Old School Design: Big Jim

In today's Old School Design, I wanted to take a look back at another must-have sports toy for those of us who grew up in the 1970's. In addition to our Evel Knievel Stunt Cycles, electronic vibrating football and Sears Catalog action figures, there was Big Jim. Big Jim was one of my childhood favorites (loved the name).

Big Jim was an action figure created by Mattel in the very early 1970's. The Big Jim doll could be put into many heroic roles, as a secret agent, astronaut or many other things. Most importantly, Big Jim could also be decked out in all kinds of sports gear. The action figure had a flexing bicep muscle and a metal strap that would pop off when his muscle flexed. He also had a lever on his back that allowed him to perform a karate chop. Big Jim was the ultimate male action hero.

The Big Jim sports pack included uniforms for basketball and football and came with all sorts of other sports related gear for Big Jim to wear. He originally came boxed in only his gym shorts, so you had to have the accessories to make him look good. The picture above to the left shows Big Jim in his extremely USC Trojans leaning football garb. Big Jim could play out any sports fantasy that a young boy could think of. In a basketball mood? Just put Big Jim in his basketball jersey and gym shoes and you were ready to go.

Though Big Jim was really more of an overall action hero than a sports figure, my early childhood Big Jim was always decked out as an athlete and was one of my favorite sports products from the 1970's.

Comments

[marc]

alright... i admit it... i used my gumball football helmets on big jim. they didn't fit quite right, since there's a square-ish-ness to them, but they did ok by me.

i also had the big jim camper set. the cool thing with that was he had an axe and a log so when you put the axe in his hand and used the karate-chop button, he chop the log in half. pretty clever.

[Jon the action figures buff]

He has that retro look, he doesn't seem to have much articulation though.

[Jim Ransdell]

Marc-did the same thing with my old gumball helmets. They looked terrible on him, but it was a must to use them with him.