History of Evel Knievel Toys 

Damn, just awesome. You've been covering territory in the latest two Histories episodes that I haven't seen anyone else do, and doing them in a way that leaves little room for improvement. I feel your channel going from one amongst the greats, to edging ahead of the rest!

I had the stunt cycle when I was a kid in the 70's. I would make makeshift ramps and have Evel jump over stacks of books and rows of Tonka trucks. We 70's kids had access to some amazing toys!

The best toy I ever had as a kid. Back when things worked as advertised.

Iconic is right. Anyone who was there at the time remembers Evel and his white star-spangled jump suit!

Evel and the 6 Mil Man were, by far, my most fondly remembered toys from my 70's childhood. Thanks for doing a great episode on each!

Some of the first toys I can ever remember loving. The amazing thing was that they worked so well.

It shows the love is strong when Toy Story 4 homages the Evel Knievel figure and Stunt Cycle set as the (Keanu Reeves voiced) Duke Kaboom. I had the Stunt Cycle, energizer and Evel figure as a kid, and I loved it, and me and my brother had fun devising stunts, including the famous "monster jump" (ramps either side of either our childhood cat Poppy, or our dog Reggie) don't worry, Evel made these jumps and didn't hurt either pet! Such fond memories, thanks for the video! My Evel met a sad end when we decided to do a "Mountain jump" (from the top of the stairs to the hall) and he flew off the bike, which then crashed into the hall table, at which point the front wheel assembly snapped off!

I love how you gave zero shits about launching him full beans into the closed door! Exactly how he was treated! Awesome vid.

I was born in'67 and the Evel Knievel stunt cycle was my favourite toy as a kid. Along with my yellow G.I. Joe helicopter from the AT line. The only problem with the stunt cycle was the crappy plastic they used to make the drive gear on the cycle with. The drive gear used a hard but brittle plastic. After a while the teeth on the gear would start to break off. Before you knew it entire sections of the drive gear would have no teeth. Evel's last ride was off the roof of my parents garage. If only they had used an aluminum gear instead of plastic.

I had the winding bike stunt cycle i loved that guy as a kid miss those days

I had the stunt cycle when I was a kid. One of the most fun toys ever. A couple years later, a neighbor came to our house dressed as Santa and brought me the chopper. Good times, the 70s. I actually have a Christmas photo from 74ish, with G. I. Joe Safari Jeep set, Evel's chopper, a Big Jim "The Whip" and random other things. I was all in on action figures back then.

The sound of the energiser from my stunt cycle is the one noise from my childhood that sticks with me to this day. I reckon he jumped a ramp sucessfully maybe 1 time out of a 100 and slammed into a wall or door the other 99. Good times! :)

Fantastic Tony! Evel was one of my childhood heroes. Like most heroes he was flawed and complicated. I have a Stunt Cycle and winder and Scramble Van. Great memories.

The stupid jumps I made when I was young ,I am lucky to be alive. God bless Evel Knievel! Thanks for posting my childhood passion and my hero!

"Evel triumphs again!" Brilliant. Keep up the great work Tony.

My best friend got one I got a cowboy and Indian train set and a womble colouring book bummer great video great memories

Cool that you actualy play with it! :)) As a kid i had a friend because he had "Cracy Racers" from clipper. A US Stationwagon and a VW Bug with two ramps, powered by flywheel. You've had to hit each other in mid air, the cars were made to loose al parts, like doors, wheels, bumpers, hoods. Couple of years ago i found a boxed set. I was so happy when i found that set. Another childhood dream fullfilled. :)) I love those vintage toys. :))

Evel was a hero to alot of kids. His personality was abrasive. But when talk US pop culture icons. Evel Knevial is there. Epitome of the motorcycle love affair culture that still rides today. Evel is a legend

When toys were made to last I loved my Eveil Kanevil toys and honestly put them up there with the star wars line fantastic.

I had the snake river canyon rocket cycle, and it operated about as well as the real thing did! My brother had the regular stunt cycle, and I was always jealous of him!

