At-a-glance information:

Did you ever have a childhood mystery that you thought you may never solve?

When I was about 6, my mom and dad gave me this big huge blue and white gun type of thing. It was supposed to shoot out a beam of light, or something. I remember it had a dial color wheel. I remembered that you looked into the eyepiece, that it was some sort of laser.

Well, putting the batteries into the thing, it did not do anything. My dad fiddled and fiddled with it. No go. So we went back to GEM (Denver's version of Gemco) and got another one out of a stack. We took it home, put batteries in it, no go. I remember this thing was so big that it took up my dresser top. But it would not work...Dad got one little flash of 'something' out of it. So we returned it, and my dad got me a big "Shootin' Shell" arcade set.

As time went on, I always wondered about that rifle, or whatever it was. I never saw one again. What was it supposed to do? Why didn't it do it?

As I started to collect toys about 10 years ago, I always looked for this. Since I got a Jimmy Jet, it seemed that it had the same kind of blue plastic, so I figured it must have been made by Deluxe Reading. I scoured the Toy Shop magazine, and online auctions, etc.

I saw that Remco made a little hand held 'space gun' with a color wheel, but it was too small. Could it be that Remco made a big one, limited and maybe an unsuccessful toy?

So, I looked at ray gun web sites. SCI FI toy sites and books, and about a dozen collectible gun books. I talk to toy gun collectors. No one had EVER heard of a large laser beam toy like this.

Finally, I came across one at an auction...mystery solved!

I could never find it because it was not made by Ideal, or Remco, or Deluxe Reading. Finally, I knew what it was....here is the scoop.

It is a Plazer, made by Multiple Toymakers. Multiple Toymakers must have been one heck of a small toymaker, because everything they made seems to be very, very rare. The box on the outside reads off all the cryptic things I remember the toy was supposed to do: "Transistorized Electronic Sound" "Unlimited Range, sight any target, Plazer can hit it", etc. When I finally got one, I found that it didn't work, just like in 1966.

However, the difference was, now I have restored a ton of toys, and I was MAKING the damn thing work this time.

Mine was hardly used, it was mint. No scratches. I took it completely apart, thank God it is screwed together and not glued.

This thing is wonderfully engineered, better than I remember it. Here is how it works.

There are 2 handles underneathe, grips if you will. A mono-pod leg, red, drops down to make a tripod if you want to set the thing down. Each grip has its own trigger. The front grip has a cap cardtridge that snaps out. You load roll caps into this, and push it back up into the front grip. It's keyed so it only goes in one way. Batteries load in on a top compartment. You look through a sight that fits around your eye area, at the back of the gun. There is a flip down 'filter' for sunlight at the front of the gun...mine is missing this piece. You start to squeezed the rear trigger, which has a very long squeeze range if you will. As you squeeze, a noise starts, a high pitched squealing. At the bottom of the viewfinder, what appears to be a single line or ray starts to advance forth. It really works optically if you are 'sighting' some object in the distance, like a plane or house. This line will appear to move towards that object the more you pull that trigger. Then, you pull the other trigger...that sets off a cap. It also flashes another bulb, which simulates, in a wierd way, an explosion! Both the little laser line and the flash are reflected off this panel, in a prism kind of way, to kind of create a bizarre illusion.

What I found the problem with mine is, and probably what the problem was with ALL of them, is in the front trigger. THere is a little contact in there that at rest, lets the current from the batteries go to the transistor to make the noise, and the bulb that makes the 'laser'. By depressing the front trigger, you release the contact from that circuit and energize the one that makes the "explosion". The problem is, at rest this contact is sometimes not making contact. Thus, the first trigger does nothing, because the circuit it controlls has no current. This is fixed by bending the contact, or adjusting it. I wrapped mine in aluminum foil to give it extra contact. And it worked!

And here is a note to all the "TOY GUN EXPERTS" who said I was crazy---eat your heart out...I own the best Sci-Fi gun ever made, and I am NOT crazy!!!!! Pictures speak for themselves!!!!

