Windup toy from hell, lol.

Man, how do you get these kinds of things? I would have thought that they wouldn't be available to the public.

Funny how "the public" has come to mean "ignorant peasants that must be controlled by their betters". But realx, Wolf is not The Public. He's a collector.

Ah. Thanks for clearing that up. :)

Arizona, the state in which I dwell, has very reasonable laws as concerns such artifacts. I attend many gun shows where such things sell.

All of my Ordnance is rendered inert, and this fuze never had any energetic materials within it to start with. It is just a key-wound timer in a Bakelite container.

If I still lived in California, I'd potentially be in trouble with the law, not because I am a collector, but because their state laws have become so draconian that I'd be labled a "bad-guy" for my interests.

Historic interests notwithstanding, These devices have been known to scare children and the narrow-minded: Government MUST step in and save us from collectors!

If you think this was written by a reasonable and law abiding citizen who is tired of needlessly restrictive controls on inert weapons, you'd be right.

Ah, okay. That makes sense.

Glad I could illucidate, and vent simultaniously!

5 days! I'd never heard of that one. Sneaky!! You can probably get a better depth of field by taking the picture outside in direct sunlight. Three sheets of white cardboard can be used as reflective barn doors (bottom and both sides) to funnel in even brighter and more uniform light.

You are correct. I'll consult with both you and Mitch Marmel when the time comes to select a new camera.

Thanks! Glad to help. Where the heck did you get the wind up five day timer bomb? I'd never even heard of it. The M-5 booby-trap, yes, but not the German infernal alarm clock goodie.

The espionage fuzes were a fairly well-issued bit of kit. I read about them years ago in a Britt Mil-fan kit book.
I dreamed of having one in my collection, and about five years ago Sovietski (remember them?) managed to find several thousand units still in the wrap, and boxed five-to-a-carton. They sold for about $100.00, per timer, thru the Sovietski Collection catalog.
I didn't wanna pay a hundred bux for one so I waited, and one dealer that I frequent at the big SAR show had a few so I shelled out all of $40.00 for it.

Good old Sovietski! I got a KGB officers' hat and some other goodies from them. Now that you mention it, I think that I remember drooling over those time fuses, too, but passing because of the high prices.

They'd soak you price-wise on many items, others were more reasonable. They went decorator for awhile, shunning the mil stuff save for a few items in the back of the catalogs.

Then they died. I think they over extended themselves because if I remembers aright, they started Design Toscano catalog with lots of wanna-be high end stuff made of resin for neuvo-riche types to decorate their condos with.

I was fortunate enuff to find one of the supposed Soviet Pilot's Multi-tool Knives they sold, at a local gunshow for less than half of what they sold them for from the catalog.

I had no idea that they had any relation to Design Toscano. Come to think of it, Sovietiski did carry more and more art items as time went on.

There are only so many scarves, leaded crystal decanters and Matrioshka you can possibly import and expect to sell.

Come to think of it, the Gem Mineral and Fossil show is on town, and the Russkies always bring that stuff.

I wanna go buy more tectites and some more meteorite fragments.

This show IS SICK with all kinds of fossils and minerals and cool stuff from all over the globe. The show last a couple of weeks and pumps 100 MILLION in cash into our economy!

Some guy bought a diamond the size of a softball for about 50 bucks a few years back, and there was an Interpol sting last year beacause some weedy fucks stole a bunch of fossilised dinosaur eggs from Paraguay or some damn place, and tried to sell them here.
Most of the time I have a beer with the opal-dealer Aussies outta Coober Pedey... good folks.