U.N.C.L.E. stands for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Telecast from 1964 through 1968, this "adventure" series was a spoof of super agent spy movies such as the James Bond series.
The game box pictured above was produced by the Ideal Toy Company in 1965 and donated to the Museum in 1991.
Each episode of the telecast concerned UNCLE's attempt to fight an international crime syndicate named THRUSH. The secret American headquarters of UNCLE was somewhere in New York City. Headquarters was run by a Mr. Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll in the photograph at right). He provided information and assigned tasks to super agents so they could thwart THRUSH. He seemed to have extensive financial and technical resources at his disposal.
The "super" super agents he assigned tasks to were:
Napoleon Solo - (Robert Vaughn on the right in the photograph on the left) an American Agent, and his partner
Illya Kuryakin - (David McCallum on the left in the photograph) a Russian Agent
Solo was very suave and extroverted, while Kuryakin appeared to be reserved and introverted. The plots were often silly, offering at times a mixture of humor, excitement, and adventure.
The Milton Bradley Company issued a "Man From U.N.C.L.E." playing card game in 1966. Then another game related to this same series was issued by the Milton Bradley Company also in 1966 and a copy of this game was donated to the Museum in 1991. This game was also a playing card game. The box for this game again proposed that the players would be engaged in an action adventure to thwart the schemes of THRUSH.
Yet another UNCLE game was issued by the Ideal Toy Company in 1966. This game was based on one of the episodes in the series, The Thrush Ray-Gun Affair Game.
Last update May 29, 2010