Watch: Commercial for Marx “Sound-O-Power” Toy Guns

Here’s an oldie for ya. This is a TV commercial for a couple of toy rifles made by the Marx company.

They were offering two “Sound-O-Power” toy guns: an M16 Military Rifle and a Western Rifle, which appear to be about medium-scale and which have speakers in the butt stocks. Pulling the trigger causes “lots of battle sounds” to emanate from the speaker.

Batteries not included.

I had to snicker a bit. Apparently the Western Rifle came with plenty of phony sounds straight out of B westerns such as the “peeeeyoing!” of fake ricochets. But what fun for kids!

A pair of peace officers aimlessly wandering in the woods near where the kids are playing become alerted: “Sounds like a gun battle!”

They rush over to the kids–to test and admire their nifty toys.

These days, the cops would be dressed in military riot gear and would probably shoot the boys “just in case.”

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.