Man Alive! How did I ever get along with five?!
March 15, 2016 3:43 AM   Subscribe

It looks like a finger, but it does all this!
You can’t think about Sixfinger without thinking about James Bond. During the mid-1960s, just past the frostiest point in the Cold War, many boys saw Bond as a kind of superhero who got his powers from clever weaponry. But does it follow that these ingenious gadgets were toys? .....
Sixfinger was not far in concept from real life Cold War spy-armaments like the exploding cigar that the CIA designed but never deployed to eliminate Fidel Castro, the poison-tipped umbrella that KGB agents used to assassinate a Bulgarian dissident, or the combat knives that military engineers concealed in pancake flippers.
posted by jenkinsEar (17 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
The article states Goldfinger was the second bond film, it was the third. From Russia with Love was the second.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:49 AM on March 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


A closer look at the Sixfinger packaging
posted by chavenet at 5:24 AM on March 15, 2016 [3 favorites]


Incorrect-ish. Dr No was the first of the "canon" Bond movies, but there was also a 1954 made-for-TV movie of Casino Royale. (Which royally cocked up the rights situation, resulting in the insane 1960s movie "Casino Royale", starring such notables as Woody Allen and Orson Welles, and then "Never Say Never Again" (AIUI based on the rights to the Bond name that came with the "Casino Royale" movie rights package Fleming had sold in the early 1950s) before finally the Broccoli franchise got the name back and made the 2000s movie, "Casino Royale".
posted by cstross at 5:51 AM on March 15, 2016 [4 favorites]


Picturing a glum looking mid-60s black kid.
posted by bonobothegreat at 5:57 AM on March 15, 2016 [17 favorites]


I had a Sixfinger as a kid. It was fun while it lasted.
If you wanted to play serious secret agent games, though, the cool kids had their Mattel Secret Agent Zero-M gear.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:00 AM on March 15, 2016 [2 favorites]


Your Sixfinger is nothing compared to my Johnny Seven OMA!
posted by Smart Dalek at 6:10 AM on March 15, 2016 [3 favorites]


Thorzdad: "I had a Sixfinger as a kid. It was fun while it lasted.
If you wanted to play serious secret agent games, though, the cool kids had their Mattel Secret Agent Zero-M gear.
"

Yes, yes, yes, yes! Loved them all. It was so damn cool to be a kid back then. Guess what? We would play with these awesome toys outside. Really. We got dirty too.
posted by Splunge at 7:23 AM on March 15, 2016 [2 favorites]


Hello, my name is dawgproud and you..sort of lightly wounded my father. So wait, you don't actually have six fingers? What the heck IS that thing? No that's okay you don't have to...yes, uh huh, yes that's nice, and it also writes, sure yes, mm hmm, well, I'll just be bandaging up my father now.
posted by dawg-proud at 8:19 AM on March 15, 2016


Still has nothing on the Fing-Longer.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:21 AM on March 15, 2016 [3 favorites]


or the combat knives that military engineers concealed in pancake flippers.

Unless there was a heretofore unknown Canadian Military Engineers battalion out there assassinating Nazis with poisoned maple syrup and covert spatula knives, I think this is an incoherent explanation of the OSS version of the Fairbairn-Sykes stiletto, which had a "pancake flapper" frog on the sheath.
Fairbairn and Sykes based their knife design on a classic dagger design, but focused on making it lighter and thinner than existing blades. They designed the knife to have both a sharp stabbing point and good cutting edges. The sharp point and edges ensured a clean wound, which would bleed freely and quickly. Fairbairn and Sykes also designed the knife to be thin enough to slide between the ribs, and long and strong enough to penetrate through many layers of clothing and gear.

By the summer of 1942, housewares and hardware manufacturers Landers, Frary and Clark of New Britain, Conn., began producing the Fairbairn-Sykes OSS Stiletto. The knife was manufactured using lightweight steel. A finished knife measured 11.25 inches in length and weighed seven ounces.

The knives were issued with an unusual “pancake flapper” sheath with an O-ring to hold the knife in place. The slots in the “pancake flapper” made it easy for belts of different widths to be woven through the sheath. At the time, Landers, Frary and Clark were the largest producers of kitchen utensils in America. Apparently the same molds the company used to make its pancake flappers were also used to make the sheath for the Fairbairn-Sykes OSS Stiletto.
posted by zamboni at 8:31 AM on March 15, 2016 [4 favorites]


It looks like a finger cock and balls, but it does all this!

Also, "all this" apparently means "shoots things" and "writes".
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:49 AM on March 15, 2016


I begged for a Sixfinger, even though I was repeatedly told "that's a BOY'S TOY." Typical Cold-War 60s sexism--boys got cool spy gear, Tonka trucks and GI Joe (with action grip!) while girls were expected to be happy with Easy Bake Ovens and ol' side-eye Barbie and her permanently deformed high-heel feet.

Sixfinger was a classic 60s toy--it had tiny, easy-to-lose parts (there were NEVER enough projectiles, as they quickly got stuck behind the furniture) and you could actually hurt yourself with it! Good times.
posted by kinnakeet at 8:50 AM on March 15, 2016 [2 favorites]


Pancake flapper sheath.
posted by Splunge at 8:52 AM on March 15, 2016


"nd then "Never Say Never Again" (AIUI based on the rights to the Bond name that came with the "Casino Royale" movie rights package Fleming had sold in the early 1950s"

"Never Say Never Again" was a remake of Thunderball which happened because Fleming lost the rights to the SPECTRE name and to the Thunderball movie, if I remember correctly. I'll look it up later.
posted by I-baLL at 9:30 AM on March 15, 2016


If you wanted to play serious secret agent games, though, the cool kids had their...

There was a Secret Agent briefcase, with integrated weaponry and spy stuff. You would never suspect that the 6th grade businessman in the playground was up to something.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:59 AM on March 15, 2016


Oh man, Agent Zero M ebay page.
posted by Splunge at 10:19 AM on March 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


YES! SONIC BLASTER WAS BEST TOY EVER! TOTALLY DID NOT AFFECT MY HEARING! (BONUS: VIDEO HAS YOUNG KURT RUSSELL!)
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:21 AM on March 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


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