"'It's a commercial, it's not real, I can't jump that far!'"
Canada's Greatest Stuntman, Duke Caboom is a vintage motorcycle stunt-toy. Designed in a clear homage to the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle released by IDEAL Toys, he was manufactured by Maple Leaf Toys, presumably a Canadian company, and boldly and proudly displays Canadian imagery and motifs on all his parts.
Appearance[]
Duke is a 7" tall plastic action figure who comes with a variety of accessories designed to accentuate his stunts, the most major of which is, of course, his stunt bike, which his feet and hands can attach to in several positions using a peg/hole system. Secondly, his launch plunger, designed to send him and his bike hurtling forward at great speeds with a pump of its handle. Additionally, he includes a cardboard hoop with a plastic display stands to mount it on, to give him a target to leap through in jumps.
Duke features a removable helmet and hinges jointed articulation in all his major points of motion. He also features a fabric cape printed with his signature maple leaf design.
Said design also features prominently on his stunt bike, which features rubberized plastic wheels, vacuum-metalized chrome on the engine, tailpipes, and rims, and translucent red plastic flares on the tips of the tailpipes. A kickstand at the front of the bike body can flip down so that the bike can stand unassisted.
The launcher features a large ramp with a geared mechanism to rev the bike's motor system, and a plunger styled after a stereotypical dynamite plunger (Hence the "Caboom"), which, when depressed, releases the bike to, hopefully, race forward at high speeds. Unfortunately, this mechanism does not always work as well as advertised.
The hoop features a simple flame design and attaches to a thin plastic rod on a maple leaf-shaped stand.
Toys[]
Toy Story 4 (2019)[]
Stunt Racer Duke Caboom
Smaller in scale than the movie model, this mid-sized Duke is the closest offering to the movie toy besides the later Signature Collection version.
The bike is, essentially, a pullback motor toy, with two adjustable settings on it's lower set of wheels to facilitate the toy performing a wheelie at two heights. The launcher is small and performs no real function other than holding the bike in place once it has been wound up, and releasing it so that the motor on the bike spins when the plunger is pushed.
Duke is quite well articulated and overall he and the bike replicate the spirit of the toy. He attaches to the bike in several different places and maintains his balance well enough. Unfortunately, his launcher has no real mechanism of its own and, simply put, the pullback motor in the bike is not strong enough to maintain his initial burst of speed beyond a short distance, and so Duke becomes a little too accurate to the movie: he simply cannot perform any real jumps or dynamic stunts beyond the wheelie.
