Electric Football
Ever since enterprising toymakers hit on the gimmick of combining
electricity and sports, many a fan has whiled his rainy-day hours away
over miniaturized electric versions of his favorite outdoor games. Few
U.S. sports are as popular as American football, so it came as no
surprise when electric football became the king of this toy trend.
These games have been popular for over five decades and continue to
enjoy a fervent following today.
Tudor Metal Products introduced the first Electric Football game in
1949. It consisted of a metallic board decorated to resemble a football
field, plus 22 two-dimensional metal figures to place atop the field.
Beneath the playing field was a motor, which caused the board to
vibrate at the flip of a switch. These vibrations moved the players
about the field (often in conflicting directions) as one of the players
used a quarterback figure with a moving arm to launch a miniature
football into play. After that, chaos ensued as a combination of
magnetism and luck helped the football figures move the ball to and
fro.
Okay, so it wasn’t a perfect simulation of football. There was
limited control over the players, the quarterback had as much accuracy
and control in his throws as an infant, and the player figures would
wobble around in circles if their bases became the slightest bit
damaged. Just the same, the game won kids over in a big way because it
allowed them to control an entire football team, and hey, it was a way
to play football in the convenience of your own home! Soon enough,
houses all over America were filled with unique buzzing noise that came
from Tudor’s electric football games.
Tudor’s success with electric football led to rival models by
companies like Gotham during the 1950’s. Competition spurred the
toymakers to dream up improvements that reshaped and smoothed out the
playing style of electric football. The old two-dimensional player
figures were replaced with three-dimensional models made of colorful
plastic. Poses were added to the figures for extra variety and visual
appeal. The field was also improved, with painted-cardboard borders
added to simulate stadium bleachers and crowds.
In the 1960’s, electric football reached even greater heights as
Tudor Metal Products signed a licensing deal with the National Football
League, allowing the company to use real team logos and players'
uniforms. Each year, the company made new games featuring figures that
represented the teams playing in the latest Super Bowl. Meanwhile,
competitors like Gotham and Coleco added their own twists, creating
games modeled on specific stadiums like the Super Dome and adding
prongs to bases of the figures, which allowed players to determine the
direction the figures moved.
Electric football continued to enjoy consistent success throughout
the 1970’s, but like the rest of the toy world, the game ran into
problems when electronic games (like Mattel Electronics Football),
and later video games became the in-thing of the 1980’s. Sales of
electric football declined, but thanks to a loyal cult of supporters,
the game never went away. In 1985, a group of these enthusiasts formed
the Electric Football League. In 1991, a company called Miggle Toys
revived the classic Tudor games and have enjoyed consistent sales ever
since with fans new and old.
Today, electric football enjoys a new era of popularity. Recent
games have added such nice touches as digital score boards, and
hardcore enthusiasts use special pocket scales to make sure their
playing figures are a precise regulation weight. Some enthusiasts even
shell out hundreds of dollars for custom games designed to resemble the
NFL stadium of their choice. Only a select few multi-millionaires can
own a real professional NFL team, but thanks to electric football, the
rest of us can always pretend.
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