Man from U.N.C.L.E. Gadgets - The United Network Command  For  Law Enforcement featured on the espionage series THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E./NBC/1964-68 used an array of pseudo-scientific gadgets during each weekly episode. The firearm of choice for the U.N.C.L.E. agents was the Walther P-38 pistol (priced at $1,100 in 1965), a German semi-automatic pistol equipped with scopes, and silencers. On the series, however, the guns fired sleep darts, which were capable of knocking out the opposition from five hours to five days. (The bad-guys at T.H.R.U.S.H. used bullets). The pistol converted into a carbine type rifle when the 3 and 1/2 inch pistol barrel with silencer was replaced with a 12-inch carbine breakaway barrel and stock. Occasionally, the U.N.C.L.E. agents used a cigarette lighter that concealed a .32 caliber pistol (Flip the lighter lid and BOOM!), or a gas gun that looked like a miniature camera that fired gas pellets through its  lens. The T.H.R.U.S.H. guns were conventional Army surplus carbine with an infrared light and snooper scope with a logo of a thrush bird on their stock handle. They also used a cane shaped gun that fired deadly gas. Ideal Toys reproduced and sold thousands of replicas of the U.N.C.L.E. and T.H.R.U.S.H. guns starting at $4.99. Other gadgets included a three meter cyanide bomb (a glass cigar case filled with milk with a button on one end and a rubber eraser on the other); a portable mine detector (made from a Boy Scout flashlight, a piece of automobile antenna, a telephone buzzer and a flash bulb); gas bombs (made from dry ice); and when they needed to record someone's voice, they used a miniature reel-to-reel tape recorders. And finally there was X-757, an explosive painted on toenails like nail polish. In an emergency it could be peeled off and used like plastic explosives. This handy gadget was used April Dancer (Stephanie Powers) on THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E./NBC/1966-67. Each episode U.N.C.L.E. agents were threatened by a variety of evil gadgets including: fear gas; suspended animation experiments; brainwashing; fungus deadly to Soviet wheat crop; brain-altering ray; thought-reading device; vaporizing machine; chemical to destroy jungles; volcano-activating device; chemical capable of stopping the reproductive process; Quadrillenium X-a very heavy metal with high magnetic powers which THRUSH used to disrupt world communications; high-frequency sound machine that shattered eardrums; rejuvenation process; quartzite radiation projector; earthquake-activating machine; radioactive bats to jam the world's radar; Plus X/Minus X drug which heightens and dulls senses; new laser gun; deadly hiccup gas; communications jamming device; superman formula to build an army to conquer Africa; antimatter; tidal-wave machine; Project Quasimodo, a miniature atomic bomb; powerful heat activated explosives; perfume atomizer with secret formula; exploding apples used to trigger nuclear stockpile; extract gold from sea water; deadly thermal prism, thought-controlling device; molecutronic gun; docility gas; slow-motion gas; high speed rocket; Sonic Propulsion Underwater Demolition weapon developed by THRUSH to destroy ships; reincarnation serum; molecular reorganizer; color-extracting machine developed to turn world art treasures white; and Vitamin Q-a super strength pill. TRIVIA NOTE: In May 1970 MGM faced with financial problems auctioned off all of its props including the guns used on THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. The Masers sold for $45 each, the Walthers sold for $150 each. The rest into the hands of collectors. Reportedly, all of the fancy attachments for the guns were later found in a garbage dumpster.  

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