guest post by Burstein!
“You must not fail, Zero M. This mission is critical…” With those words the commercial for the Zero M Sonic Blaster staring a young Kurt Russell opens and quickly turns into bizarre parody world where a lone 10 year old and his ruptured eardrum is gamely protecting his home with poofs of air. The Blaster itself is effectively a hand-pumped compressed air gun, which did not make the approval of Consumer Reports back in 1966:
The Mattel Agent Zero M Sonic Blaster 5530 fires compressed air with a deafening blast. Our measurements top out at 157 dB–above a level that can do permanent damage to the hearing of an adult. We rate the toy Not Acceptable.
Check out the other fun retro reviews and photos as posted by Mikl-em back in the day.
via RetroThing
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
isn’t that a REALLY young Kurt Russell? was that before or after he played the jungle boy on Gilligan’s Island?
You’re right, it is Kurt Russell. I’ve updated the post.
I love the Twilight Zone-esque modern jazz accompanyment.
I laugh at reports of the loudness. I used one as a kid. Unless you placed the end of the barrel against someone’s ear, it would be impossible to injure one’s ear.
It wasn’t loud at all. It did shoot an impressive “ball” of air across a room. It would take about a second to go 8 feet.
I’m pretty tired of these “do-gooders” protecting us from ourselves.