Dr. Steel Trading Card
Card #19 is Big Jim’s “greatest challenge” Dr. Steel. I still remember seeing the commercial for the first time as a kid, I was in my parents room watching Gene Roddenberry’s “Planet Earth” on the black and white one Saturday afternoon when it aired. Big Jim had an enemy? He has a silver hand and dragon tatoo? I need this!
I pretty much ran to my mother that instant and proclaimed my love for Dr Steel. Upon actually seeing him on a store shelf however, my mother denied me the good Doctor because he was bald and had a tattoo. A few months later, I was allowed a “Torpedo fist”, a man with an eye patch, a wooden arm and a tattoo on his hand. Even at five, I wanted to point out my mother’s hypocrisy but figured she’d return it to the store if I said anything and Torpedo Fist was really cool so I just treated it as if I had somehow fooled her.
And if you’re a fan of Big Jim, be sure to check out this great site:
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To think someone would shave their head and get a tattoo just because they had a toy with those traits as a kid is absolutely ridiculous! I swear by my steel prosthetic hand that my toys had no influence on my life choices.
I had one of these. He was cool. Except my sister broke the metal hand off after only a few months.
In fact, now that I think about it, he had a karate chop arm with a button to push on his back. Maybe that was another toy, but I’m pretty sure it was this guy.