The Abominable Grizzly of the West

Published in Italy in Corriere dei Piccoli around 1978, this Mattel comic advert brings together the core Big Jim Western cast: Dakota Joe, Geronimo, Buffalo Bill, Bisonte Nero, Old Kentucky and Fresca Rugiada.

The story is simple and effective: a huge grizzly is terrorising the area, drawing the different characters into the same chase and rescue adventure. What makes the page especially interesting is the way Mattel turns the whole Western range into a living world. Horses, canoes, tents, wagons and costumes are not presented as products, but as natural parts of the story.

Big Jim 004: The Price of the Ransom

Published in Italy in 1979, Il prezzo del Riscatto was a Mattel photo-comic advertisement for Big Jim 004, and appeared in Il Giornalino. It arrived just as the European Big Jim line was moving from the Western adventures into the new world of spies and secret agents.

The plot mixes both worlds perfectly. Fresca Rugiada has been kidnapped, so Big Jim, Buffalo Bill and Dakota Joe set off to rescue her. Big Jim infiltrates the enemy camp using one of 004’s interchangeable faces, before discovering that Dr. Steel is behind the operation.

That disguise sequence is the whole point of the story: Mattel turns the figure’s famous changeable-face mechanism into the key to the adventure. Rather than simply advertising Big Jim 004, the comic demonstrates the play feature in action — while using familiar Western characters to introduce collectors to Big Jim’s new secret-agent era.

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