Finding the BFG toy gun

[Csonicgo]

Ever since John Romero Posted these images on twitter, I've been looking for the source of the toy gun used in making the BFG, as well as several "military" looking textures. So far I've yet to find this gun, but I owned it when I was a kid.

It was a huge, bulky gun with a lot of weight (thanks to 4 C batteries). it had two barrels at the end. If you take the BFG alpha picture and half it, then rotate it 90 degrees, you can see the gun. There wasn't much editing here, as they kept the orange paint on one of the frames!

that "hole" you see on the gun was originally an orange knob that controlled what sound came out of the gun. there were 7 sounds (iirc) of various movie guns, including a "FIRE!" voice sample.

Two additional knobs were on the gun to control the speed and pitch of the samples, and the volume. It also had a name on the side, something like "Eliminator", "Terminator", "Destroyer", "eviscerator", "Enforcer" or something of the like, in all caps.

It was very giger-like, with details everywhere, some of those details made it into these textures:


(See the two "X" boxes? that's from the gun).

There were two "Cable"-like designs on the gun, which wound up being on the exit door along with other details on the gun (the round structure)...


So where is the gun? I have no idea. I have looked everywhere at my parents' house for it; I fear it is long gone. But if you have seen one like it, own one, or if this rings any bells whatsoever, please let me know. If you can find it on google, that'd be even cooler.

[Captain Toenail]

Out of sheer procrastination, I had a look at this video (Nerf history lol) and there's three toys that sort of match your description:

3:11 - Nerf Lightning Blitz
4:58 - Nerf Pulsator <-- is this it?
5.49 - Nerf Ripcord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF_mi34Kcbw

[Linguica]

It's almost certainly not a nerf gun since there just weren't that many around in 1993

[Linguica]

Also Romero and Tom Hall claimed that the plasma rifle and BFG were both made from shots of the same gun, and we know that the plasma rifle was digitized from an M60-esque toy gun.

[FireFish]

Adding to what Linguica noted ;
http://the-goddamn-doomguy.tumblr.com/post/46483105745/like-the-shotgun-the-plasma-gun-was-created-from

[Csonicgo]

Linguica said:

Also Romero and Tom Hall claimed that the plasma rifle and BFG were both made from shots of the same gun, and we know that the plasma rifle was digitized from an M60-esque toy gun.

The "tip" of the gun, sure. The rest of it though is what I'm talking about. There is nothing of that much detail on the green gun.

[Jasper Carmack]

I had a conversation with Romero about this back in 2008.

Here's a list of the toys/real items with photos. I was lucky enough to buy a few of these as I'm an avid games weapon collector:

1: Chainsaw
Mcculloch Eager Beaver 2 stroke
http://i.imgur.com/ERW1v5Y.jpg

2: Pistol
Beretta water pistol (initially orange, painted black)
(Took some photos with a non-toy beretta for comparison) http://i.imgur.com/wu5ePQh.jpg

3: Shotgun
Tootsietoy Dakota Cap Gun (also now moulded and resold as the "Montana")
http://i.imgur.com/XrfmBmL.jpg

33: Double Barrel Shotgun
Painted iirc.

4: Chaingun
Digitalized by Romero recently, see his twitter.

5: Rocket Launcher
Painted iirc.

6: Plasma Rifle
Detachable front end of toy dart shooting Rambo M60 machine gun toy (circa late 80s to early 1990s)
http://i.imgur.com/xdE2GJE.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0BLTLJZ.jpg

7: BFG-9000
Combination of Rambo M60 machine gun for tip
"Transformers toy" in the words of Romero. I'm guessing perhaps Prowl or Metroplex.

I'll post it when I find it.

[Clonehunter]

Blackmantis said:

33: Double Barrel Shotgun
Painted iirc.

I would still love some extra information on this, if only because I feel the idle graphic was a screencap from Evil Dead II.

[joe-ilya]

What knuckle is the one in doom?

[Jasper Carmack]

joe-ilya said:

What knuckle is the one in doom?

The powerfully hairy arm, hand and knuckle is that of Kevin Cloud.

[Blastfrog]

Wasn't the hair painted on? Doomguy's arms weren't nearly as hairy in the alpha builds compared to the final game.

[Da Werecat]

The alpha builds have hand-drawn hands (no pun intended), as far as I can see. They're completely different in the press release beta, not just hairified (check the shotgun sprites).

[Magnusblitz]

Blackmantis said:

7: BFG-9000
Combination of Rambo M60 machine gun for tip
"Transformers toy" in the words of Romero. I'm guessing perhaps Prowl or Metroplex.

Prowl seems like far too small of a toy to work, but Metroplex might... I don't own the original 1986 toy, but I could see something like holding up his vehicle mode could look sorta like a BFG (once the tip from the M60 was added)? I dunno, the more I look at it, I don't see any details that match. Hmmm...

[Waffenak]

this gun and dakota shotgun would look great in doom memoriable shelf