> Plus, being from the 1970s, no attempt was made to make this look like a toy.

This probably isn't just a '70s thing, but a Japan thing.

Even today, toy guns in Japan don't have the tell-tale orange tips or plastic-y appearance; they try to look as real as they (cheaply) can.

While walking up some stairs in a public park, I once stepped over a toy gun left on the edge of the steps. Being an American, the sight of a pistol just left lying in the open a step in front of me gave me quite a momentary shock, before I remembered what country I was in.

My understanding is that this is because real guns are so uncommon in Japan, people generally wouldn't make the assumption that they're not toys.

Supposedly it has the added safety benefit of dissuading would-be-robbers from using firearms in robberies, because even confronted with a real firearm, the victims would assume it's a toy rather than the real thing, and so it wouldn't be as effective of a threat.