Day 110: The Six Million Dollar Man

The Six Million Dollar Man was a special toy for me because I actually got it during the only Xmas my family was ever away from home for that holiday. We were at my mother’s parents’ house in Florida, and I actually came down with Chicken Pox during the trip from NYC on Amtrak. For just about the entire two weeks I was quarantined in my own room with a host toys from that year’s bounty (I think it was 1976 or 77). 

The Six Million Dollar Man remains to this day one of the toys I remember most fondly because not only did he keep me company during that lonely week, but he also had a hole in his head that was an attempt to illustrate what it might be like to have a bionic eye through a wide-angle lens. Moreover, I also dug his red jumpsuit and sneakers, and I used my illness to actually make my mother get me a get up just like it. And while after donning it I couldn’t see any clearer, or lift engine blocks with a single hand, I must admit I looked pretty damn good!

Image credit: Wishbook’s “1976.xx.xx JCPenney Christmas Catalog P413”

And as an added bonus here is the 1976 commercial for the toy with the new and improved bionic grip:

And this crazy toy fair promo for the doll in 1974:

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5 Responses to Day 110: The Six Million Dollar Man

  1. Jim Doran says:

    AWESOME.

    I liked the guy with the exchangeable face (maskatron). I dug his shovel hand. I liked the fact you could take the bionic parts out of Steve and work on them, too.

    This is a great memory – seeing the backpack and helmet just time-warped me back. Thanks.

  2. Reverend says:

    Jim,

    I share your enthusiasm for these pop cultural objects of our past, there is something magical about them as much as we are supposed to discount or critique their impact. Bringing you back is what the bava is all about.

    And as an added bonus, I just found and included the 1974 and 1976 promos and commercial for this brilliant Kenner product.

  3. Jim Doran says:

    YES! That guy scared the crap out of me.

    This is so awesome.

    Did you have Micronauts?

  4. I remember fantasizing about getting a toy Bionic Bigfoot for Christmas as a first grader. In particular I remember doing so sitting on the toilet in the school bathroom one morning…then looking up to the ceiling to see wet wads of toilet paper that previous kids had thrown up there…and thinking “What am I doing in this place?” In its own strange way that pretty much describes my public school experience in a nutshell.

  5. Reverend says:

    @Jim,
    I never did have Micronauts, which was a huge oversight on my part. I was always about the figures and toys that were marketed off TV and Hollywood. I was a marketer’s wet dream 🙂

    @Justin,

    HAHAHAHAAH, daydreaming on the institutional bowl about Bionic figures, I love it. Did you ever get Big Foot? That was absolutely one of the best TV moments of the 70s in my opinion.

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