Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by Marcel Rousseau.
Some were previously published by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and in the book Postcard Memories Orillia.
With the overwhelming sales success of the toy shovel and crane made in 1945, Otaco continued to design and manufacture metal toys including a ride-on train, several trucks plus a small food mixer and mangle ironer for girls.
A 1948 brochure shows the toy line had expanded to 22 items including this Minnitoy Supermatic Water Pistol numbered MT11 with a wholesale price of 50 cents.
The Supermatic Water Pistol had a small elongated rubber bulb in the barrel that held less than one ounce of liquid. To fill, you needed to compress the trigger and insert the tip of the pistol into water, then slowly release the trigger drawing water into the bulb.
When loaded it held only enough water for one shot and the menacing shooter had to be accurate and close to the target before racing back to the tap to reload.
Hundreds of these durable, simple and fun water pistols were sold during the 1950s before becoming obsolete when plastic imports entered the market.
