stamped with the gun! It was Part of my gun collection along with my cowboy gun and holster, cowboy rifle, suction gun, and my favourite the Man from Uncle set with gun. At least we didn't need a licence to own them!
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We had all these things as well, M. In fact, we probably invented them. And the Spudmatic also fired caps - and was a water pistol as well. You weren't paying proper attention, were you?
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I had the Man From U.N.C.L.E. attache case, T (the cheaper version), and it was brilliant. Can you imagine poor M above, not having a Spudmatic to brighten his childhood? The hardships some people had to suffer, eh?
So odd, I'm sure mine was black. A case of the memory cheating maybe.
ReplyDeleteI must confess after I read it shot potatoes and stopped laughing I did not read further. Hey I had the Man from U.N.C.L.E. pistol with the detachable stock and silencer etc too. If it came with an attache case my brothers took it and never gave it back I guess. I used to pretend to shoot pompous Scottish villains all the time with it.
ReplyDeleteI might have said it before here, or not, but in America in the later 50's /early sixties with three brothers, my house was awash in toy guns. Cowboy, military, spy, science fictions pistols and rifles, so much we had a trunk to keep them in. And FYI not one of us grew up to shoot any one, even a smart alecky Scot. I later had .22 rifle, two Mosin Nagants, a Lee-Enfield Mk IV, a K98 Mauser and A Romanian AK-47.
ReplyDeleteOD, I wouldn't be surprised if they did them in black. After all, they've done them in blue, black. and gold.
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M, if your brothers took it and never gave it back, how could you pretend to shoot smart-alecky, pompous Scottish villains with it 'all the time'? And you'd have to pretend, due to the fact that you'd never be able to shoot a real Scot as we're all superbeings. Let go of the anger and admit it - Scots rule the world.
:-) oh crack me up
ReplyDeleteSo true I applauded when you landed on the moon, defeated Imperial Japan and stood down the USSR. Bravo to Scotland I say, who gave us.................Sean Connery?
ReplyDeleteWe invented the Moon. And we did all the hard work in WWII. You Yankees joined the fray when it was all but over. And we invented the telephone, the television, and loads of other stuff. What did America do in gratitude? Gave us Donald Trump. Well done America.
ReplyDeleteMake America Great Again! Sorry you are so delusional about national accomplishments, it's nothing personal. If you ever want to emigrate I can put in a good word for you...
ReplyDeleteWhy would I ever want to emigrate from the greatest country in the world? Remember, America may be United, but Britain is Great. However, I suppose it's only natural for you to be jealous. What foreigner wouldn't be?
ReplyDeleteYou missed the Great in Make America Great Again, pal. Someday my wife and I in the next two years will be leaving the land where the skies are not cloudy all day and visit your grim dark foreboding teeny tiny spit of land, like summer of 2019. I suppose if I ask any Scotsman there about you they would all know, right?
ReplyDeleteDidn't miss it, just wasn't convinced by it, as the only thing Donald Trump is great at is blowing his own trumpet and firing anyone who disagrees with him. And remember, 'Great' is part of our title, as in 'Great Britain', which has never stopped being great. Remember, we gave you our language and justice system, and most of the things that are great about America came from us. We even gave you our architecture, and lots of American cities are built to the same design as ours. Hell, you're even making your blockbuster movies over here because our country is so great. And of course every Scotsman knows about me - I'm famous, and they all try to model themselves after me. (Isn't that right, nurse?) One of the things they're impressed by is the fact that I don't use the picture of a fading movie star to hide behind. Enjoy your visit to our shores and enjoy a bit of culture that goes back more than a few hundred years.
ReplyDeleteWell that does it. Don't insult my President. Kidding anad hyperbola are fun but that's it. FU pal.
ReplyDeleteSo it's all right for you to insult my country and myself, supposedly in jest, but when I state a simple fact - that Trump blows his own trumpet and fires anybody who disagrees with him - that's suddenly over the line? Trump is a petulant man-child with a bad haircut (who the majority of Americans seem to be against, remember), who can't stand criticism or dissent, and going from your remarks, you're equally as childish. Begone to the oblivion whence you came, o wannabe Schwarzenegger.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that Donald Trump is half-Scottish :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, but it's not the half which houses his brain. (And him having Scottish blood entitles me to my opinion of him.)
ReplyDeleteI can confirm that the gun also came in black, as I bought a black one from a Blackpool Pleasure Beach kiosk sometime in the 1970s.
ReplyDeleteOD will be pleased to know that his memory hadn't failed him, so ta for that, SDC.
ReplyDeleteGood to know I'm not quite senile yet. Cheers Steve.
ReplyDeleteGreat memories here Kid. Ta! Spud guns were and are a toy classic like Slinky or Etch a Sketch. I suppose they cleverly bridge the worlds of toy guns and natural play thereby challenging both camps with an inconvenient truth, that a toy pistol can fire lumps of potato and any other hard vegetable or fruit such as apples.
ReplyDeleteWith a potentially [or potatoentially] limitless supply of cheap natural ammo I'm surprised that the spud gun never really progressed into a spud rifle. Imagine a Johnny Seven firing small new potatos and launching King Edwards.
The Lonestar spud gun reminds me of the Lonestar James bond die-cast gun I had, a lovely thing. It makes you wonder why 007 never carried a spud gun as a backup but then again he wasn't fighting S.M.A.S.H was he!
I had the Lone Star Man From U.N.C.L.E. gun, Woodsy, which was different from the Bond one if I remember correctly, but just as much fun to have. I've got a few of the more modern LS Bond guns, which are marvellous toys. Unfortunately, I'm too old to run around the streets firing them at people, and besides, a police marksman would bring me down if I did. All for firing caps, eh? Spoilsports! I'm tempted to open the blister card of my Spudmatic so I can try it out, but maybe I'll just get a spare one off eBay.
ReplyDeleteAnd there you have it. I admit I find it odd how quick some people are to criticize but can't take it even in jest. Which is better the cap gun or spud gun? Cap guns were great for play time but if you wanted an actual contest you couldn't beat the spud gun. Because it was a lot harder to cheat. You can always say you missed me with a cap gun but spuds leave evidence.
ReplyDeleteI think M's problem, PS, is that he just doesn't like not being able to wear someone down into letting him have the last word with his alleged 'witty' put-owns. He blinked first, so I win. Good point about the spud gun over the cap gun.
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