I owned the Chopper as a kid. I remember the Toy Department at a Department Store had set up a table and ramp for Evel Knievel. It ended up shooting off the table and going 10 feet along the floor, the parents watching bought the toy.

Great vid. That box art is brilliant, remember it well 👍🏻

Glad I grow up in 70s...magic stuff...

Fantastic video Tony. You did the toy's and the man himself justice!!

I had the Stunt Cycle... it was great toy! Off the stairs, down a hill, across a parking lot.... got about three years of use and abuse out of it. Later, I got the Van, second hand from a relative.

I grew up in the 70's but never got this series. My neighbor and best friend did so we played together. But I was always envious because they were - and still are - one of the best toys of all time.

Playing Mantis revived the EK line in 1998, along with another iconic action figure, Action Jackson, originally produced by Mego in 1971.

Thank you for another wonderfully informative video! As a product of the era, I can easily attest that the Stunt Cycle was one of the greatest toys of all time and certainly my favorite. My parents weren't rich but well off and they gave me some awesome toys! I had the Scramble Van, the Chopper, the Dragster, and a couple Stunt Cycles. The Dragster kinda lost it's appeal fairly quickly and although I loved the Chopper, it wasn't nearly as fast and the front springs didn't last long. Watching those commercials reminded me the most important thing in a child's development.....imagination. Sadly, imagination isn't encouraged or even needed with kids today as everything is already done for them in our movies and video games (not to mention some really goof-ball parents). Last point is Kenner's SSP "rip cord" cars and Smash up Derby set.....another excellent line of toys from the same era. Between the SSP's and Knievel toys, even some great action figures stayed in a box....they were that good. Thanks again for the memories!

My favorite toy ever he was my childhood hero miss those days thanks for the memories. Evel you helped make my growing up so much fun. lconic is the only word that works.

Thanks for this one Tony, brought back a lot of happy memories

"Utterly legendary" Nicely put . Couldn't have said it better myself. Evel Knievel was a household name. Wrecked many bikes in his honor.

Had sooo many of them! Great job Tony. Great memories

Wow! I have to really commend you here. I had a LOT of these you mentioned and it bought back a lot of memories. Your research, details, and narration are really spot on. Thank you for this impeccable video you’ve posted. Will be watching for your next live chat.

Thank you Tony for the memories and detailed information about one of my favorite toys of my childhood!

Great Video and educational. I am always learning something new from your programs. Keep making more!

Made my day Tony! Thank you!

Well done! Excellent look into a great toy line!

Thank you so much Your videos bring me back to the days when life was free easy and fun when I just a little kid playing with my toys

My favorite toy as a kid was that stunt cycle. When you reach your fastest crank end by rotating backward once to super launch the cycle.

Great stuff! I'm glad you were able to find so much stuff still in good condition.

Excellent video - very well done!

I just want to say , thankyou sooo much for doing this video Mr , much appreciated

What a great program about Evel Knievel. Thank you. Born 1965; loved and worshipped Evel Knievel. At the age of 10 In 1975, I was attacked by a man who flew into a rage and nearly killed me. The physical trauma from the attack and the psychological impact caused near lifelong debilitating obsessive compulsive disorder. While still very young and trying to recover from the attack, I played with my Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle Action set for countless hours, which helped me greatly cope with the anxiety. My RU-vid profile image seen just above is a young Evel Knievel.

That stunt bike was an awesome toy, I never had one but my best friend did, many hours playing with that..... And then trying to recreate the jumps on my Raleigh Tomahawk!.... How I lived past 10 years old I'll never know! Lol 😂

Lots of memories with this one. My brother and me shared a single Evel Knievel toy but the excitement it provided was big enough for the both of us AND our friends who came over to see the elaborate Stunt Shows we put together for him to go through. Great video, Sr. The BEST coverage of this toy ever made.

Great video! I had some of those toys as a kid, man what fun! I had the bike, the stunt van, and the chopper. Great memories, thanks!!

Grew up in the 70s and I spent hours playing with this toy. Crazy but dust flew out of my ears just now watching this video. The toy commercial's theme music jogged memories of the tune!! Can't believe my mind still stored a part of this ad song. LOL.

