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The 1975 Mattel Toys Show Room

Thanks to some tremendously thoughtful efforts from a good friend, I have a bit of toy history to unveil today. It’s one of those things I’ve always wanted to see but never thought possible. But these rare shots featuring both the massive Big Jim and Barbie displays for that year have finally been unearthed. While […]

Bozo gives away Mattel Toys

I’m loving this 1976 press release about Bozo and Mattel, a lot of the things being given away are really collectible right now. Of course my favourite of the shot is the Big Jim P.A.C.K Beast that is front and center. Look at that sweet Jack Kirby Goodness, all toy companies should have had the […]

Big Jim Pirates

While Big Jim was a memory in North America by 1978, European kids were getting cool new figures with kung fu grip hands. These pirates were mostly recycled P.A.C.K characters but they’re so cleverly done (especially the Zorak character) that it deserves praise.

Torpedo Fist Trading Card

The final new card is Torpedo Fist, one of my favourite action figures as a kid mostly because, he could punch other action figures! I didn’t plan on doing two Big Jim characters so close together but when Livio from Bigjim.es put this image on the fourm, it was just too tempting not to.As an […]

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 […]

1974 Children’s Palace Toy Circular

Children’s Palace is a well known Toy chain to anyone who grew up on the East Coast, these castle themed stores were eventually bought up by Child World in 1977 and ran until 1992 when they finally closed their doors, leaving many a 70s kid in mourning.This 1974 Toy circular shows a retailer in it’s […]

1977 Big Jim Catalog from Spain

While Big Jim rode off into the sunset on the back of a Howler motorcycle in 1976 in North America, his story does not end. In much of Europe, Big Jim enjoyed much more success, actually running until the mid 1980s. 1977, Big Jim was carried in Spain by a company called Congost, who carried […]

Big Jim for 1972

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 […]

Colouring Book Theatre: Big Jim

Sharry brought me this welcome site this week, another wonderful piece of toy tie in merchandising from the era before toy based cartoons. Big Jim was Mattel’s response to parental outrage to war toys in the late sixties (which also made G.I. Joe an adventurer) here was a good natured sportsman who enjoyed things like […]

More Trading Cards

I’m unveiling two more PlaidStallions Trading Cards today at Megomeet so I thought I’d share, I opened the series with bad guys, both by Kenner, that was totally unintentional. So I decided the next two would be good guys and by coincidence, they’re both Mattel Toys. Pulsar seemed like a natural, this image is mind […]