Exhibit / November 17, 2016
Object Name: Uzi sales brochures
Maker and Year: Action Arms Ltd., 1980-1984
Object Type: Sales brochures
Image Source: Uzi Talk
Description: (Richard McKenna)
Immortalized when one appeared in the hands of U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Robert Wanko during John Hinckley Jr.’s 1981 attempt to assassinate President Reagan, the Uzi—a submachine gun designed by German-born Israeli Uziel Gal, from whom it took its name—was sold to more law enforcement and military markets than any other weapon in its class, with an estimated ten million produced worldwide in the fifty years after the release of the original version in 1954. Capable of firing 600 rounds per minute and weighing less than eight pounds, it was made using stamped steel sheets, and designed to possess fewer than half the parts of its competitors. These brochures from Philadelphia’s Action Arms Ltd., the gun’s U.S. importer, show how the weapon was marketed as much upon the basis of its aesthetic appeal and fetishistic potency as upon that of its performance. Cheap, durable, and easy to load and fire, the Uzi’s sleek, modern lines made it particularly photogenic, hence its virtual hegemony in action films throughout the 1980s, including Deathwish II (1982), Scarface (1983), and The Terminator (1984).
We Are the Mutants 
Nothing screams kicking ass in the ’80s more than Uzi. Hell, even the coolest G.I. Joe character, Snake Eyes was known for his Uzi and katana combo.
I cherished Snake Eyes’ Uzi! I also read all the Mack Bolan books at the time, and the Israeli commando in Able Team always carried an Uzi.
Or was it Phoenix Force?
I read a couple of those. My grandfather was way into those books. Was just remembering the arcade game Operation Wolf with its Uzi controller. Wow, Uzi was the automatic weapon of our generation LOL
lol holy crap OPERATION WOLF. Wow I haven’t heard that name in decades. Totally forgot about it!
Yeah, Snake Eyes with his Uzi was the best.
I just now realized that, like any other commodity, the Uzi needed actual sales brochures and one sheets to appeal to the retailers and such. lol. I just didn’t know that they went to town with the merch …t-shirts, hats …even belt buckles? hahah …I’d totally rock those!
Speak of the devil…here you go! Thanks, YouTube! https://youtu.be/K5Di8wh2f08
Me too, LOL. I love how they came with a tote case too, I’d sport one of those as a lunch box or something LOL
I think that just having one of those t-shirts on when you meet the neighbors would probably keep things quiet around home
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It’s the 1980s ‘tache, big hair and aviator shades the people are sporting in the top right advert that does it for me.
The first time I played Operation Wolf was whilst waiting for a plane at RAF Aldergrove to return back to mainland UK in 1988. Aldergrove is in Northern Ireland, and I’d just come off five weeks of patrolling the province with the British Army. The other squaddie I was with recommended it as a good way to unwind…an ’80s version of post-Operational Tour ‘decompression.’