Who are these guys? Our Mystery Electric Football Players.
Electric Football is always full of surprises. That’s part of the beauty of the hobby. We recently came across some early Electric Football players that we’d never seen before. They look very much like early Tudor Tru-Action players, and even have position designations that match up with player ID sticker sheets that came in the early Tudor No. 500 models. Except the positions aren’t stickers – they are lithographed onto the player.
The two different teams – there’s even a white helmet for the blue jersey team.
And instead of being the traditional Tudor monochrome red or yellow, or blue and silver, these players are multi-colored with discernible uniform markings. One team has red jerseys and blue pants, while the other has blue jerseys and red pants. They even have differing helmet colors, with the blue jersey players having a white helmet.
In examining the construction of the players, it is different from anything we’ve seen from Tudor or Gotham. They were created from a single piece of metal that was lithographed with the uniform, then folded over two create a two-sided player. They are not one solid block of plastic or metal like the earliest Tudor players. There is even green under the players “feet” to look like he’s standing on the field. And the leg opening was done with a single punch, or a single drill hole — convenience seeming to be the highest priority.
The bottom of the player bases. Notice the rough and edges on the metal.
The bases are exactly like the early Tudor bases, complete with metal “legs” to vibrate the player forward. But there’s a distinct crudeness to bottom of the bases — the edges are dangerously rough and jagged — that we think gives a clue to what these players might have been.
Because of the rough edges on the bottom and the single punch hole, we’re speculating that these players were prototypes. The players were not found with a game — although they did come with a very Tudor-like first down marker that does fit on a No. 500 frame…but only measures only 7 yards instead of 10. Another hint of a job done hastily.
Since the red and blue coloring seems to be influenced by Gotham’s early red and blue Heisman players, we’re speculating that maybe in 1955 when Tudor got ready to go to Toy Fair, their new 3-D players weren’t ready. So they needed something different from their old players to create excitement with toy buyers before the new players actually appeared.
That’s one theory.
Another theory can be formulated from all the “borrowing” that toy companies did from each other. Perhaps when Gotham went to Toy Fair in 1954 with their new Electric Football game, the Heisman players weren’t ready. So Gotham made a quick and crude copy of Tudor’s players, using the eventual Gotham red and blue uniform theme to give toy buyers a hint of what was coming in the future.
Ultimately, these players are one of the many Electric Football mysteries that will probably never have an answer. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Earl and Roddy