A spud gun is a small toy gun used to fire a fragment of potato. To operate, one punctures the surface of a potato with the gun's hollow tip and pries out a small pellet which fits in the muzzle. Squeezing the grip causes a small build-up of air pressure inside the toy which propels the projectile. The devices are usually short-range and low-powered.
The first spud gun was invented during the Great Depression. The original inventor sold his patent to E. Joseph Cossman for US$600 [1] after World War II. Cossman, the brother-in-law of "Uncle" Milton Levine, sold two million spud guns in six months as a result of an advertising campaign. [2]
In Mexico City a company named WELCO created a similar model of a spud gun with a metallic appearance. Tomas Welch, a Mexican Jewish chemical engineer, developed a spud gun named "TIRA PAPAS" (Spanish for "potato shooter").
The potato is a starchy root vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are tubers of the plant Solanum tuberosum, a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
A potato chip or crisp is a thin slice of potato that has been deep fried, baked, or air fried until crunchy. They are commonly served as a snack, side dish, or appetizer. The basic chips are cooked and salted; additional varieties are manufactured using various flavorings and ingredients including herbs, spices, cheeses, other natural flavors, artificial flavors, and additives.
Mr. Potato Head is an American toy brand produced by Hasbro since 1952. It consists of a plastic model of a potato "head" to which a variety of plastic parts can attach — typically ears, eyes, shoes, hat, nose, pants and mouth.
Toy guns are toys which imitate real guns, but are designed for recreational sport or casual play by children. From hand-carved wooden replicas to factory-produced pop guns and cap guns, toy guns come in all sizes, prices and materials such as wood, metal, plastic or any combination thereof. Many newer toy guns are brightly colored and oddly shaped to prevent them from being mistaken for real firearms.
Wham-O Inc. is an American toy company based in Carson, California, United States. It is known for creating and marketing many popular toys for nearly 70 years, including the Hula hoop, Frisbee, Slip 'N Slide, Super Ball, Trac-Ball, Silly String, Hacky sack, Wham-O Bird Ornithopter and Boogie Board, many of which have become genericized trademarks.
Tater tots are grated potatoes formed into small cylinders and deep-fried, often served as a side dish. The name "tater tot" is a registered trademark of the American frozen food company Ore-Ida, but is often used as a generic term. "Tater" is short for potato. Ore-Ida also markets a coin-shaped version called "Crispy Crowns".
Spudulike Ltd is a restaurant chain and franchise specialising in baked potatoes that first opened in Edinburgh in 1974. Spudulike sold baked potatoes with various fillings, other potato based meals, and side dishes.
The Idaho Spud is a candy bar made by the Idaho Candy Company. It has continuously been in production since 1918 and is distributed primarily throughout the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The wrapper of the product bears the slogan "The Candy Bar That Makes Idaho Famous". The bar was invented by Thomas "T.O." Smith, who founded the Idaho Candy Company in 1901. The potato- shaped bar consists of a chocolate and coconut flakes covered cocoa-flavored marshmallow center.
A cap gun, cap pistol, or cap rifle is a toy gun that creates a loud sound simulating a gunshot and smoke when a small percussion cap is ignited. Cap guns were originally made of cast iron, but after World War II were made of zinc alloy, and most newer models are made of plastic. Cap guns get their name from the small discs of shock-sensitive explosive compounds that provide the noise and smoke, effectively the same as the Maynard tape primer and percussion caps used in real firearms of the mid to late 1800s but usually smaller and made from cheap plastic or paper. Some are arranged in plastic rings of eight or twelve. There are also single caps, roll caps, disk caps, and cap strips all of which are actually extremely small versions of percussion fireworks. Armstrong's mixture is often used today as the explosive, but previously the tiny powder charge was a simple mixture of potassium perchlorate, sulfur, and antimony sulfide sandwiched between two paper layers that hold in the gases long enough to give a sound report when the cap is struck.
The Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) is a marketing board that represents the potato growers of the U.S. state of Idaho. The group's main initiative is Grown in Idaho — a collective trade mark program for marketing Idaho-grown potatoes, products containing them, and accompanying advertising campaigns.
Spuds is an unincorporated community in St. Johns County, Florida, United States. The community is situated in a region that depends economically on potato growing and other agriculture. As well as potatoes, the land around Spuds provides gladioli. A camp for German prisoners of war was built in Spuds during World War II, close to the intersection between State Roads 206 and 207.
The legality of the potato-firing potato cannon varies among jurisdictions.
A potato cannon is a pipe-based cannon that uses air pressure (pneumatic), or combustion of a flammable gas, to launch projectiles at high speeds. They are built to fire chunks of potato, as a hobby, or to fire other sorts of projectiles, for practical use. Projectiles or failing guns can be dangerous and result in life-threatening injuries, including cranial fractures, enucleation, and blindness if a person is hit.
Prizes are promotional items—small toys, games, trading cards, collectables, and other small items of nominal value—found in packages of brand-name retail products that are included in the price of the product with the intent to boost sales, similar to toys in kid's meals. Collectable prizes produced in series are used extensively—as a loyalty marketing program—in food, drink, and other retail products to increase sales through repeat purchases from collectors. Prizes have been distributed through bread, candy, cereal, cheese, chips, crackers, laundry detergent, margarine, popcorn, and soft drinks. The types of prizes have included comics, fortunes, jokes, key rings, magic tricks, models, pin-back buttons, plastic mini-spoons, puzzles, riddles, stickers, temporary tattoos, tazos, trade cards, trading cards, and small toys. Prizes are sometimes referred to as "in-pack" premiums, although historically the word "premium" has been used to denote an item that is not packaged with the product and requires a proof of purchase and/or a small additional payment to cover shipping and/or handling charges.
Milton Martin Levine was an American entrepreneur who was the co-founder of Uncle Milton Toys.
Freshlocal Solutions Inc. is an online grocer, wholesale distributor, store operator and software licensing company based in Vancouver. The company was founded as Small Potatoes Urban Delivery in 1997. In September 2021 Freshlocal went under new executive leadership which resulted in key leadership changeover and in May 2022 it filed for bankruptcy protection.
Nosco Plastics, Inc. was the plastics molding division of National Organ Supply Company created in 1934 to make plastic parts for electric organs and was located at 1701 Gaskell Avenue, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16503. Beginning in 1948 with the implementation of the newly developed screw injection molding process, NOSCO quickly became a major early producer of tiny plastic toys called "slum" sold to wholesalers as carnival merchandise, used by the millions as prizes in packages of Cracker Jack popcorn confection, and mail-order flats that were heavily advertised in American comic books as "100 Toy Soldiers for $1" by E. Joseph Cossman & Company. NOSCO also held a number of patents on plastic molded products including mechanical toys, storage containers, pallets, and medical syringes.
Chip and Potato is an animated children's television series created by Billy Macqueen, Catherine Williams, and Maddy Darrall. The series is co-produced by WildBrain Studios and Darrall Macqueen.
Eli Joseph Cossman was an American inventor, businessman, entrepreneur and author. With Milton Levine, Cossman was the co-creator of the ant farm and spud gun toys. He also made millions of dollars selling various novelties and conducting sales seminars.
 | This toy-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |