American West Revisited

I've always been fascinated by toy weapons... so much so that I did a re-branding project with American West caps when I was in design school.

My main memory of cap guns from childhood was watching a boy at music camp unrolling the paper caps and popping them on a piece of smooth cement with a rock, savoring the sulfur smell as he struck each powder dot.

The toy itself seemed so wasteful to me, with its vacuum formed plastic and cardboard packaging. In my revision, I like to think that some outlaw kid would staple the package to a belt they 'borrowed' from a parent and drape it across their chest like a bandoleer, given the opportunity. On the other hand, being uncomfortable with giving children toy weapons I kept with the old west theme, but surreptitiously played with the logo. (Note the surrendering American West figure at the center of the target/badge).

It's never seemed right to me to give a pretend deadly weapon to a kid. Let them make their own, I say.