“Looks like a movie camera, opens into a machine gun!”
In the 1960s, Mattel released a line of spy toys that encouraged children to go undercover as Agent Zero M.
The superspy’s arsenal relied on the element of surprise. Each toy appeared to be an everyday object but could be transformed into a weapon, making them instantly appealing to children.
One of the line’s more clandestine items was the Agent Zero M Movie-Shot. On its surface, the toy looked like an ordinary pistol-grip movie camera. Squeezing the trigger caused a gun barrel to telescope outward into a machine gun that was 15½-inches long in firing position. Turning the camera crank fired off perforated roll caps in bursts or single shots, all without requiring batteries.
Mattel brought Agent Zero M to life in a series of iconic television commercials starring a pre-teen Kurt Russell.
