O is for Old School!

This is a fun piece, Theo van de Weerden sent me this shot with some items he was hoping I could ID (some, but not all!), and while it didn't need ID'ing itself, it's clearly marked . . .

. . . Dulcop of Italy; I couldn't work out from the photograph if it was complete, incomplete or smashed-up! Nor was it clear how it was supposed to work, so I asked Theo if he could explain further!

He then kindly re-shot it and found a link to one on evilBay with the bullets. The second set of shots are odd-coloured due to the remnants of what seems to have been a uniform coat of silver paint (mostly now worn off) reflecting back at us - which had gone some way toward confusing with the upper image too. Once you've seen these shots, the first one become equally clear!

What we actually have here is a nice, probably early production, Dulcop novelty piece which fires two large shells (which clip onto the two strange cut-outs in the shield) using a sort of 'pop-gun' action and may not have been connected to their later toy soldier line at all, but rather sold purely as an interactive, if slightly violent plaything.

It would though, make a lovely howitzer or mountain-gun for old school set-them-up-and-knock-them-down carpet wars. Thanks to Theo for sharing it with the rest of us.