Bigfoot (Archie McPhee)

The poster child for cryptozoology (the search for hidden animals) and a cultural icon, the bigfoot aka sasquatch is an allegedly large, bipedal, primate said to roam the forests of North America. Although primarily associated with the Pacific Northwest, bigfoot has been spotted across the continent, and it goes by many names. In Florida, it’s called the skunk ape, in Virginia, the wood booger, in Ohio, the grassman, and in Missouri, the Momo. But large bipedal primates aren’t just sighted in North America. Asia has the Yeti and Almas, Australia has the Yowie, and Europe has the wildman. While some would say that widespread sightings of these creatures are proof that they exist, I find that it confirms the opposite. It seems illogical to think that a species of, or multiple species of, large bipedal primates exist around the world with no hard evidence for any of them. But I’m not really here to speculate on the authenticity of ape-men, I’m here to review a toy of one. Today we’re looking at the bigfoot action figure by Archie McPhee.

Archie McPhee is based in Seattle, Washington, and was founded in 1983, although they were known as Accoutrements in the 1970’s. They produce kitschy novelties, gag gifts, and offbeat toys. Their web site is fun to browse, and they have a lot of unique and fun products. Mark Pahlow, the companies’ owner, named it after his wife’s great-uncle, who was known to be a jokester.

The bigfoot action figure stands 7.25” (18.41 cm) tall and is made of hard vinyl. The figure has 11 points of articulation. The arms can rotate at the shoulders and can swing back and forth at the elbows, the torso can rotate at the hips, the legs can rotate at the hips, and the knees and feet can swing forward and back. The fur is painted chocolate brown while the bare-skin portions (face, palms, and toes) are light brown. The eyes are white and black. The packaging looks good, and the toy displays well within it.

This is an interesting take on bigfoot, as the face looks more man than ape, albeit a hairy man with a beard and long hair. Although there is a seam around his head it is not articulated and he has no neck, the head just rests atop his broad, hunched shoulders. His build is more ape-like though, with proportionally short legs. His body is detailed with a convincing layer of wavy hair. Overall, he’s a decent looking sasquatch. But as an action figure, well…

Not so good. As stated, his head cannot move at all. His arms and elbows can only swing forward and back, they cannot swing in and out and his hands cannot rotate. His legs rotate at an angle, so you cannot make him sit, kneel, or crouch. He can’t balance on one foot either. About all you can do is get him to closely approximate the walking pose from the Patterson-Gimlin footage, which is probably all it’s really intended to do. To make matters worse, the joints are somewhat loose, and my copy came with two left hands! In the possession of a child, I think this figure would be easily broken as well, but the packaging states that it’s not a toy and not meant for children under 12.

The Archie McPhee bigfoot really is just a novelty gag gift above all else. As a static sasquatch toy, it’s decent enough, and looks better than most on the market, but it is practically useless as an action figure and will potentially suffer from quality control issues. If you want a static bigfoot toy, just get Safari’s, it’s a higher quality toy that costs less. The Archie McPhee bigfoot is widely available online and retails for about $15.