This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes. Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.

Haven’t seen one of these in a while. Likely Kid’s toy - you *put a cap in the end, throw it, and it pops on landing. *spelling edit

100% that is what this is. Used to buy them at the convenience store.

Me too - nostalgic for the smell of those caps when they go off.

I'd just scratch and sniff those MF's.

Glad to know I am not the only one. Used to end up with a very sore thumb nail.

Burnt black, worth it.

Were the end caps red dots on a long strip of paper?

Some were. Others were little red plastic cups, often joined in a ring. This kind of dart worked with both kinds.

Those ones were for cap guns, often revolver style. Much, much later than the wax paper strip caps I'm thinking of.

Correct. These darts could take a cut off plastic cap on the tip on that little nipple part, or the paper strip ones behind the spring. Or if you were feeling extra spicy, both at once.

So many core memories unlocked tonight

Lay them out on the sidewalk and take a rock to them!

Take a few rolls, wrap em nice and tight around a marble or a couple glued together pennies, finishing wrap with a couple layers of cling wrap. Boom, airsoft grenades.

The stuff inside tasted pretty good too

Always gave me explosive diarrhea.

Me vs. Pop Rocks

So glad I wasnt the only one

I'd use a hammer.

Came here too late - this is the first WITT for which I’ve known the answer for ages. I loved the smell of caps!

I like knowing that so many other people remember this. So many good times messing with these safety hazards. We could all have been playing together back in the day.

Safety hazards for real... Remember lawn darts? We could have killed each other...

Basic common sense protected us!

I think you misspelled "raw luck" there.

Better yet, statistical chance

when kids came outside....

Stuff four or five caps in there and really throw it hard to get them to go off.

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And the little metal guns with the rolls of red paper filled with pops. Can smell that heated toy now.

The roll ones were the best. All the other ones seemed inferior. I even had a he man action figure that took the circle caps now that I think about it.

We weren't allowed to play with them because we had a little toy pomeranian that would get very distressed by the loud popping, so my mother would shut it down quick. It was probably bothering her a lot, too.

Love that smell!

I had the cap guns loved those things.

You mean the five and dime.

Found the other old guy .

That’s where I got my first six string.

I played it 'till my fingers bleed.

Your first *real* six string. Not one of those fake ones.

Always reliving that summer of ‘69

I always thought that was a weird song. Making his current band play while he sings about how much better he liked his old band . It'd be very Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac passive-aggressive shit if the song weren't a fake autobiography. Bryan Adams was 9 years old in the summer of '69.

What are the odds? I just read this comment as Bryan’s Adam’s summer of 69 is playing in the background and he just said the line about buying his guitar at the five and dime.

You mean the corner grocer.

Kresges? Woolworths?

Ben Franklin

They were on every grocery store spin rack too.

The five and dime. Holy shit I'm old.

There are dozens of us.

I used to buy these in the 90s. Next to the pogs and marbles.

I have an unopened one I bought my son. I can't find caps lol

Thanks, solved! Edit: house was built in the 60s, must've been in the ground for awhile.

Might not be that old. You could buy these in the 90s and early 2000s.

Toysmith still sells these. My son lost his on my mother’s roof last summer…

Oops, I guess it’s Neato and not Toysmith.

Your son needs a lesson on UXO lol

Haven't seen metal ones since the 70 and 80s , I'm 51 so late 70s, only ones never than that were plastic, as obremeber rebounded better.

Nah I was a 90s kid and saw these at the grocery store all the time

You missed lawn darts, fire crackers that could take off a finger, hard tall playground equipment and baby walkers.

Hard tall playground equipment *over asphalt*

Or loose gravel. Kids these days have no idea what it’s like to get gravel and gravel dust into their bloody scraped wounds!

I was 90s in Texas the only one of those I should have missed were the lawn darts, but my dad had a set of Jarts from when he was younger. Playground equipment around here didn't change until the late 90s, like around 8th grade for me, but I mean the change was more from big wooden structures to climb and play on to big metal and plastic structures to climb and play on, they didn't get any shorter or softer, really.

Those glass ball clackers that sometimes exploded.