	Here is the side view of the Plazer. You are looking at the rear grip and trigger right below. This trigger, when pulled back, makes the 'laser beam' in the view finder move forward, while a transistorized 'scream' is heard!
	Here is the whole shot of this truly excellent 1960s item. Is there anything that does not say 60s Sci-Fi here? This looks so Star Trek, so Japanese Sci-fi, so Angry Red Planet. Rare, wonderful and bizarre. Front 'laser probe' is glued on and easily snapped off. Front grip houses cap holder.
	Underneate the unit--as grips are offset, the unit will topple over...unless you extend the locking (feebly locking) monopod leg. Is this cool asymmetry or what? Red portal above grip provides access to one of two internal light bulbs.
	Here is the other side of the unit. The red piece of plastic on the side of the viewing inlet near the top of the gun is the flip up handle for the Day/Night Filter Long red plastic piece on the top forward section is the cover over the batteries. Red dial right behind it is the Dial a Ray Selector. This changes the 'laser beam' from red, to blue or green.
	Here is the contured eye/head piece. Brilliantly engineered to accomodate any head, large or small, to visualize the delightfully bizarre effects inside!

Ok, so your Plazer does not work. Of course it doesn't, it's a PLAZER!

All kidding aside....one of my Plazer guns is a damaged non-functional unit that I got for relatively cheap. Oddly, it had its original box too!

This unit, while having a clean battery compartment, did not work. So I disassembled it and can pass on some repair tips to you.

	First step, remove both top covers, 6 screws hold down the read cover, 5 for the front. This gives you access to the internals. The front bulb shoots light through the color wheel. It is activated by the front trigger. As the trigger is pressed, it raises the door immediately behind the color wheel, allowing progressively more light to hit the fresnel lens. The bulb in the back is lit when the front trigger is depressed. This cuts current to the front bulb, illuminating the rear bulb, and creating a bright unfiltered light splash onto the Fresnel lens. This is the "explosion" that would happen concurrently with the cap going off.
	This is a close up of the color wheel, and shutter door. The transistorized circuit is beneathe.
	Here is the area where most Plazers go wrong. This is the front trigger mechanism. In addition to firing the caps, the front trigger area is what controls the current going to the front or rear bulb. The circuits in this gun are controlled by switching the ground connection. In this picture, the white wire comes directly from the negarive side of the battery. When the front trigger is at rest, the current will move through to the yellow wire. The yellow wire will then go to the rear trigger switch for the Plaser (front bulb) light and transistorized noise generator. When the front trigger is pressed, the bronze contact you see in the picture moves up and connects the white wire to the black wire. That black wire will take the current to the ground side of the rear "exlosion" bulb--and bypasses the yellow wire and the Plazer circuit. The problem with this area is that the contact sometimes does not make contact, and should be adjusted.
	Here is the rear bulb. Notice the black wire which is the wire shown above coming from the front trigger switch. The red wire which feeds the power side of the bulb comes from the circuit below. The circuit's power comes from the orange wire, from the rear trigger switch. The rear trigger switch is fed power by the other end of the yellow wire, which is also shown above coming from the front switch. Confused?! Refer to the top picture to see the yellow wire coming from the front trigger switch to the rear trigger switch, and changing to orange.
	Here is a close up of the Fresnel Lens.
	Here is the Plazer in action! Front bulb projects light. As the rear trigger is pressed, the black shutter door reveals more light beam to the fresnel lens. This makes the light look like a beam, the color of which is selected by the color wheel. As the shutter reveals more light, the 'beam' gives the illusion of elongating. The Fresnel lens reflects this beam onto a piece of smoked plastic, which is what you are looking at when you look through the viewfinder. The transistorized note is also activated at this time.
	In this picture, the viewing screen holder is shown. It slides down, with no screw or glue, from the top. Mine is missing the actual screen. As this appears to be a darkly colored smoked transparent plastic, I will replace it with some plastic after some experimentation.

Notes:

Clean all connections, inspect wiring as indicated. Get a voltmeter, and starting at the battery box, trace voltage through each of the triggers and connections. Use a file or emory board to take corrosion off terminals. If terminals are damaged, try using tin foil to build up connections. Make sure battery terminals are pressed tightly against batteries. I have repaired a number of these, and by simply tightening things up full functionality can sometimes be restored.

During the course of this creating this repair section, I fixed my damaged Plazer to light and sound functionality. It may be missing parts, but it works!!!

Take me back home