America’s Bicentennial Year The American Bicentennial year started with Coleco launching its Telstar home video game console at Toy Fair. In addition, 1976 started with Munro Games on the way to bankruptcy (July). So neither company was overly concerned about … Continue reading
Munro Games Is In Trouble Munro Games overextended itself in both Electric Football and table hockey in the early 1970s. So by 1975 the company is in deep financial trouble. Desperately trying to make a go in Air Hockey while … Continue reading
Oil Crisis Hits the Economy The oil crisis hit the U.S. at the end of 1973. This sent the U.S. economy into free fall and the toy business into turmoil, with toy shortages during the 1973 Christmas season. The toy … Continue reading
Too Much Electric Football Part 2 Coleco was also starting to downsize and economize, making smaller Electric Football games and games with more plastic in them – i.e. cheaper games. They were even making several Electric Football models that didn’t … Continue reading
Too Much Electric Football Almost 40 different Electric Football games were available in 1972. That was a much different number from a decade earlier, when Tudor and Gotham combined for a grand total of four different models in 1962. And … Continue reading
A Battle For Toy Buyers With four different companies making Electric Football games, catalog space and toy store shelf space was becoming scarce. The problem was so serious that by summer there would only be three Electric Football makers left, … Continue reading
Munro Lights Up Electric Football Munro Games was the one making Electric Football headlines at the 1972 Toy Fair. The company showed up with something that had never been seen before in Electric Football. An Electric Football game with working … Continue reading
1971 Part II Tudor and Gotham Tudor continued to bring out new models in 1971, including a College game. Once again they supplied Sears with a Super Bowl, and Ward with a special model. But in Sears they had to … Continue reading
Coleco Command Control Coleco continues to push the competition in Electric Football by bringing “Command Control” to Toy Fair. Command Control consists of two metal rods under the game offering magnetic control of one player on each team. Kids playing … Continue reading
Gotham Hangs On Gotham, although cast adrift from Sears, was still grinding away. They had created a new Roman Gabriel Electric Football game, complete with a metal Gabriel QB figure. And they still were the featured Electric Football company in … Continue reading
A New Competitor in Coleco Tudor’s success with Electric Football enticed a third toy maker onto the vibrating gridiron in 1970. That company was Coleco, who was no stranger to the sports toy market thanks to their successful line … Continue reading
The Gotham Big Bowl Gotham and Sears unveil the most extravagant Electric Football game ever made – the Gotham NFL Big Bowl. The game has an elaborate double-deck grandstand that stretches 2/3 of the way around the playing field. And … Continue reading
The Electric Football Game Top 20 Countdown moves forward with No. 9 — the 1969 Gotham Joe Namath G-812 Electric Football Game. In 1969 the New York Jets shocked the football world by defeating the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in … Continue reading
The ranking of this game at No. 11 caused some controversy the first time around. We agree, that this is one of coolest and best looking games that Tudor ever made. It’s at the top of any Electric Football “Must-Have” … Continue reading
Our Electric Football Game Top 20 Countdown continues…at No. 13 it’s the Sears-exclusive Gotham NFL Big Bowl 1503-S. The Gotham NFL Big Bowl could make our Top 20 Countdown on just a single reason — it was the game that … Continue reading
Our Electric Football Game Top 20 Countdown continues with the 1971 Coleco Command Control Electric Action Football 5795 at No. 16. Coleco had a strong Electric Football debut in 1970, despite having boxes with thinly disguised Tudor Electric Football players on … Continue reading
Electric football…in continuing with our Canadian theme of earlier this week, here is a 1971 Munro Vibra-Action Football Game. It has a metal field, and the Canadian configuration with dual 50-yard lines. This game was “store stock” – that is … Continue reading
One of the things we love about Electric Football is finding new information about games from the past. A more accurate assessment would be confirmation of games from the past. Throughout the long history of Electric Football games that weren’t … Continue reading
Electric Football history in the “here and now” was our blog topic last week, and we continue today with the Electric Football makers that were headquartered outside of New York City. And what’s unique about toy makers Coleco and Munro … Continue reading
Electric Football history can still be found in the “here and now,” being scattered across a few anonymous sites in the U.S. and Canada. The skeletons of the game, or at least where the games were conceived and produced, are … Continue reading