The Steve Austin Six Million Dollar Man action figure has got to be one of my favorite toys I ever received as a kid for Christmas. I actually watched every episode of the Six Million Dollar Man recently. Talk about old school swag, Steve Austin had it. In every episode Steve got the lady much like James Bond. Arnold Schwarzenegger said to Lee Majors; “You were the first Terminator”. He was right! Every kid on the block wanted the Six Million Dollar Man action figure and it sold big time.
G.I. Joe sales were in the dumpster due to the hippie generation and the unpopularity of the Vietnam War and they had to come up with a new direction. GI Joe’s answer to the Six Million Dollar Man action figure was “Mike Power – the Atomic Man” and “Bulletman” (both will be covered in another section of Toys).
Do you remember this commercial from 1975?
However, Mike Power – The Atomic Man was like owning a Camaro and Steve Austin was like owning a Corvette. No comparison in pure awesomeness. In fact, calling Mike Power the Camaro is being generous, he was more like owning a Gremlin. Remember those?
Now I am not hating on the AMC Gremlin. My parents actually owned two of these (his and hers). If I remember correctly, one was yellow with black interior and the other was white with a blue jean interior (which was my favorite because it actually had a Levi tag on the seat).
Levi was the standard in 70’s attire along with growing a Marlboro mustache to go with it, and everyone was singing the Levi jingle that was on TV.
I strayed from the topic a bit there, must have been one of those mushroom flashbacks…
There are many really good websites out there that get into the “nitty gritty” of The Six Million Dollar Man action figure and in lieu of regurgitating that information, I would rather give them credit for their homework. A star on the forehead goes to: