1974 Aurora Ready Ranger gun cam
Another great kid's camera toy incorporating a gun platform. It comprised a camera that could be removed and used separately or in gun mode. The kit consisted of a telephoto lens, swing-out aiming sights, swing-down lens cap, trigger-action shutter, over-the-shoulder carrying strap and fold-up shoulder stock. Made by Aurora in 1974. It Used color or bw 126 cartridge film. “Special Telephoto Lens Makes The Image Twice As Big" was the sales pitch on the box. Aurora’s Ready Ranger series of toys were highly imaginative and detailed but not a commercial success and as a result these items are scarce and very rare. But on the plus side theyr are not expensive on ebay. The gun platform can be used for any gun camera project today using a modern day digital camera. The other plus point is that it doesn't look like a real life gun and mods pretty easily with a tripod mount based drilled into the plastic body where the lense sits. Christopher D. Salyers in his book Camera Crazy summed up toy cameras nicely, “Toy cameras are, perhaps, the simplest ways to keep the spirit of film photography alive. Beyond the rhetoric and rules, they lend a romantic interpretation of the world, a mysterious way in which they make marks with light.”
