Remember the days of flipping through a catalog and circling all the stuff you wanted for Christmas? Those days are long gone.
Sold exclusively through the Sears and J.C. Penney Christmas catalogs between 1977 and 1980 were the Pro Sports Marketing NFL Action Team Mates. Measuring 7.5″ tall, these NFL-themed action figures came with two sets of interchangeable numbers, removable helmet, football, playbook, and display stand. They aren’t player specific, but you could certainly place whatever jersey number you wanted on them and pretend it was Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, etc…
Figures which have never been removed from their box can easily come in pieces. Small rubber bands were used to hold the limbs together. Over the years these rubber bands can disintegrate leaving you with a box of loose body parts.
Today these figures are highly sought after. Triple digit sales are not uncommon for loose figures. Individual parts even have a strong demand.
Compared to the collectible figures we have today, these look quite generic. For a long time this is how sports action figures looked. When these were released, we were still years away from Starting Lineup figures.
I wonder if any of these guys found their way over to Barbie’s Dream House and told Ken to take a hike?
Filed under: Under The Tree | Tagged: 1977-80, action, marketing, mates, nfl, pro, sports, team, the, tree, under |
Sports Card Info 
Lets see I see Whitehurst, Francis, Casper, Fred Cook, Theisman, Zorn Jaworski, Hadl, Payton, Gradishar, Campbell, Griese and Bartkowski – The number 50 Viking has me stumped