GREY NES ZAPPER

[RCM]

I can't recall when I got my NES. I'm thinking 86 or 87 but am unsure. The version I got came with a grey zapper, two controllers, a copy of the hybrid SMB/Duckhunt cart and the system itself. I know Nintendo started making orange zappers but am unsure when. I was hoping some of you could help me narrow it down. Thanks to all.

[smokehouse]

It looks like the NES was released nationally in Feb of ’87. I know I got mine in Dec of ’88 and ours included an original grey Zapper.

[NES_Rules]

We got the Action Set for Christmas '89 and it had an orange zapper.

[Graham Mitchell]

I had a grey one, bought in '86 or '87 I believe.

My understanding was that Nintendo changed the color of the zapper to keep anyone from ever mistaking it for a real firearm. I guess that trend continued with bonkers-looking superscope and the pink and blue Justifiers that came in the following years. The GunCon I think looked too strange to really be confused with a real gun, plus it had red buttons all over it.

I'm not sure why they got freaked out over that; I don't even know if what I'm saying is true--it's just what I heard. There was an urban legend that a kid pointed a zapper at a cop and that was the end of it.

[smokehouse]

I'm not sure why they got freaked out over that; I don't even know if what I'm saying is true--it's just what I heard. There was an urban legend that a kid pointed a zapper at a cop and that was the end of it.

I may be mistaken, but I think it was a Lazertag gun that got the kid killed….

Then the industry followed suit and started making toy guns funny colored.

[aaron7]

Got my NES the first Xmas it was out... whenever that was. My Zapper was grey.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I got mine on Christmas '88, and I never saw an orange gun until 1995!

[diskoboy]

Got mine in August of 1986. Mine had a grey zapper.

It was because of a policeman accidentaly shooting a kid with a toy gun, video game manufacturers started giving their light guns flourecent colors just incase some kid was playing around his neighborhood with his zapper. Neighbors wouldn't mistake him as a burgular, and cops wouldn't deem the kid a target.

[DigitalSpace]

I got my first NES in the fall of 1989 and it had an orange Zapper. Oddly enough, when I got rid of all my NES stuff in the early 90s. the Zapper somehow didn't get sold with everything else, and it's the only NES item from my childhood that's still in my collection today.

Btw, grey zappers seem to be a little less uncommon than the orange ones around here, but both are still common as dirt.