Sekiden History
Boing boing! Do you remember your Sekiden? If you were a boy in the mid 1960s you maybe had one or two, along with cap rockets and balsa wood gliders.
They were made in Japan, and sold in carded bags at your local newsagent. They fired little gold plaster of paris beads, about 7mm in diameter. Although Sekidens were relatively affordable at 3/6d (three shillings and sixpence, 17.5p in decimal coinage), the beads were expensive at 3d (threepence) for 50. For economy we substituted dried peas which came in a big box for 9d, but varied in size and weight, so they weren’t as good as genuine Sekiden beads. Often one of the peas would jam, resulting in you being peppered with shots while you emptied and refilled.
The design was simple and ingenious. The top barrel was false; the beads were stored in that chamber, and dropped down into the lower chamber to be fired. It took over 100 beads to fill a Sekiden, so the continuous firepower was way ahead of any other projectile-firing toy. It also meant that we could fashion silencers out of wood, which looked great sticking out of the barrel, but didn’t impede the firing.
The relationship between the spring and the ammo beads was perfect; just strong enough to project the beads with a meaningful force, but not enough to do any damage. Although I did manage to crack my cousin’s glasses with one unfortunate shot.
As well as stalking your mates and tormenting siblings, they were also good for indoor target practice. Firing at toy soldiers on a duvet was a favourite, as the beads could be collected and re-used.
The nearest thing to a Sekiden today would be a BB device, although these are altogether more sophisticated and can’t really be fired at friends without some risk.
Notice this whole article is being written avoiding the ‘g’ word (or the ‘p’ or the ‘a’ word for that matter.) This is because, in the intervening years, our beloved Sekidens have become politically and socially unacceptable. Although they are small, light, harmless toys, they look quite mean and realistic. They also fall foul of Ebay’s restricted items policy which forbids anything capable of firing a projectile. You can sell the beads, instructions and packaging, but not the Sekidens themselves.
As a model railway enthusiast, I always had trouble reconciling the pure fun of the Sekiden. I wasn’t violent; I was too young to watch James Bond, but The Saint (who never bothered with firearms) and the Man from UNCLE (who magically produced various exotic weapons from a tailored business suit) were easily absorbed. History repeated itself in later life; I was collecting Hornby-Dublo trains, but those Sekidens kept popping into my head. Ebay was in its infancy, only available in dollars, although collectors in the UK were starting to sell through it. Surely there wouldn’t be a Sekiden on there?
There was, and I bought it. I thought it would be a disappointment, too small or not as I remembered it. But it was perfect, lively spring action, characteristic sound; the only trouble was, BB pellets were too small and light. I needed original Sekiden beads. And another one for a friend. Or maybe I needed three, two to play with and one to keep. So I put Sekiden on my favourite search, and over the last ten years I have checked out virtually every Sekiden variation which has appeared on Ebay. Nearly all have been in the US or Canada; I have never seen one at a UK toy fair, and only one or two on Ebay which may have originated from the UK.
Whenever I saw a variation, I saved the picture. In some cases I was able to buy the Sekiden for my collection. This included whole cases of a dozen Sekidens, cases with 72 boxes of beads and various carded Sekidens. Prices have now risen, putting most of these out of my reach, but I did build up enough stock to make Sekidens available to other collectors. As there is an Australian band called Sekiden, and the toys are banned on Ebay, and I don’t want to call them g*ns, they are still quite hard to find. Hence the purpose of this site; to document the variations and piece together what production history we can. It appears that the gold beads were only available in the UK. All other parts of the world had silver beads. Apart from numerous variations, the Sekiden name has also appeared on water pistols and disc or saucer launching devices.
I have created a Yahoo group for Sekiden toys, just in case the enjoyment of Sekidens is a characteristic that can be harnessed in some way. If you were a Sekiden boy or have fond memories of that innocent time, you’re welcome to join, whether you own one or not.
Now peruse the Sekiden gallery, thanks for dropping by, and enjoy.
Mark Nolan, November 2010