C_A_PANTHER ELECTRIC FOOTBALL

ELECTRIC FOOTBALL HISTORY


we used to stare at these for hours as kids
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i made my own version

matt snell
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bigmen jets

#18
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roman gabriel, los angeles rams

ELECTRIC FOOTBALL
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A FAMILY EVENT

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Many people used Sears Christmas catalog to order their games

Electric football was invented in 1947 by Tudor games in Brooklyn New York. The first games were small what we call 500 models with tiny little red, yellow, or blue men that were one solid color. Tudor continued to advance and by the early 60's they were making better and bigger games , but the players were still dull and solid color generic figures. Then in 1967 Tudor brought out the 1967 deluxe figures painted to represent the then 16 nfl teams and 9 afl teams. ( the original 16 NFL teams came in both white and dark jerseys ) while the AFL only came in dark . The success of the 1968 NY Jets did bring some bigmen white jets into the picture probably because of the instant success and the demand for the only true AFL game Tudor made ( model 510 Jets vs Chiefs ) These men were very detailed and looked like the true NFL teams. All 67 Bigmen had the words "hong kong" engraved on the bottom of the base.The Bigmen had more detailed sleeve abd sock stripes. Bigmen skin tones and base colors were far less consitent than their " younger brother " hoglegs. In early 1969 Tudor switched to slightly smaller men , that would become to be known as "hoglegs" . Early hoglegs still came in dark and white for the old NFL 16 and dark only for the AFL. ( the bengals would have been introduced in this time frame too to make 10 AFL ) Hoglegs are far more consistent in base color and skin tones than their " older brother" Bigmen. But they were less detailed than the Bigmen. Also, Hoglegs were produced in an era where several teams went through uniform changes ( saints, vikings, redskins, eagles ), ...are some that come to mind, thus their are more variations of hoglegs than Bigmen. Hoglegs are identified with normally 4 men having the "hong kong" engraving on the bottom of their base. Probably hoglegs biggest mark in history was all the AFL teams in later runs could now be purchased in white jerseys as well dark. Hoglegs are still highly sought after by collectors around the world. Once again in 1971 Tudor switched their men again and made what we call "chicken legs". Chicken legs were almost the same size as hoglegs but not as thick and not as detailed. Chicken legs were made from 1971 until 1974. Chickenlegs are often sloppy painted and the later runs were known for their pasty skin tones. I feel like chickenlegs probably handed Tudor a major loss in the eyes of the customers because of the horrible paint jobs. Tudor then made a move to improve their product lines. At this time ( probably late 1974) Tudor switched production from Hong Kong to Haiti. Haiti figures were bigger than Hoglegs but smaller than 67 Bigmen. Haiti figures were probably known best for nice neat paint jobs. Like all their older "brothers" from Hong Kong that had certain identifiable characteristics., Haiti could be identified by the little "burs" on each side of their base on the bottom side. All of Hong Kong and haiti teams from 1967 until about 1975 or 76 had black shoes. This changed at this time and all figures after that had and still are produced with white shoes. In 1978 or 79 production was switched back to Hong Kong where it stayed until the early 90's when China took over production. A company called Miggle took over Tudor and produced NFL Electric Football figures and alot of major college teams. Miggle went out of business but Electric Football is still alive and well today and is named Tudor again.

Charles "Moose" Angell
C_A_Panther

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old late 40's to early 50's tudor game

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GRASS ENDZONE

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CLASSIC WIDETOPS

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