Yeti. Sasquatch. Bigfoot. Three names for one riddle that remains unsolved to this day. To many he is a myth, but for some, he is all too real. The creature and its existence has divided people for years. But no matter what you believe, one thing cannot be argued — Bigfoot has had an unmistakable influence on our culture. Though he was almost impossible to catch a glimpse of in the wild, in the 1970s the “Wildman” could be easily sighted on t-shirts, bumper stickers and trucker hats. The Big Guy was the subject of documentaries, movies, and TV shows — he even had his own song, “The Bigfoot Yodel” by Buzz Martin. Yes, America had Sasquatch Fever, and coming as it did on the heels of Disco Fever, its affect was devastating. Come with me now, as we journey back in time to revisit BIGFOOT-MANIA!
While newspapers charted Bigfoot’s progress from the 1950s on, movies took their own course. The decade started with 1971’s “BIGFOOT” (their quotes, not mine). The Sasquatch, tired of having no one to eat berries and crap in the woods with, comes down from the mountains to find companions of the “human lady” persuasion. The girl’s clean-cut biker boyfriends don’t take too kindly to this and go after the creature, with predictable results. A far from auspicious start for our hairy friend, but he’d be back in 1975’s The Legend of Boggy Creek, 1977’s Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot, and, of course, my own personal favorite Shriek of the Mutilated, which I reviewed over at Armageddon Drive-In.
To get your Bigfoot toy fix in the 1970s, you had to do a little legwork. A lucky kid might have been handed down one of these awesome Marx battery-operated Yetis.
Fearsome! Those claws look pretty sharp!
“He Grunts and Walks!” “He Raises His Arms and Shrieks!” Hey, I do all of that stuff when I wake up every morning and no one has made an action figure of me yet. (I’m accepting offers — PM me). At any rate, while this guy was cool, he didn’t really fit in with the toys of the time. If you were looking for something closer to one of your Megos you had to wait. In the early part of the decade, “classic” monsters such as Dracula and Frankenstein dominated the monster action-figure realm. It wasn’t until 1976 that we got Tomland’s Yeti from the “Famous Monsters of Legend” line.
Between his white-fringed onesie, bizarre head-sculpt, and normal-sized feet, Yeti proved to be pretty underwhelming. To compound matters, he was built on a standard 8″ body, making him the same size as the other figures in the line — a swing and a miss. Fortunately, Tomland never met a mold they didn’t like and re-released this guy as “Tago” in their “STAR RAIDERS” line. Because that’s what Aliens dress like. In space.
Movin’ on, 1976 also saw a “Yeti” in the Evel Knievel “Escape from Skull Canyon” playset. I don’t know where Skull Canyon is, but I’d like to go there for my next vacation.
As usual, the killer box art that writes a check that the toy inside can’t possibly cash.
As you can see, the poor Yeti (a baby, no doubt) isn’t nearly as fang-y and dangerous as the box would have us believe. In fact, he’s tiny and clearly undernourished — proving, once again, Knievel is more a danger to himself than this little guy could ever be.
GI Joe encountered the beast in The Adventure Team playset “Search For The Abominable Snowman.”
Looks like he’s found him. That Yeti seems pretty surprised, too. Joe came woefully under-equipped for the task, going it alone with just a rifle, net, and rope to catch the Yeti. It ended up OK, though, because said Yeti was only knee-high — guess we know why Joe brought the cooler.
Beginning to sense a theme here? By 1977, the world needed a REAL Sasquatch to menace our toys — and TV delivered.
The Time: Sunday, 8 PM. The show: The Six Million-Dollar Man. Like most kids, I was crazy for the adventures of Steve Austin, but throwing Bigfoot into the mix put the whole thing into overdrive. The fact that “Bigfoot” turned out to actually be a robot left behind by aliens (!!!) didn’t matter — it gave TV’s America a full, unobstructed view of this mysterious creature. Thanks to some remarkably effective makeup and a convincing performance by none other than Andre the Giant, Bigfoot became a fan favorite, returning several times. Of course he brought toys with him.
At 15″ tall, Bigfoot stood ready to beat down any and all comers — even GI Joe was a good three inches shorter than this beastie. But you didn’t have to be bigger to beat him… if you knew his secret.
That’s gotta hurt. Bigfoot was an amazing figure, but one I never had myself. Maybe I was given a choice and picked MASKATRON instead. Actually, I probably would again if I had the chance! At any rate, if you were unlucky enough to miss the deluxe version, you might still manage to pester an adult into buying you this.
I agree — it is amazing. I’m pretty sure nothing like this never happened on the show, but it should have. How could it not? I mean, Bionic Bigfoot on a rocket cycle? That writes itself!
Brought to us by Lily Ledy, this mean machine was launched via air pump, which was a nice change of place from the usual plastic ripcord required. I’m willing to bet the cycle was separated from it’s launcher fairly quickly, judging by how hard it is to find a set of these complete. Often, only the figures turn up, which probably has more than a few people scratching their heads at the strange posing.
“Mom, that weird guy’s here to cut the grass!”
Bionic Bigfoot would have been King of the Large Hairy Monsters, had it not been for a certain Wookie usurper who shall remain nameless. As with most things in those crazy days, Star Wars stole Bigfoot’s thunder — people were suddenly no longer interested in the terrestrial, the here and now, instead focusing on a galaxy far away. Sasquatch, always knowing when to beat a hasty retreat, faded back into the woods, leaving behind these strange plastic relics. Oh, sure, there were still sightings: anyone remember BIGFOOT AND WILDBOY? And let’s not forget the BUMBLE from the beloved Rankin-Bass holiday special, but Bigfoot-mania was over.
Today there seems to be a resurgence of interest in Bigfoot. There’s the upcoming Yeti Roosevelt figure from the popular Presidential Monsters line. The runaway hit Monster High series features the Abominable Snowman’s daughter Abbey Bominable. And, of course, the brand new version of Bionic Bigfoot just released by Bif! Bang! Pow! is sure to get a lot of collectors stoked. In these days of Google Earth and GPS, the spirit of Bigfoot endures. For a myth he’s done all right for himself.
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