An Electric Football Sell Out Tudor was riding high into 1978. They completely sold out their Super Bowl line in previous year, and were going to earned their first Sears Excellence Award since 1974. Part of the reason for that … Continue reading
A Tudor Resurgence in 1977 After a surprisingly successful 1976, and with competition in the Electric Football marketplace essentially non-existent, Norman Sas consolidated Tudor’s line for 1977. There would only be three games, with the top model being the Super … Continue reading
America’s Bicentennial Year The American Bicentennial year started with Coleco launching its Telstar home video game console at Toy Fair. In addition, 1976 started with Munro Games on the way to bankruptcy (July). So neither company was overly concerned about … Continue reading
Munro Games Is In Trouble Munro Games overextended itself in both Electric Football and table hockey in the early 1970s. So by 1975 the company is in deep financial trouble. Desperately trying to make a go in Air Hockey while … Continue reading
Oil Crisis Hits the Economy The oil crisis hit the U.S. at the end of 1973. This sent the U.S. economy into free fall and the toy business into turmoil, with toy shortages during the 1973 Christmas season. The toy … Continue reading
Too Much Electric Football Part 2 Coleco was also starting to downsize and economize, making smaller Electric Football games and games with more plastic in them – i.e. cheaper games. They were even making several Electric Football models that didn’t … Continue reading
Too Much Electric Football Almost 40 different Electric Football games were available in 1972. That was a much different number from a decade earlier, when Tudor and Gotham combined for a grand total of four different models in 1962. And … Continue reading
A Battle For Toy Buyers With four different companies making Electric Football games, catalog space and toy store shelf space was becoming scarce. The problem was so serious that by summer there would only be three Electric Football makers left, … Continue reading
The Electric Football Wishbook hit television screens this fall! Earl Shores of The Unforgettable Buzz recently sat down for a television interview with Beyond The Game’s John Voperian. The topic of the show was The Electric Football Wishbook, which Shores co-authored with Roddy … Continue reading
Munro Lights Up Electric Football Munro Games was the one making Electric Football headlines at the 1972 Toy Fair. The company showed up with something that had never been seen before in Electric Football. An Electric Football game with working … Continue reading
Electric Football Book Signing Event in Phoenixville, PA Come meet Earl Shores of The Unforgettable Buzz on Saturday, December 7, 2019. He’ll be at the Reads & Company Bookshop in downtown Phoenixville, PA, from 11am to 1 pm for a … Continue reading
1971 Part II Tudor and Gotham Tudor continued to bring out new models in 1971, including a College game. Once again they supplied Sears with a Super Bowl, and Ward with a special model. But in Sears they had to … Continue reading
Coleco Command Control Coleco continues to push the competition in Electric Football by bringing “Command Control” to Toy Fair. Command Control consists of two metal rods under the game offering magnetic control of one player on each team. Kids playing … Continue reading
Gotham Hangs On Gotham, although cast adrift from Sears, was still grinding away. They had created a new Roman Gabriel Electric Football game, complete with a metal Gabriel QB figure. And they still were the featured Electric Football company in … Continue reading
A New Competitor in Coleco Tudor’s success with Electric Football enticed a third toy maker onto the vibrating gridiron in 1970. That company was Coleco, who was no stranger to the sports toy market thanks to their successful line … Continue reading
Twenty years after creating Electric Football, Tudor secured the game’s status as an all-time “Featured Toy.” They did it with their new Sears-exclusive Super Bowl model, a game that recreated in miniature the most important game in professional football history. … Continue reading
The AFL Gets Electric Football Respect Tudor expanded their Electric Football line to include an Official AFL game in 1968. The AFL No. 520 model came with the Kansas City Chiefs and the New York Jets, with the Jets being … Continue reading
Tudor Takes the NFL License Electric Football’s place in American culture changed forever in 1967. The year is a dividing line for how the game is viewed, with the event dividing the pre-1967 and post-1967 periods being Tudor unseating Gotham … Continue reading
Tudor’s Answer to the Big Bowl Tudor and Ward took on the Big Bowl challenge. Lee Payne got to work and designed a bowl-like grandstand for a special Ward-exclusive Electric Football game. The game was the 1966 Sports Classic “accordion” … Continue reading
The Gotham Big Bowl Gotham and Sears unveil the most extravagant Electric Football game ever made – the Gotham NFL Big Bowl. The game has an elaborate double-deck grandstand that stretches 2/3 of the way around the playing field. And … Continue reading