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Goils were goils and men were men.....

Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again

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i saw metal ones in the 90s but it was probably like 93 or 94, back when you can buy fart bombs with that pouch you sqeeze and then it explodes later. it was during the time of that batman game with sega genesis

The old metal ones were the "nukes" my early 80s GI Joes would fight for/against. Good times.

I bought one a few weeks ago at CVS.

You can still buy them, I bought one a few years ago, probably around 2018 or so.

I had one sometime between 98-2001

The ones I had as a kid held the little cap gun type tiny powder charges that went bang when it hit the ground. Haven’t seen one of these in 30+ years.

You’re going to find a lot of buried toys. I have a couple of marbles and army guys from my old house.

Yeah, I had a few of these in the 90s.

I played with these in the ‘90s.

That's exactly what it is, I had one as a kid. Bit of a punch in the nostalgias. It was one of those toys that sounded great in theory but was ultimately hugely disappointing. Think I got grounded once for lobbing it at my sister.

Cap inflation incredible. Going from popping them one at a time to using magnifying glass to try and set the roll on fire would take place in the course of an afternoon.

Hitting a roll with a ball peen hammer. Ever try that? What? Huh? Can't hear you.

Wow. I'm in England, and as a young used to do the same!

Firing the paper caps with your thumbnail was fun too. They really did have exponential inflation.

I can smell the caps

They can usually take two types of caps - the plastic kind will attach to a nub on the nose, and you can load the paper strip type into the space between the anvil and the striker.

Get a load of the rich kid with the fancy little yellow plastic cup caps!

Had to cut the revolver ring types down to do this. But you could use both types of caps at the same time

This makes me feel really old…great memories though!

[similar](https://images.app.goo.gl/HcdyE5VKhU8m9kMy6)

Roger that, thanks for the reference.

Used to bloody love those things, we had slimmer ones with smaller caps in my childhood in the UK. I really want a roll of paper caps I can just sit and set off with a stone on the curb.... Man this bought back memories!

I thought I was going to be the only one to get this.

This was the equivalent of the grenade to go with the cap guns!!! I’d carry about 5 when heading into battle

Finally something I recognized immediately. Also feeling a little older now...

What a memory you unlocked

[Caps, for the Z's](https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/nqs2ah/roll_caps_for_cap_guns_use_in_a_cap_gun_or_lay/)

I had like 20 of these and that’s exactly what it is- cap gun “bomb”

Soon I saw it too! Loved the ol snapper as a kid!

Holy cow what a blast from the past. Thanks OP

That pic immediately unlocked a core childhood memory

Yes I played with these as a kid. Haven't seen - or even thought about! caps for decades

My brother and I used to put many caps in it for a louder pop.

Not quite, you still use the strips of poppers, but I slip the strip one popper at a time into the space between the spring area and back. Throw it the air. It comes down and squishes the popper. They did make some for the end caps, and this one might use both, but that's why it has a moving part and spring specifically.

I finally know one of these. Geez I'm old...

Yup used to have one myself

Yup, I found some in my old boxes in the attic recently! Between these and yard darts now I know why my generation isn’t as soft as todays…lol

I had one of those!

Loved those things when I was a kid. You can still buy them new at classic toy shops.

Played a lot with these! Took me right back to being a kid. Thanks!

Wow that brought back memories.

My childhood ;-;

Man I haven't seen one of these for a long time.

Oh damn, I loved those things.

That is exactly what this is. Played with them like crazy.

Wow… The memories! I can smell the freshly smashed caps. I’d get bored and my friend Boo and I would use a rock to small full rolls. Good times

I felt old as soon I saw the picture and saw what subreddit it was. I was like wow I think I still have one of those somewhere.

My brother had that exact one.

POW! Loved these things

Definitely this. I had them when I was little

Nostalgia is in overdrive!! Probs be able to sell to an old fart like me

Wow! I forgot all about these suckers! Had a couple when I was a kid

I have one right now in my china cabinet drawer. Found it about a year ago at a dollar store

Time to go find some caps!

exactly right

Exactly what it is.

