I was just five years old during “Bionic Mania” that all-too-short a span in the 1970s when The Six Million Dollar Man (1974 -1978) and his spin-off, The Bionic Woman (1976 – 1978) reigned supreme on television, and at toy stores thanks to the efforts of Kenner and Parker Brothers.
Not
long ago, my parents found a fun little reminder of those days in the mid-1970s
at a local yard sale: The Six Million Dollar Man board
game from Parker Brothers, manufactured in 1975.
The
back of the box spells out the game’s specifics:
“Four bionic men
each claim to have Steve Austin’s powers.
Your job is to prove that YOU ARE THE REAL SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN.
The Computer
Spinner reads out your moves and gives you the power to handle assignments for
NASA, INTERPOL, the CIA and the Defense Department. You’ll take part in dangerous missions –
encountering imposters and waging Bionic Battles.
Each assignment
will make you stronger. And the stronger
you become the faster you’ll move around the board and back to the Bionic
Research Lab where you’ll win the game.
On
the box front, you can see images from the four scenarios you get to explore in
the game: “Steve Austin rescues stranded
astronaut,” “Steve Austin prevents
nuclear blackmail attempt,” “Steve
Austin knocks out International Crime Ring” and “Steve Austin locates underwater missile network.”
Unfortunately,
there is not a scenario called Steve Austin fights Bionic Big Foot.
Anyway,
the first player to complete all four assignments proves that he’s the real Six
Million Dollar Man. Bionic battles ensue
when a “player lands on a space which is
occupied by another player.”
Where
many games from this era seem to have nothing to do with the TV series they are
related to, this game’s description actually sounds like it could be a Six
Million Dollar Man plot-line. I can
just see Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson) now, informing an alarmed Colonel
Austin (Lee Majors) that three bionic imposters have been spotted all over the
globe…and he’s got to stop them.
I received this game in '75 as a boy. The bionic '70s decade was a great time to be a child.
ReplyDeleteSGB
Great game. I had a ton of fun playing this when I was young. I stumbled onto a nice one not too long ago at a thrift store, actually, and I couldn't resist - I just had to pick it up.
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