093 Jimmy

Jimmy was a pimp who became a mobster.  

He started out in G2 as a stereotypical looking street pimp.

Kinda crazy that anyone thought it was a good idea to put a pimp in a kid's toyline. Haha!

Anyway, the figure seems to be modeled after Sweet Jimmy ("the nicest pimp in the world"), which was a SNL sketch from 1992.  The character is portrayed by actor Tim Robbins, who is wearing the same exaggerated pimp attire.

In G3, Jimmy got a significant redesign.  Instead of a pimp, he became a mobster. 

Now he looks more like "Jimmy the Gent," the gangster portrayed by Robert Di Nero in the 1990 film Goodfellas.

Jimmy has a zood named Vinny.  He is a dead fish.  This relates to the euphemism "sleeps with the fishes" which alludes to the mobster practice of drowning people in cement shoes.

Crazy dark stuff for a kid's toy.

At first, I thought the name probably related to the 1992 movie My Cousin Vinny, where the titular character was played by Joe Pesci, who also portrayed a gangster in Goodfellas.  Pesci even won an Oscar for his role.

Then I realized that the names Jimmy and Vinny both relate to another mafioso property -- one that has shared 27 actors with Goodfellas.  Consider that Jimmy is in "waste management" and it may come to you.

Of course, I am taking about the HBO show The Sopranos which ran from 1999-2006.

The main character (Tony Soprano) was portrayed by actor James "Jimmy" Gandolfini.  Additionally, Tony Soprano was based on the real life mobster Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo. 

Anyway, there you have it:  Jimmy, the pimp turned mobster... and his dead fish Vinny.

That's gangster as heck Tech Deck!