In the early seventies, Mattel toys had a big hit on their hands with Big Jim, a nine inch muscle bound sports hero/man's man who came packaged in his underpants.
Jim's entire structure was mostly built on non violent, positive activities such as sports and outdoor adventures. This seems to be the result of parental objections to G.I. Joe in the late sixties, early seventies which caused him to retire and become an adventurer.
1972 saw the introduction of Jim's pal Big Jack and the introduction of his Dune Buggy but the biggest thing for me is Big Jim's Camper. I must have spent a bajillion hours with that vinyl paradise. As goofy and safe as some of this stuff looks to me now, I can't deny that I thought it was the bomb in '73.
Thirsty for more Big Jim?
6 comments:
I was a Big Jim fan also, though I never had an interest in his many sports outfits. Loved all the "adventure/outdoors" stuff. My favorite was Big Josh and his eagle. Years after I'd outgrown playing with them, I still kept that eagle on my desk, every now and then pressing his leg to make his wings flap.
That camper was indeed magical - I remember being fascinated by the fact that you could prop up the side of the van on sticks to create an awning. Simpler times I guess.
Oh, the camper. I had a buddy (won't call him a friend, he once hit me in the head with a rock because I beat him in a footrace) who had the camper. Man.
I had the Big Jim fishing boat. Hard to place the year, but I also had some Smash-up Derby cars then. Those toys are long-gone, more's the pity
Funny, how Big Jim was designed to be a less violent kind of toy for boys.... yet we have Big Jim hunting with a rifle (or is it a shotgun?). Hmmm.be
that camper got the hell played out of it by me when i was a kid.....
dusty abell
gilligan: As long as he was hunting for food and not for a trophy or the joy of killing it's okay with me ;)
I'm just a little bit too young to have had Big Jim, but I must say I am mystified by the thinking behind most of his outfits. Why on earth would it be fun to have him dressed up to play a team sport like basketball, but with no teammates or opponents? Why have a race driving outfit without a race car? How could anybody think that Karate and Kendo are somehow related activities just because both are Japanese martial arts? Finally, does every outfit need it's own exclamation point? YES!
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