Welcome from Germany!
I love the 3740. It is my favorite!
I second that it was kind of a strange decision to sell ships with cannon that do not fire.
Especially, as they just removed the spring at this time and the shooting stick used to slip out pretty pathologically.

I can just speculate that they were afraid of any lawsuit that might happen in the US if someone got hurt while playing with the pirates... Maybe they decided to do so spontanously and had to remove the springs in the short term?!
Anyway, welcome aboard and we are waiting for your questions...

best,
socrates