Steven Spielberg’s 1975 summer blockbuster shark flick didn’t spawn a whole lot of licensed merchandise, but it made up for it with The Game of Jaws.
The movie had scared some kids (and adults) so much that they wouldn’t go near a beach for years, and the game was every bit as terrifying. No matter how careful you were, no matter how much you told yourself not to be afraid, there wasn’t a kid alive who didn’t jump when those jaws snapped shut.
The plastic great white shark was both the star of the game and your arch-nemesis.
Using the included gaff hook, players took turns removing assorted junk from inside the great white’s mouth.
Somehow, this omnivorous beast had managed to eat an anchor, a pistol, a life preserver, several bones (both human and fish), part of a wagon wheel, and a SEVERED HUMAN HAND (eeeeewwwww), among other things.
The first player to score four pieces of junk won, but one slip of the wrist and those rubber-band-strung jaws would clamp shut without warning.
There were no explicit rules against standing behind the kid with the gaff hook and singing “daaaaaaaa-DUM, daaaaaaa-DUM,” but it was generally considered poor form.
