complete with a footprint-shaped controller. Yet none of this other Bigfoot stuff is nearly as goofy or bizarre as what was done in the 70s (then again, what is?). Read on for a list that highlights some of the more notorious Bigfoot-flavored pop culture cheese that was popular during the polyester decade.Bigfoot on TV: It seemed that when Bigfoot appeared on television in a fictitious context in the 70s, some of the more outlandish aspects of Bigfoot folklore went right along with him. For example, while many Bigfoot believers think that the creature is some kind of unidentified species of bipedal primate, there are a few who insist that there is some kind of connection between Bigfoot and UFOs. (That's right, Bigfoot and UFOs--two crazy modern legends for the price of one!) Naturally, someone had to take the stranger of the two views of Bigfoot and run it all the way to the bank. That someone happened to be Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man.
Bigfoot (right) with his adopted charge Wildboy,
after the long, bitter custody dispute
with the Loch Ness Monster.
Bigfoot Toys, Models and Games: Among the many figures that were included in the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman toy lines, the bionic Bigfoot was one of them. There have been other Bigfoot action figures over the years with greater detail and more points of articulation, but none of them have the pop-off chest plate that reveals the bionic insides that this one did. This figure stood at over 12 inches tall, which made him the perfect drinking buddy for Kenner's 15 inch jumbo-sized Chewbacca figure that was released a few years later.If giant action figures weren't your thing, there was the 10 inch tall glow-in-the-dark Bigfoot model kit that was released in 1978 by AMT, which included a base that featured various human bones. (Note: This same kit is being re-issued this spring. Pre-order your copy today!)There was also a Bigfoot board game that was released in 1977 by Milton Bradley. I played it a few times soon after it hit the toy store shelves and from what I remember, it wasn't a particularly complicated or challenging game. Nevertheless, it would fit into the category of "survival horror" games, because the goal of the game was to avoid Bigfoot while exploring the mountains of Alaska and the last player left on the board who didn't encounter Bigfoot was the winner. Milton Bradley's Bigfoot board game, which features a
picture on the box that depicts the game's titular monster
as he quietly decides which kid he's going to maul first.
What exactly Bigfoot does to the player in the game's make-believe world that causes him/her to "lose" is left up to the player's naive, prepubescent imagination. (The game says that players who encounter Bigfoot "must leave the mountains forever", but it fails to specify whether that means leaving alive on two feet or leaving dead in a body bag, most likely in multiple, broken pieces.) Adding to the game's latent morbidity is the rule that allows players to sic Bigfoot against other players--you sure won't see that in a Resident Evil game.Bigfoot in the Movies: There were a handful of movies that depicted Bigfoot, the Yeti, or some kind of creatures like them before the 70s; of particular note is Hammer Film Productions' The Abominable Snowman
(1957), which featured Peter Cushing. Yet Bigfoot's silver screen stardom really didn't happen until the 70s, when he appeared in a series of films that varied greatly in quality from above average to god-awful and all points in between. Yes, Bigfoot has been in many films since then, but none of those titles equal the unbridled campiness and kitsch of the Bigfoot films that arrived in the 70s. A sampling of 70s-era Bigfoot movie poster art is featured below.
