Spaw, I may be wrong but I think Tom Terrific used the plastic screen cover idea as well. I never got one though.

I saved my two Cheerios boxtops and did some trumped up chores around the house so that I could have the two quarters necessary to send off for an "official space gun - just like the one used by..." it might have been Flash Gordon or it might have been that Captain sombody-or-other who once used an office stapler as a ray-gun on the show. Anyway, I just HAD to have one. Eternity passed and the package arrived. Wow! It really looked like a "space gun" except that it was made of pink plastic.

What was required to use it was to fill a chamber with talcum powder. Then when you squeezed the trigger, it would compress a small bellows inside which blew out a marvelous cloud of white dust.

Twice.

Then it clogged horribly and surgery was the only option. (That's how I learned all about how it worked!) I managed to get it back together again but the bellows never worked right after that.

Now, if that doesn't tug at your heartstrings, then someday I'll tell you all about my first kite.