Does anyone else use "blaster"?

[Fishbowl Helmet]

So I know that Star Wars uses the term "blaster", "blast", "blaster bolt" and other closely related terms for their weapons. But do any other SF franchises or SF writers use that term?

A quick search tells me that "blaster" is a generic term for weapons in SF, which I already knew, and there is no mention that "blaster" is a copyright of Lucas et al.

So help me out here Chrons. Blaster. Is it an acceptable term to use, or is it best avoided?

 

[Vince W]

I never liked the term blaster. It seems to imply something crude and inaccurate... Ermm, this could explain a lot about Stormtroopers.


Edit:
Although Deckard's gun in Blade Runner is called a blaster and it is very cool.

 

[kythe]

There are blasters in Asimov's Foundation series. It seems to be a sort of gun that actually blows people up.

I thought the Star Wars blasters may have been taken from Foundation, mainly because there are several other similarities between Star Wars and Foundation as well.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Space opera queen here - yep, I use it. I also use rifles, weapons, plasma bolts etc etc. it depends what feel you want, but if it's space opera nothing beats a good blaster on the hip of a sexy pilot.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Asimov also has blasters in The Caves of Steel, IIRC.

 

[Dozmonic]

And there are kill-o-zap blaster pistols in HHGTTG

 

[JoanDrake]

It's use is so common I don't think even Hasbro, which has trademarked a Transformer named Blaster would fuss over it. OTOH that very fact makes it about the purest cliché you can find, which would make an original name very noticeable.

 

[adomol]

That term, to me, just sounds outdated... kinda like death ray.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Hmmmm...death ray....

 

[Vladd67]

Death Ray, I miss that magazine

 

[steve12553]

That term, to me, just sounds outdated... kinda like death ray.

Hmm. The future is outdated. That's funny. It didn't used to be. But seriously, I clearly remember Robbie saying" A simple Blaster" to Morbius in Forbidden Planet (1954). Lucas appears to have had very few original thoughts (see Valérian and Laureline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ). But like Tarentino he sometimes put them together in a very interesting fashion.

 

[Pyan]

EE "Doc" Smith uses "blasters" in First Lensman (1950, rev 1971) but mainly sticks to the "manufacturers" name for his hand weapons: Lewistons in Galactic Patrol, and DeLameters from then on.


Any traces pre-1950?

Interesting article, with great pictures:

io9: The secret origin of the ray-gun in science-fiction

 

[psikeyhackr]

Lucas admitted that he was deliberately imitating works from his childhood. That would have been 40s and 50s SF. Asimov started the Foundation stories in the early 1940s.

I looked through the E. E. Smith stuff in public domain but he did not use "Blaster" for any hand guns though he has a story called Vortex Blaster.

psik

 

[tinkerdan]

If you are worried about copyright issues I would guess there couldn't be any more problems with that than say something like Space Marines.

Oh wait was there some problem with Space Marines seems like someone was be censured for using Space Marines on their cover. I mean like use that and a whole squad of Space Marines might descend upon you from some big game front.

Seems like Warner Bros might have that one though you know Marvin the Martian and all.
http://www.toplessrobot.com/ACME Disintegrator.jpg

Now if I were going to use it I think it would have to be in some sort of space comedy.

Jean Luc Perrier the Blaster of Paris.

 

[Pyan]

I looked through the E. E. Smith stuff in public domain but he did not use "Blaster" for any hand guns though he has a story called Vortex Blaster.

psik

I beg to differ, I'm afraid:

"Steady, Mase, I'll take over" came Roderick Kinnison's deeper, quieter mental voice. "First, the matter of guns. Anyone except me wearing a pistol? You are, Spud?"
"Yes, sir."
"You would be. But you and Mase, Jack?"
"We've got our Lewistons!"
"You would have. Blasters, my sometimes-not-so-quite-so-bright son, are fine weapons indeed for certain kinds of work... In such a crowd as this, though, it is much better technique to kill only the one that you are aiming at...

First Lensman, Chapter 6, p.67 - Panther Science Fiction, 1st edition, 1972

 

[psikeyhackr]

I beg to differ, I'm afraid:

First Lensman, Chapter 6, p.67 - Panther Science Fiction, 1st edition, 1972

That is not in Project Gutenberg, I could not check it. It is not used in Triplanetery.

Heinlein used it in If this Goes On (1940).

I drew my blaster, dropped to the ground, and tried to catch up with them, running out the stern between the big treads.

psik

 

[Parson]

Sigh! Oh for the halcyon days of Heinlein and Asimov.

 

[dask]

Chapter six in this edition also contains that blasted word, page 65 this time around:

 

[psikeyhackr]

Sigh! Oh for the halcyon days of Heinlein and Asimov.

Methusahlah's Children (1941):

Nice catch," he commented, then glanced down at his hairy thighs and smiled wryly; the kilt had concealed a blaster strapped to one thigh, a knife to the other. He was aware of the present gentle custom against personal weapons, but he felt naked without them.

I don't know the page. I just search the text file. e-books are not science fiction. That is in Chapter 2.

psik

 

[K. Riehl]

Blasters were in common usage in pulp magazines from the 30's, to the middle 50's, when Bell Labs started to publish information about the new technology called LASERs.

E.E. Doc Smith called his blasters Delameters. "Kimball Kinnison entered the fray, his blazing Delameters unerringly hitting with lethal precision".
In homage, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller named some of the weapons in the Liaden Universe "Lademeters"