I keep hearing in the Tech press about "3D printing" where you can build real plastic parts from a computer CAD design.

So, can it be long before some enterprising Sekiden-er scans in the kit of parts and publishes the CAD file so we can make our own new Sekidens ?!

Needless to say, me, my brother and local kids all wielded Sekidens in our youth !!

Thank you so much for this site. I have searched for this toy for years but could not remember its exact name. Was it Skeeter? Skeeden? I finally just today stumbled here almost accidentally. Ah, it was the Sekiden!
My story is typical. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, USA and found these in a small neighborhood grocery store in about 1965 or so. I would have been about 9 years old. I believe they cost 30 or 35 cents - not a small amount for me but not a huge fortune, either. I don't recall the price of the pellets, but do remember they seemed excessively expensive - maybe 10 cents (silver in a red or black box). I did splurge for them at first but soon found that a particular type and brand of dried peas worked very well. A bag cost 10 cents for literally thousands of peas. What dummy, what fool, could not see this obvious deal? And not would I reveal my secret to my ignorant friends as they ran out of ammo and I blazed on to glory! Ah, such fun I had shooting everything in sight, not excluding the cat and the dog, nor the little girls down the street, nor the garbage truck as it rumbled down the alley. It's true that the peas would occasionally jam, but I learned from the feel of the trigger when a jam was about to occur, and the solution was to back off the trigger and give the toy a quick shake to loosen the offending pea. Seldom did I need to empty the chamber and reload in the heat of battle. As I mastered this technique, I found I could even discern when a pea was about to jam and when a pea was merely being a bit stubborn. If the latter, squeezing the trigger very slowly would cause the pea to split and fire a two-fer for extra added excitement. Now, I will add this - it was very important to shake and blow out any pea dust from the chamber before reloading, else it would accumulate and lead to an early failure. But regardless, the toy would eventually go bad on its own. The trigger would pull but not fully engage the inner workings. I did investigate on more than one occasion but I can't remember what the exact problem was. I want to say that an internal piece of plastic had either broken or had worn, but I can't be sure. I just know that the more practical solution was to ride my bike back to the store and purchase another - which was usually a choice over three comic books at 12 cents each. After a couple of years, my relationship with the Sekiden came to an abrupt and tragic end when the little neighborhood store suddenly closed. Why, oh why, had I not saved up and purchased a spare? I searched every store I encountered, big or small, but the little Sekiden was not to be found. I desparately tried to repair my last one, but, alas, my attempts were in vain. Once, in a small shop across town, I found the silver pellets, but no Sekiden. The man there said he was sorry for he did not expect any more to come in. I knew at that point it was over - I had to move on. There would be no more Sekidens.
It's been over forty years now, and I still mourn the loss of the last little Sekiden. It was a good run, though, a very good run. I still pass sometimes by the dried pea section of the grocery store and think about what could have been - what might have been.

Thank you very much for allowing me to indulge in a little silliness, and thank you, thank you for the memories.

I remember having great fun with my Sekiden gun but the lifespan was always quite short. Like most users I used to buy a whole box of dried peas for a fraction of the price of the plastic beads, but the beads were always more accurate and were used for target practice rather than firing around the garden, so I could collect them later. The gold coating used to wear away quite quickly to reveal a white almost chalky bead. Anyway, the mechanism used to stop working after a while and I never managed to open one up and fix it with any success, so it was back to the shop when I had saved enough pocket money. I would guess now being older and more savvy it would have been a simple thing to fix.

Great site - brought loads of memories flooding back. The sekiden was without doubt the weapon of choice for any kid in the late 60s. The most stunning demonstration of its deadly firepower came one day when me and two pals were being resitance fighters, laying in wait behind a neighbour's wall for enemy forces. Soon an enemy armoured car (actually some bloke in a Morris Minor) came down the hill, right into our ambush. A volley of deadly silver pellets rained upon its windscreen, whereupon the car swerved crazily, hit the kerb, and careered off along the road, leaving one of its hubcaps spinning on the ground. We fled the scene. Fortunately, the enemy never found out who did it, so there were no reprisals.