Really enjoyed this Tony. Took me back to being 6 ,making ramps out of my dads soul records and watching Knievel live at Wembley.

I had almost all these toys Tony. The van was my favourite, I used to love jumping the van back in the 80s! They must of been hand me downs, god knows how I got these. Wonderful content as ever bro

I had a ball watching my 4 year old's reaction to your episode. Teliving my childhood through my son's eyes awesome💖🇺🇸

I had the turbo cycle as a kid. Rubber made sense. Hitting doors,walls who knows what else?! Lol! Really enjoyed this! Keep it up!

Love those old commercials 👍 I have the chopper and Evel in his white suit. Another great video with loads of information 👍🙂 Thank you

Excellent video! This was one of my all-time favorite toys. I used to spend hours building my own stunt playsets. It was a blast to see the aftermath of said indoor stunts.

Great video, loved Evel Knievel toys, have a picture of me about 1977 with the dragster, have many hours of fun with it.

Another AWESOME video Tony. I was a kid in the 1970's and those were great times, and toys. Keep up the EXCELLENT work. Hello from San Antonio Texas.

Awesome video Had a few of the toys, but a friend got almost all of them, and I would play with him. Excellent video, some good history too.

Excellent video! Thanks man I was a little little kid when this came out and I remember having the motorcycle set.

Another outstanding edition. Thanks!

Man that was great - Much Thanx! The Evel Knievel toys were hands down the coolest of the 70's. Crank It Up!!!

I had the stunt cycle as a kid.....LOVED IT!!!

You are living the dream, sir! I had some of these and remember them fondly, especially the Scramble Van.

Great video. I had the stunt cycle and it was my most memorable toy.

Excellent review! My older brother had the stunt cycle, and I remember playing with it as a kid, but have never seen a lot of these other toys.

Great video! So nostalgic. We grew up in the greatest time!

Great research, great video. I had a version of the wound-up toy in the 80s. Thanks for another video!

That rrrRRRrrrrRRReVVVVV!!!! You are playing with my earliest memories!🙂 I was born in 1970, and had pretty much everything you just reviewed. This and Weebles (wobble but they don't fall down) are the first ad campaigns I can remember ever seeing. And this toy is truly King.

Terrific episode Tony.

Evel was a legend of his time and I remember seeing Viva Knievel in the cinema the year it came out. Still got some boxed EK goodies including the Stratocycle. Great episode 👍🏻

Outstanding vid - loved it

Excellent review .

Wonderful memories of getting the Evel Knievel stunt cycle on Christmas morning... 👍

Thank you for this. This was one of my favorite toys as a kid and I had a team America variant as well. They were just awesome to play with. Kept me busy for hours. We’re about the same age I think.

I had the strato cycle!!!! None of my friends even knew it existed but I had seen the movie with my parents. It was my favorite! I even stopped using it in the energizer..I did not want to scratch the eagle face...or worse break it!!! Got my kids the 2007 release. Superb video! Appreciate all the info on Evel's life!!! Appreciate all the work that went into this!!

I actually saw Evel do an in-store appearance at Toys R Us in the mid 70s!!

Great video! My EK Stunt Cycle lost a fight with a passing car the day I got it. The plastic bike shell was destroyed but the bike still worked somewhat. I miss it to this day.

Being someone who grew up in the 1970s and was a friend of Evel Knievel's later in his life this was a very good look into the history of his toys. Even though not everything you said was accurate it was still very insightful for those who don't know the legend of the EK Ideal toy line. Greatest toys ever made.

Super video and nice job filming this! I was born in 1966 and remember watching these toy commercials thinking..."How many takes did it...take!...to film the motorcycle tracking so straight." It was not that it could not happen but unusual. The interesting thing is that the stunt cycles were really an interactive stunt toy. I am guessing that not many survive today. I did not have one but a kid about a block away did and I remember seeing it in action. Overall, these toys were pretty interesting. Some toys in the 70s were really well thought out and led to the awesome toys of the 80s. Thanks for this walk down memory lane!

