Grey NES Zapper

[ewing92]

What's the deal with these? Are they harder to find than the orange ones, why did nintendo make a different color zapper in the first place?

 

Why am i asking this? I don't know, it's something i've been wondering for a while.

[futuramaooy]

I'll answer this to the best of my Knowlage:

 

Nintendo released the Famicom's gun, it looked like a Real Revolver. when redesigning the Nintendo Entertainment System for America, they redesigned the Zapper, to make it match the NES' Space Age look, 1) to make sure it doesn't look like a real gun, 2, the NES was grey, white, and Red (The On light) so it matched nicely with the NES. Problems rised, I think some peeple thoguht it still looked like a real gun, o they made it Orange, to stop confusion.

 

Not sure if thats the whole truth, buth thats all I know.

[gdement]

They're not hard to find at all. Actually, I never knew the orange ones existed until I saw one in a picture about 1 year ago. The gray ones are very common. I don't think I've even seen an orange one in person, but plenty of gray.

My guess is the new model is orange for the same reason newer toy guns have orange on the barrel. It's probably a law.

[Student Driver]

Dunno if it's a law, but the reasoning contained in the posts above match the reasoning I've heard over the years; the original grey matches the original system, and the orange color is a sop to someone (whether it's concerned parents, concerned toy stores, or concerned law makers) concerned that the original grey Zapper somehow resembled a real gun.

 

Anyway-- I've seen more orange than grey over the years, as the color change happened before the NES hit its peak sales years. I prefer the original, as it's what I'm used to, and it looks less toy-like.

[n8littlefield]

During the NES's lifespan a new law was passed in the US requiring manufacturers of toy guns to make it more apparent that they were toys (I think some kid got shot with a laser tag gun or something to prompt this). So, they were then required to have bright markings to show a toy gun was a toy, prompting the color change on Nintendo's part.

[Prodos8]

I have both a grey one and an orange one. Both seem extremely common, as I see them in thrifts almost daily. There is a law in the US that the tip (first inch or so) of toy guns must be orange, but not the whole gun.

 

Rather dumb law, as kids simply paint over the orange part or remove it, since it's usually a separate piece. Besides, here in the US we're up to our knees in real guns anyway.

[murfj]

Dunno if it's a law, but the reasoning contained in the posts above match the reasoning I've heard over the years; the original grey matches the original system, and the orange color is a sop to someone (whether it's concerned parents, concerned toy stores, or concerned law makers) concerned that the original grey Zapper somehow resembled a real gun.

 

Anyway-- I've seen more orange than grey over the years, as the color change happened before the NES hit its peak sales years. I prefer the original, as it's what I'm used to, and it looks less toy-like.

 

 

I'm not sure if that color change happened before the peak sales years, it seems to me that this happened late in the sales cycle of the NES. I got my NES in the summer of 1989- probably what would be considered in the midst of, or late in, the peak sales years, and the gun with mine was still the gray one. One of my friends got his early the next year (or maybe Christmas 1989) and his had the orange gun, that was the first time I'd seen that one.

[Crazy Climber]

About 3 years ago they had piles of grey zappers at Gamestop's for a buck a piece, I don't think they are to horribly rare.

[Video]

I believe the Orange zapper is a late comer to the NES scene. And yeah, it was some congres leagal crap that wanted toy guns to be obviously toy looking (and apparently, there's enough braindead people out there that think the zapper looks real) So Nintendo made them orange.

 

Even so, the grey one is really common, and the orange one is quiet a bit less common. I've gotten about a dozen complete NES systems over the years, and out of the 11 zappers I have, only 2 are orange. Still, in this neck of the woods, the orange zapper is easier to find than the SMS light gun, which is common as dirt, compared to the Atari light gun

 

Think about the orange zappers as dogbone NES controllers, their newer, fresher in people's minds, but there's not nearly the number of them out there as grey zappers, and square NES controllers.

[JB]

I believe the Orange zapper is a late comer to the NES scene. And yeah, it was some congres leagal crap that wanted toy guns to be obviously toy looking (and apparently, there's enough braindead people out there that think the zapper looks real) So Nintendo made them orange.

The point behind the bright colors was to make it IMMEDIATELY obvious.

 

The Laser Tag incident mentioned earlier WAS the motivation. Some kid pulled a Laser Tag gun on a cop and got shot.

While no one's gonna argue a StarLyte looks like a real gun, the police aren't trained to waste precious seconds evaluating the situation to see if the black pistol pointed at them is metal, plastic, or a sci-fi raygun.

Hence, bright non-gun colors were added to all toy guns, especially on the business end.

[shadow460]

Odd. I thought the grey ones were rarer. Mine is grey, my dad's is orange.

I've only seen a couple of grey ones myself--but I've seen tons of orange Zappers.

The only time I saw a loose Light Phaser, I snapped it up and converted it for my 7800.

[Kitsune Sniper]

It's funny, many toy guns still have orange bits nowadays... but if you look at the Dreamcast guns, you'll see that they don't have any orange bits at all. Eheh.

[n8littlefield]

It's funny, many toy guns still have orange bits nowadays... but if you look at the Dreamcast guns, you'll see that they don't have any orange bits at all. Eheh.

Actually, the official Sega made guns never got released in the US, therefore they didn't need to be oranged. The guns that Sega allowed to be called "official" in the US were the Madcatz Dream Blaster, which does have an orange muzzle and an orange stripe. It is a law still on the books and required to this day.

[JB]

It's funny, many toy guns still have orange bits nowadays... but if you look at the Dreamcast guns, you'll see that they don't have any orange bits at all. Eheh.

Actually, the official Sega made guns never got released in the US, therefore they didn't need to be oranged. The guns that Sega allowed to be called "official" in the US were the Madcatz Dream Blaster, which does have an orange muzzle and an orange stripe. It is a law still on the books and required to this day.

Actually....

My AssCatz gun DOESN'T have an orange muzzle or stripe...

I don't recall seeing orange on the Pelican gun either.

 

 

I know the stripe is only required by New York.

Is it possible they were offering different variants for different regions?

...

Though the muzzle cap is national law... so WTF?

[shadow460]

My Virtua Gun has no orange on it at all (it's blue all over), and neither did my Cobra Gun. I forget, but was there a big hype about it in the early Saturn life? I know that the hype was beginning to spread not too long after the Virtua Gun was released here.

[ewing92]

okay thanks.

[n8littlefield]

It's funny, many toy guns still have orange bits nowadays... but if you look at the Dreamcast guns, you'll see that they don't have any orange bits at all. Eheh.

Actually, the official Sega made guns never got released in the US, therefore they didn't need to be oranged. The guns that Sega allowed to be called "official" in the US were the Madcatz Dream Blaster, which does have an orange muzzle and an orange stripe. It is a law still on the books and required to this day.

Actually....

My AssCatz gun DOESN'T have an orange muzzle or stripe...

I don't recall seeing orange on the Pelican gun either.

 

 

I know the stripe is only required by New York.

Is it possible they were offering different variants for different regions?

...

Though the muzzle cap is national law... so WTF?

 

That's really strange. Every image I could find of it had an orange cap and stripe. Maybe they actually released multiple versions for multiple regions. Really odd, because I do thing the muzzle cap is still on the books.

[Rik]

They're not hard to find at all. Actually, I never knew the orange ones existed until I saw one in a picture about 1 year ago. The gray ones are very common. I don't think I've even seen an orange one in person, but plenty of gray.

My guess is the new model is orange for the same reason newer toy guns have orange on the barrel. It's probably a law.

So criminals will just paint real guns orange,theres ways around everything

Edited January 1, 2007 by Rik