Image: Etsy.com

I swear I’m not making this up. This piece of junk is for sale on Etsy as a ‘Steampunk Bladerunner Pistol,’ and chances are decent that some moron will flush away $220 for a surplus Polish flare pistol and a wooden AK heat shield. Oh yeah: there’s two little brass bands on there too, so there’s that.

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70 COMMENTS

  5. This guy just came up with a creative way to make a little pocket money and do away with the evidence of his visit to difi’s DC compound.

    • I think they’re actually hose clamps.

      Why the wood was kludged onto it, I don’t know… The flare pistol actually looks vaguely steampunk on its own, in a Victorian/Bisley-revolverish sort of way.

    • No discussion is needed. I’m sure that the prop looks like that for two reasons:
      1) those were the parts available (or closest to the prop master) at the time
      2) It looks cool.

    • I can’t speak for the blade runner gun. But my understanding is that Mal’s pistol on Serenity has as it’s heart a Taurus model 85.

    • I’ve been trying to work that Rube Goldberg device out (the original Blade Runner Pistol that is). I think the concept is 6 shot revolver with either a fiber or perhaps laser aiming device side mounted and with a cut down low capacity mag fed bolt action rifle on top as a separate gun, thus the two triggers.

      On the surface I can actually see a little of why this might seem desirable: A revolver can fire odd ammo types without jamming and thus can launch a variety of things that aren’t exactly bullets but also can rapidly cycle more standard ammo in a fight, especially if it’s caliber isn’t too massive. . . thus the rifle on top, much slower but conceivably very powerful (albeit with reduced range given it’s shortened length).

      It’s not something that I think would ever approach having the ergonomics necessary to be very shootable (nor can I figure out how the rifle on top feeds, apparently through the revolver from a bottom mounted magazine). It appears like it was designed entirely for it’s looks, perhaps with little thought given to it’s utility or even if such a design could be made to work but at the same time I can see why someone writing in fiction might have imagined such a cobbled weapon as a special arm for a character. In concept at least it’s sort of like having a master key under an M4, or even like a drilling rifle. . . it worked it actually could serve some specialized purpose (like using rifle rounds to penetrate armor).

      • In the film, Blade Runners are supposed to hunt down and retire (kill) renegade replicants who are illegal on Earth. Replicants are bioengineered (living) androids who are used as slaves in the offworld colonies and are much stronger and tougher than normal real humans. In the film it would take more than one round to knock them down yet alone kill them. So I would think if Blade Runners do use projectiles, they probably would use special rounds designed for retiring replicants. Though the film implies at times they use blackhole guns so who knows what kind of ammo if any that would use?

        Perhaps the “rifle” part is really the blackhole emitter? One trigger for projectiles and the other for blackholes? Though I would think such weapons would endanger the whole solar system.

  18. First of all that’s not a heat shield but an upper handguard. And secondly, that’s for a SKS and not an AK. You’d think TTAG would know better.

  25. George Carlin was was right when he said “if you nail two things together that have never been nailed together before some shmuck will buy it.”

    One could also add that it doesn’t matter what it is, there is someone out there that collects it. Used bandages comes to mind.

    • These are obviously all being built by the same guy. These steamy punks must have an awful lot of disposable income and spare time.

      Some of them are interesting in an artsy sort of way, but that flare gun is just sad.

  29. Its actually German, not Polish. It’s 1960s-era, manufactured by GECO. Usually sells for about 50 bucks.

    • He is? Then these are all illegal because they scare me. Plus one of those gun designs has spent .22LR casings glued to it as part of the design.

  31. Yeah, that is just lazy. If these guys want to feel like Harrison Ford in Bladerunner they should just get a real gun and put walnut grips on it. Something like a CZ P-01.

    I’m a gamer but I don’t understand how some people get so worked up about fantasy. That is a lot of money for a toy that doesn’t do anything except look like a real gun to an ignoramus, I can just see the headline: “Autistic Child Perforated by Police as he Brandished Steampunk Blaster…”

    These things are getting so popular now with young adult dorks and the emphasis is so great on superficial “realism” and found items that it is only a matter of time before a kid thinks one is cool and gets into trouble. Where do you think Mr.Flaregun got that AK upper handguard? Not a positive trend.

  32. any genre crossing lune who falls for that deserves to be had. mixing steampunk and sci-fi is like mixing oil and water. the whole point of steampunk is that we never get to sci-fi because all the technological marvels are achieved with cogs and boilers.

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