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Darrin71 remembers...I had this and remember sitting in the floor playing with this...It was fun for awhile...then I became bored with ... More »
Posted on 12/31/06
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It was the game that turned mere fishing into an extreme sport. With frazzled nerves, you gingerly cast your line and hoped for success, always mindful that the jaws of death might suddenly and without warning, not only steal your catch of the day, but also scare the living daylights out of you. It took nerves of steel to mess with this plastic carnivore and few emerged unshaken by their encounter with the great white game called Jaws.
The year was 1975 and the general population had one thing on their minds – sharks. Crowds dwindled at every beach in America and those that did brave a visit, did so with eyes that continuously scanned the waters for emerging dorsal fins. This was all a result, of course, of the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film, Jaws. And although the film didn’t spawn a wide variety of playthings - there was no Matt Hooper Dolls or a plastic ORCA boat to take into the bathtub - there was a game that allowed players to experience some of the fright that those in the movie felt. The Game of Jaws was introduced by Ideal Toys shortly after the film’s release and was certain to make players jump from their seats in fright.
The game consisted of a shark, with spring-loaded jaws that could viciously snap closed without warning. A number of items were placed in the shark’s gullet such as bones (both human and aquatic,) life preserver, anchor, wheel and for that added touch, a skull and severed human hand – lest you forget you were dealing with a man-eater here. Using a gaffer’s hook, players took turns carefully removing items from the shark’s mouth, desperately hoping to accomplish their mission before Jaws decided he had enough of their excavating and, with blinding speed, slammed his mouth shut - causing the hapless fishermen to darn-near soil themselves. If you thought the game Operation was tough on the nerves, The Game of Jaws made it look tame by comparison.
Jaws didn’t remain on store shelves for very long. Once the initial fervor died down, even a number of movie sequels weren’t enough to sustain the fear that the original had induced and the game fell by the wayside. The memories still linger, however, for anyone that ever held that gaffer’s hook in their shaking appendage, fearful that their hand might become another of the morbid objects in the shark’s belly. Memories like that don’t fade easily and few that ever played The Game of Jaws will ever forget their encounters.
