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The first thing that strikes you about this, aside from the colorful decal that gives the gun it's name, is the weight of it. This is a solid pressed steel gun, thick steel. The sheer mass of this tiny piece is impressive. Another selling point is the clockwork mechanism, every micron of space in this toy is filled with mainspring and drive gears,
at 3.5 inches long, its an incredible feat of engineering for so small an object. The paintwork is standard black gloss, almost exactly like that on the Blink-A-Gear robots. The paint job has some rust underneath, but remarkably, the inside workings, aside from some dust, are as clean as a whistle. 
The top has a flip-up door to access the flint tongue (which still has the original flint).
The keys on these are usually the first to go, as most I have ever seen were missing. Then came the big surprise, as I pushed back on the massive metal trigger a veritable cornucopia of sparks shot out of the barrel, accompanied by a satisfying "pop-pop-pop" from the internal machinery.
What this toy lacks in style, it more than makes up for in sheer machine-age chutzpah!
Other than that, I know nothing about them, there are no maker's marks anywhere. I would guess by the key-wind action and heavy material, this probably dates from the mid 1940's. Ok, you can all chime in with your guesses now... 
My guess is, the Atom Buster came later, after the successful testing of the A-Bomb in Los Alamos, obviously a selling point to get rid of old cop/gangster toys that were no longer popular...but who was making them? 
