With Christmas a few days away, I’ve survived the sea of humanity crashing over the halls of Towne East, the parking garage otherwise known as Rock Road and electronics glut that permeates the gift market. This doesn’t imply that I’m not a techno-junkie, but as a kid, Christmas was always a time to revel in the latest-greatest innovations from the toy industry – real tangible toys! One of my all-time favorites was the now-obscure Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle that I received from Santa in the Christmas of 1973 (not to date myself or anything…I always celebrate the anniversary of my 29th birthday!).

Time warp…back in the 70’s, Evel Knievel was at the height of his popularity and was a marketing machine. Ironically, he built his daredevil legend not from a successful jump, but one of history’s most famous un-successful jumps, the infamous Caesar’s Palace jump over the fountains in 1967. The result was a crash for the ages, with Evel famously twisting head over heels down the landing ramp. The other irony was that his other most famous failed jump, the Snake River Canyon jump, signalled the beginning of the end of the Evel Knievel era.

Not discounting his motorcycle prowess, he really was a master at his craft, he built an image and mystique that led to an entire Evel Knievel industry and product line. Which brings us to the toy…

This was a gift that was completely out of the blue. I had no clue that it even existed and Santa was on top of his game when he picked this one out for me. I ripped the gift wrapping off, set GI Joe aside (see earlier post), snapped the launching kit together, strapped Evel onto his bike and it was go time! My brother and I made a makeshift ramp from a shoebox lid and stacked some Encyclopedia Britannicas neatly together to resemble the buses that the real Evel would jump. I grabbed the handle, started turning the wheel, and the bike make an evil whirring noise. Turning the wheel faster, the deafening roar of the bike soon drowned out the Mills Brothers Christmas music playing softly in the background. And then it happened… the bike shot off the launcher, went screaming down the hall, hit the ramp and shot over the Encyclopedia’s – ending in a perfect landing.  SWEET!!!!

I quickly retrieved my daredevil and launched off two more jumps.  Then I discoverd the true ‘nuance’ of this toy, the design flaw that a generation of boys would come to call “the knuckle buster”.  As you can see in the photo (taken by yours truly) the handle isn’t very large, and after a few exhilarating launches, we would grab that handle with our now sweaty hands, crank the gyro, then WHAM!   The hand would slip off the handle and…CRUNCH!  A little hydrogen peroxide, a band-aid, a kiss on the knuckle from mom, and it was back at it!  A busted knuckle wouldn’t keep Evel down, so it would’t stop me either.

So now here we are in the electronic age, the games are everything that we wished existed when we were kids, but the games come and go quickly in this highly competative market.   They might be really cool, but nothing can compare to the toys of my youth like my Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle and a lifetime of fond lasting memories (and scars!) .

Merry Christmas!!!

M