Reborn Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle has fans jumping for toys

Fun wasn't hard to find for kids of the 1970s. Sometimes all you needed to do was send an Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle flying down your driveway.

The Stunt Cycle was a small toy motorcycle that seated an Evel Knievel action figure. Kids revved up the motor with a plastic crank and off it went. Sometimes the Evel figure went flying off, just like the stuntman himself often did in real life.

Now, kids — or more likely the grown men who remember playing with the toy more than 40 years ago — can relive those magical jumps and crashes. California Creations recently began selling new Stunt Cycles and figures.

Amazingly, those items are being made with the original molds that were first used to produce the stunt cycle in 1973. The molds belong to American Classic Toy Inc. ACT is owned by Jay Horowitz, a veteran of both the plastics and toy industries, who had acquired the molds from the now-defunct Ideal Toy Co.

California Creations is marketing the Stunt Cycle and other Evel Knievel products licensed to ACT. Deerfield Beach, Fla.-based ACT also is handling production of the Stunt Cycle in Dongguan, China.

In a recent email, Horowitz said that new tooling has been built and revised for the molds over the years, but they're basically the same as they were in 1973.

"I've been doing this over 50 years," Horowitz said. "I say that if a mold is well designed, uses high quality steel and is well-maintained, it can go on forever.

"Forever doesn't really exist — but quality prevails. And [the Ideal molds] have made millions of units."

California Creations has been promoting the Stunt Cycle by asking fans to send in their own videos of the cycle making jumps. The best of those videos — including one involving fire and one using a fan's wife — are featured on the company's website.

As of Aug. 13, California Creations has sold more than 12,000 Stunt Cycle sets. The sets are available at evelknieveltoys.com and also are being carried by Amazon and Walmart. California Creations "is doing an excellent job of promoting on social media," Horowitz said. "It's a good working partnership."

ACT has owned the Knievel license for several years. Previously, the firm sold them through toy distributor Global Products. For several years in the 1990s, Horowitz owned legendary toy maker Marx Toys. He also operated machinery supplier American Plastic Equipment Inc. for many years.

The stunt cycle and other Evel Knievel toys were huge sellers for Ideal in the mid-70s, when the daredevil reached the peak of his fame. The real Knievel's motorcycle jumps over buses, cars and other obstacles drew huge ratings on ABC's Wide World of Sports. In 1971, an Evel Knievel movie was made, with George Hamilton playing Knievel. Knievel then played himself in a 1977 movie titled Viva Knievel! and on an episode of TV's The Bionic Woman that same year.

(The cast of Viva Knievel! included Gene Kelly, Red Buttons, Leslie Nielsen and Dabney Coleman. I have no idea how it didn't win multiple Oscars.)Evel Knievel died in 2007, but he still holds a special place in the memories of many Gen Xers, including writer Steve Rushin. Rushin included Knievel in a recent column he wrote about summers of the '70s for Sports Illustrated. According to Rushin, the Knievel Stunt Cycle set was the top-selling toy of Christmas 1974. He also mentioned how kids' efforts to duplicate Knievel's jumps on their own bikes didn't always end well.

Knievel also is, in a way, responsible for the phrase "jump the shark" being used to describe something moving past its peak. In 1977, Knievel — inspired by the hit move Jaws — was planning to jump his motorcycle over a tank of live sharks at an event in Chicago. But the jump was canceled after Knievel and a cameraman were injured during rehearsals.

Later that year, inspired by Knievel's effort, the hit TV show Happy Days had its Fonz character do a similar jump on water skis. Fans later deemed that episode to be the moment the series began to decline.

Based on the success the Stunt Cycle has seen in 2020, it's clear that fans of Evel Knievel remain young at heart. If anyone needs me, I'll be setting up ramps next to the fire pit in my backyard. Viva Knievel!