# Kalashnikar. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 24, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194 "2018-08-24T16:23:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/1 "2018-08-24T16:23:24Z")
So gunmaker Kalashnikov [is now producing an electric car](https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/24/ak-47-kalashnikov-retro-styled-ev/). A kind of odd product range. Maybe other gun manufacturers should also branch out? Smith and Wesson Oil, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![senoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@senoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senoy)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/2 "2018-08-24T17:19:46Z")
That’s not an uncommon thing historically speaking. Winchester is the poster child of this. After WWI, they started making pretty much everything-refrigerators, lawn mowers, razor blades, ice skates, baseball bats all sorts of things. They ended up opening over six thousand department stores across the US. Remington also experimented with making air tools and saws, particularly chain saws in the 50s and 60s. Colt in the inter-war period also diversified and produced automobiles, dishwashers and motorcycles among other things. It might be best to think of firearms manufacturers as machine shops more so than single product factories. They have the machinery to do lots of cool things and the know-how to design complicated systems. Guns are a fickle market and it makes sense to diversify when able. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/3 "2018-08-24T17:47:47Z")
Cool car. Even cooler if a (nonfunctional) weapon emerged from the hood/fender at the touch of a dash-button. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/4 "2018-08-24T18:23:27Z")
Still has that classic 70s Soviet styling, I see. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/5 "2018-08-24T19:47:27Z")
Note they also recently “introduced” a giant killer walker robot (see the OP’s article). Looks suspiciously like something out of _Star Wars_ and quite impractical. These people are just having a joke. The 1970s body is a dead giveaway. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/6 "2018-08-24T19:56:42Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Still has that classic 70s Soviet styling, I see. And the loose tolerances allow it to run in even the muddiest conditions. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/7 "2018-08-24T22:29:14Z")
Only comes with an automatic transmission, I’m assuming. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/8 "2018-08-24T22:32:37Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Only comes with an automatic transmission, I’m assuming. Technically, it would be selective shifting. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/9 "2018-08-25T02:35:52Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Maybe other gun manufacturers should also branch out? Smith and Wesson Oil, maybe? Ha! Other gunmakers could market a gunpowder-and-pop cocktail: Heckler & Coke, or a SIG Sour. Or a decorative gun over the mantle, and when the hour strikes, a bird comes out of the barrel… call it a Cuckoo Glock. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/10 "2018-08-25T02:37:56Z")
_applauds **digs** _ ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/11 "2018-08-25T03:07:10Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Note they also recently “introduced” a giant killer walker robot (see the OP’s article). Looks suspiciously like something out of _Star Wars_ and quite impractical. > > These people are just having a joke. The 1970s body is a dead giveaway. That is not the _Star Wars_ device. And it is not a walking robot, it is a vehicle. It looks a lot more like the thing from _Avatar_. Being bullet proof, it could be a challenge to defeat. I think most of us would greatly enjoy the spectacle of two of those things going at each other. Especially if there was a live audience surrounding them. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2018, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kalashnikar/820194/12 "2018-09-08T17:24:34Z")
Is the killer robot able to walk down stairs? Why does an electric car need a big grill?