Thursday, January 5, 2012

#102 BIG JIM – THE WHIP (ref. 9060) (1976)


Big Jim also had some subseries. I have presented here some vehicles and playsets that could be assigned to “adventure” or “sports” subseries, but this one is a little more special. This figure belongs to the P.A.C.K. series, which was created by Mattel in 1975, some kind of counterintelligence strike team, very similar to the one that could be seen at TV in the famous series “Mission: Impossible”. Big Jim became in this series the leader of a group of heroes to hire, or as the acronym says: “Professional Agents, Crime Killers”.
The whip was one of those heroes, along with Torpedo, Warpath and three versions of Big Jim. Mattel finally released a villain to fight and created Zorak. The image of the group was a howling wolf, that every figure has tattooed on their left hands (except Zorak, who does not belong to the P.A.C.K.s).
The line also had their own outfits and vehicles, mostly decorated with the howling wolf logo.
As it can be seen in the pictures, the figure is completely dressed in black, with trousers, shirt, boots, watch cap, plus a brown belt. In the belt, we find again the howling wolf logo.
Apart from the figure and its clothes, in the box were included the following weapons and accessories (most of them are packed and I didn’t want to open them, I guess they are original bagged accs.):
  • Bandoleer with 4 Australian boomerangs
  • Brazilian “bolos”
  • Japanese “shinai” stick
  • Angolan bull whip
  • Hand sleeve
The story of the Whip tells that he was a sailor that travelled the world learning the secrets of different weapons. That’s how he became the weapons specialist in this organisation. According to Mattel ideas, the Whip is not as strong as the other members, but has a great number of gadgets in compensation. If we compare the figure, we observe, that is has exactly the same body than any other (older) Big Jim figure. Other P.A.C.K. members include an “iron” hand or a mechanical arm, twisting heads, and other features, while the Whip only has the “classic” punch feature.
Another interesting fact is that the whip was later reused in the Masters of the Universe line and given to the figure known as “Beast-Man” or sold in the accessory pack.
FACTS and FIGURES:
  • Name: THE WHIP (Ref. 9060)
  • Toy Line: Big Jim
  • Year: 1976
  • Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
  • Size: Around 23 cm.
  • Scale: 1:8

4 comments:

  1. J'adore la première photo, elle est superbe ! Je ne connais que très peu la série PACK, cela fait très envie.

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  2. C'est un meuble en metal pour étendre les vêtements! :) Les P.A.C.K. sont inspirés de la série de télé "Mission Impossible", C'est bon, mais il me plait mieux le groupe d'air futuristique que tu as publié recenment.

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  3. Also the first villain Dr. Steel belonged to the PACK, becoming from "bad" to "good", for that series. Isn't it?
    After that in Europe Dr. Steel came back to evil, and has been reissued with the (left) grip hand.

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    Replies
    1. Hi, I am not a big expert in Big Jim, but, to my knowledge, there were no goodies and baddies, they were all friends until 1976 and the release of Zorak (in the P.A.C.K. series)

      About Dr. Steel, he certainly looks like a bad guy, but he is supposed to be a friend of Big Jim, both before and after P.A.C.K. I have also read that depending on the country of release, he might be a villain, but I have no further information about this... maybe some expert out there?

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