This was another great video from Analog Toys! I love these retrospectives on toys of yesteryear. I do feel that Derry Daring was a remarkably forward thinking toy concept. I wonder how well a toy line like that would fare these days.

Another awesome video Tony!

Absolutely brilliant video. I used to pretend I was Evel Knievel riding around on my push bike in the 70s that I made up of old bike parts I’d found. My parents bought me the stratocycle one Christmas and I was the happiest child around. One day I’ll get one again. Thanks so much for bringing back some long forgotten great memories. Danny

Loved the noise the stunt chopper made when you wound it up, and the stunts it did on a dirt track.

Really well done! I think this has to be the definitive video on RU-vid about EK toys. I had no idea the line was that extensive. I remember the stunt cycle and the van- I’d never even heard of a lot of the other toys. Even Knievel the jungle explorer gave me quite a chuckle 😁

I had these toys when I was a kid and I enjoyed them, and wish I still had them

This is a fascinating video. Thanks for making it.

Loved this one too. Thanks so much.

This video captures the love I have for the Stunt Cycle, which, I received nearly 49 years ago to the day. I consider this the greatest toy ever made but I am biased. Certainly, the best video on the subject. Thank you so much for putting it together.

Fantastic video! I had the stunt cycle when I was a kid in the seventies, and it was AWESOME!!! I saw Evel Knievel jump in the Kingdome in the seventies and it was AWESOME!!!!

Brought back lots of memories

Born in 1965, my Hero’s were Evel & Elvis! Ironically, both wore leather jumpsuits and to me were superheroes!

I am a 1970 baby and grew up watching Knievel every chance I got. Me and all the other boys in the neighborhood buitl all manner of unsafe and nearly deadly ramps with whatever we could come up with and tried to be just like Evil Knievel back then. I even had one of those newer AMF styled bikes in the mid-late 70's and even had my big Evil Knievel bicycle flag attached to the back wheel flying high throughout the neighborhood.

I was on needles and pins as a kid watching watching his televised Snake River Canyon jump. I had the motorcycle, Scramble van, and later had the rocket which looked nothing the Snake River rocket. These were some of the best toys of my childhood!

The Evel Kenievel toys were without question some of the finest and most fun toys ever made. They just worked. Took a helluva lot of play and were solid. Even to this day you can't lay hands on the cycle and base and not want to spin it up. (Oh and a tip for Analog Toys from an old 70's kid. The trick for getting the vehicles to launch from the base without having to push them with a finger is to backspin the crank just a hair. As you are winding it jut reverse by a fraction of an inch and off it goes)

4:10 we were suckers for those kind of commercials. Also bought ricochet racers and crashem up derby with similar commercials.

As a kid in the UK at the time I must say I never had one and I knew very few kids who ever did. A very recognisable toy all the same, mainly due to the intensive advertising. There was a persistent myth about these bikes that the adverts hugely exaggerated the speed such that they came off at more of a dribble than a rush and not fast enough to actually jump anything. I can see now that they were indeed pretty quick but the existence of the myth is kind of proof that many kids had no direct experience of the toy. Other Ideal toys such as Buckaroo! , Kerplunk, Shaker Maker and Mousetrap (the only one which you mention) were much more common here, plus my favourite Ideal game (and forerunner of Robowars ;-), Battling Tops.

Awesome job brother, I remember watching the grand canyon jump on TV with my family. I was in 1st grade I believe.

It's amazing how high the noise floor is on these old '70s commercials. And this is what they sounded like because of their "money saving" ways of recording the audio.

I had both the 7" bendable figure, and the Stunt Cycle when I was a kid back in the 70's! I even had the "BMX" Bike with all the flashy Evel Knievel additions that made the bike look so cool!

Wow. I had that stunt cycle when I was a kid!!!! Good to see it again

To Evel and Elvis...you both came along at a time when we needed you guys the most! Hurry back fellas!

Got one for my 8th birthday in 1973. There were three of us on my street that had them and my pal Bill had the van and sky cycle. They were tough reliable and fun. And yes we also jumped our 20" bikes over everything we could think of. Even each other!