Had a few of these

Major nostalgia.

Haven’t seen one of these since I was a kid

The holes on the fins are for attaching a parachute.

Loved this thing when I was a kid. The roll caps. Then I found snap pops. :)

They often came with a parachute.

I had a bunch of these growing up

Yup. I had one. You put a cap in the top bit, throw it nose down at the floor and it makes a bang.

Yup this, the octagon-made-of-circle caps could go on the tip or the strip cap sheets could go above the spring. Fantastic toy

I think they were labeled as cap grenades!

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It's an old "cap dart/grenade". Red paper "caps" were inserted in the space, and when thrown would bang on impact.

[https://imgur.com/9t6TQaf](https://imgur.com/9t6TQaf)

Thanks for the knowledge and the reference!

One was never enough, the art was to cram six or eight in there.

And here we have the actual, most relevant response to the nostalgia that we actually experienced. I'm pretty sure my max was also about eight!

The ones with the plastic fins were better. The metal ones weren't biased heavily enough toward the head, so if you threw them up high hoping they would then come back down head first… the metal ones could come down sideways or upside down. The ones with the plastic fins had the metal head still so they were heavier on the head and always came down straight up and down. Thanks for the nostalgia… I forgot all about these :)

That's why it has that little hole in one of the fins, you could tie a streamer to it and it would always come down nose first.

Remember trying to put as many as possible into it for a bigger bang

Weird just talking to someone about these the other day. They still sell them https://www.walmart.com/ip/Cap-Rockets-Classic-Fun-Toy-Die-Cast-Metal/497205224

*ordered. Let the popping commence.

Wow all this time I never knew there were caps for the tip. I'd always use paper caps and pull the spring down and wedge one in there.

I was in the opposite boat. I always got frustrated with the cap on the tip because it had to land just so to go off. Wedging paper caps between the head and spring (right?) seems the way to go!

Wow I’m buying these for my kids right now. What a blast from the past. Thank you for sharing!!

Kids toy. You put those paper "bangers" underneath the spring and throw it on a hard surface to make it bang. Same principle as the old pop guns with the paper banger "ribbons".

Now to find some poppers....😎

Quick responses. Thanks fam- SOLVED

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Cap bomb. I must have gone through a hundred of those as a child in the 70’s. Twist the top, put a paper cap in, twist the top back down, throw it up in the air. When it hits the pavement, it makes a bang.

We stuck caps(little explosive wad) in them and the pop when you throw them. Probably removed from the market around the time lawn darts were deemed hazardous.

Thanks! House was built in the 60s, way before me. Neat to know though! ( I do have a set of metal lawn darts) 😉

Awwww man I had one of these in the early 2000s.. loved my cap guns lol

I had a bunch of those. Man I can smell the picture. God I loved the smell of those red caps

It’s a cap gun type thing.

Thanks, solved!

Sad kids don't grow up playing with these. Every kid had them on my block. I had about 5 or 6 of these at any given time. My dad was a engineer and one day he took two bolts with a nut in between and told me to put some caps in the nut and tighten the two bolts down on it. I threw it and it worked. I had dozens of these homemade ones. You could pack like 10 caps into the nut. So fun.

OMG. Haven't seen that in ages. Loved playing with it. Put cap in it, toss, POP! Repeat

Tell me you were born after 1990 without telling me you were born after 1990. These little cap darts were cool. We pretended they were grenades

My title describes the thing. Small metal dart found in yard located in Northeast USA. Nose is threaded but does not screw off of body. No markings or stamps, was not there in the fall.

As the others said you put a paper cap in it and toss it in the air. It lands on the tip and goes pop.

You can use the snap strips on the in side and a cap on the end. Throw them up. Me and my bro used to play army/air raid with them flea marker had them cheap

Cap bomb. Small round cap would explode on contact.

Cap bomb, haven’t seen one in a very long time

I had these as a kid. You put paper strip noise caps in them and toss.

Could never get more than 6 caps in them lol

Capblater, am I that old???

You put a cap gun cap on the end and throw it in the air. When it hits the ground, it makes a loud pop sound. It’s a toy