Here's to Smimmin' with Bow Legged Women!

Jaws was one of the most iconic films of its time and probably the first of the real blockbuster movies, drawing viewers from all walks of life, not just from fans of the horror film. I recall going on a school trip to watch the film on release and hearing the screams in the theatre when the head pops out of the hole in the boat hull! I had the Making of Jaws, by Carl Gottlieb (who is actually in the film as a reporter), the 45rpm single and a cool brown sweatshirt with a seaweed encircled Jaws logo. Prior to its release, I had loved underwater films and tv almost as much as space and still do today.

Here are a few of my shark/underwater themed toys from back in the day. Possibly the rarest are the Britains Mini Sets a short lived series of dioramas and figures, a little smaller than the standard 1/72 scale figure. Each small six inch box contained a base, a couple of figures and some scenery. I was absolutely delighted when they added a Frogmen and Octopus set and then later, a Divers and Shark set. These are my original toys, the boxes long gone.

Since that distant time, I have often bought modern or vintage submarine and diver toys, including the cool National Geographic Submarine and frogman. The figure is about 8" high and fully poseable and very similar to Little Big Man.

The submarine also comes with a nicely modelled plastic shark too!

Tomy made a nice line of rescue/adventure figures, slightly smaller than the usual action figure size, with lots of cool accessories, such as mini subs and two types of shark!

Back in the sixties, with the success of Major Matt Mason, Mattel tried to expand the line with a frogman based line, Rick Riley of the 'Sea Devils'. Rick is a rubber figure with wire armature, like Matt and partly re-uses some of the equipment. There was a cool Shark figure and an aquaphibian type alien too.

Tomy, no stranger to the toy market, made two excellent sea creatures for their Zoids line, including an awesome Hammerhead shark and robotic Coelocanth fish.

The short lived Johnny Quest animated series in the 90's brought a small line of neat toys, including the Dolphin submarine, itself a reworking of a Cobra attack sub from the Hasbro GI Joe line, refitted for a smaller figure.