Man, I haven't heard it called that in years. 'Course I've been retired since '87.I'm no particular fan of "The Mattel Special" (You can tell it's Mattel. It's swell.)
I have it on good authority that what caused the original M16 rifles to jam was a "dirty" (incomplete burning) lot of Winchester-Western 760 "ball" propellant. This came straight from a gunsmith's mouth.When Colt was cranking out M16s for the Viet Nam Dance they were having some parts second sourced. The stock was one of those items and Mattel was the sub. Early stocks had Mattel imprinted and between that and the ammo problems caused derision for the "toy" gun and the phase "It's swell. It's from Mattel," to gain popularity for the rifle.
The early ammo was loaded with a very dirty burning powder and caused jams. More that one poor GI was found shot will stripping down his weapon the clean it and get it running again. The military, in its vast wisdom, started insisting that more gun oil was better. This led to problems in the Sand Box as the excessive oil gathered sand and grit again causing jams. :duh:
Ever hear of a "flip" jeep? The early 151's rear suspension geometry was so screwed up they had a tendency to turn over in turns over 40MPW. Seems that wasn't fully corrected and carried over to the civilian world. DoD all to often has to cater to Congress and their buy8ing votes back home.The Military wouldn't have contracted the stocks out to Mattel if they wouldn't hold up.
I don't, on political stuff. They definitely lean left. On neutral matters they're pretty good.Snake, if you take snopes as being an authoritative source, I know where you can buy a bridge.