yes, they weren't necessarily considered toys in their day, at least not in the sense that we call toys now and were very functional. some used as training devices, and some as already suggested, shot very small projectiles and were still dangerous. back in the day, a lot of things that we would not dream of letting our kids doing was almost common place then. Even when I was a kid, back in the sixties, we had access to black powder, carbide for lanterns, everyone had a 22 and a shotgun besides the normal BB and Pellet guns. We (myself and others my age) blew up tons of stuff, especially when burning the trash. so it all depends on how old the little cannon really is. besides all of that , it is just cool...period!