You want this guy on your side if you need to hunt down a giant toy

A Plastic Warrior famous for his adventures and battles against adversaries much larger than him.

Jack is another little plastic toy man from the Medieval World, painted over “by hand”. He is an Arthurian Knight famous for his iconic adventures, such as the one of the magic beans, and for the context with which he achieved his status: everyone believed that he was a skilled warrior and he went along with them, when in reality he was a simple tailor.

Jack begins: Jack and the Beanstalk

Son of a farmer who died when he was born, Jack was a distracted child and had a mother who spent the day working in the vegetable garden. When winter threatened his house and the Milky-White cow stopped giving plastic milk, he had no choice but to sell the cow at the flea market. The distraught mother sent Jack on a mission to get a good price. But Jack meets on his way, passing through the dark forest, a strange bearded old man dressed in blue, with a strange hat, who greets him by his name, and who exchanges the cow for five magic beans. “Two in each hand and one in the mouth.” Jack proudly returned to his house at dusk. The disappointed mother punished her son and threw the beans out the window, except for one that Jack swallows, and which will be her only dinner.

When dawn came, the leaves completely covered Jack’s window, and he jumped in surprise on the bean bush, seeing that the tree was rising to the sky, and began to climb it. “That strange old man had told the truth.” After climbing for several hours, Jack found a very long, narrow white path among the clouds, which he began to follow until he came to a bright white house with stairs. There he met a very tall woman who stirred crumbs in a pot. Jack was hungry and asked him for something to eat. Although the lady warned him that her husband, the Giant Ogre, likes to eat chubby plastic children for breakfast, the arrogant Jack replied that “I’ll be fatter if I have breakfast before.” The lady laughed and just then they heard that the hungry Ogre was about to arrive, and he put Jack inside the oven.

While she fed the Ogre, the giant counted gold coins. When the Ogre fell asleep, Jack took the opportunity to steal one of the bags of gold and escaped through the clouds. As he went down the bean bush, the weight of the sack forced him to let go of the coins, which fell on the garden like a shower of gold that the mother collected in admiration. As soon as Jack steps on land, the bush disappears.

After a while, the gold ran out and the family feared going hungry again. Before going to sleep, Jack watered under his window. At dawn the bean leaves announce that a new bush has grown to the sky, and Jack sets out to climb it. In this second trip, and in a subsequent third, Jack will once again deceive the Lady and the Ogre, he will steal from them a Hen that lays golden eggs, and a magic Harp that sings, filling the air with joy. The giant was very big and looked very fearsome. Jack was terrified and went and hid inside the oven all over again. The giant cried, “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an plastic man. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his plastic bones to make my plastic bread!”. Finally, Jack had to cut the bush with an ax so that the ogres would not descend to claim his treasures.

By successfully cutting down the giant tree, Jack saves the medieval inhabitants of his town. This tale was remembered like The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean. But this wouldn’t be the last time Jack would face giants…

Jack Returns: The brave little tailor

Over time the gold ran out again. But at least Jack got his mother to marry a king just before his fortune ran out, and although he had the opportunity to live an easy life, he did not have a good relationship with his new king father, and after an argument he swore to leave on his own and never return for alms from the king.

Although it was obviously a serious mistake, Jack was too proud to return with his head down, so much so that he preferred to live poor. However, over time he managed to become a moderately efficient tailor (or at least enough to be able to live) and one day while working he was being bothered by seven Real World flies (that is, the big ones). He tried to ignore them, but it was impossible and he decided to put an end to them immediately, and so he did… with one hit.

Proud of his feat (since it was not easy) he made a belt where he embroidered “Seven at one blow”, and decided that the world should know his feat and so he set out.

On the way he met a giant who, believing that the phrase referred to giants instead of flies, since it would be foolish to boast about killing 7 small flies, shows him respect. However, the giant becomes a little suspicious as he talks to him, and tests him on numerous occasions, from which Jack “the brave little tailor” emerges unscathed thanks to his ingenuity.

After getting rid of him, he arrives in a kingdom where the phrase “Seven at one blow” is also interpreted as the motto of a powerful warrior, and the impressed king commissioned Jack to free the region from two giants, a unicorn and a fearsome wild boar that have scared their inhabitants. In exchange, he will receive half of a kingdom and the hand of a princess. Again, using his intelligence, the little tailor will overcome the challenges presented to him and then obtain the magnificent reward. Unfortunately, he is overheard talking while he sleeps by her new wife and she, enraged, demands that her father kill him or expel her. A squire warns Jack of the imminent danger and when the king’s servants come for him, he pretends to be asleep and admits in his sleep: “Boy, make me a jacket and darn the pants or I will hit you with the measuring stick!” “I have killed seven men with one blow, slain two giants, captured a unicorn and trapped a wild boar and I am supposed to fear those standing outside my door!” Terrified, the servants flee and the king does not try to kill the little tailor again, who lives the rest of his days as a king.

Jack rises: The Giant Killer

The story is set during the reign of King Arthur and tells of a young farmer’s son named Jack, who is not only strong but so intelligent that he easily confuses scholars with his penetrating wit.

One night Jack encounters a cattle-eating giant named Cormoran, followed by other giants, who destroys his kingdom and kills his wife and his king. Although he has never cruelly killed a giant before, after this incident he changes significantly and lures the giant to his death in a pit trap. Jack is nicknamed “Jack the Giant Slayer” for this feat and receives not only the giant’s wealth, but also a sword and belt to commemorate the event. Jack, not knowing the giants that accompanied Cormoran, swore that he would simply kill all the giants he found.

A man-eating giant named Blunderbore swears revenge for Cormoran’s death and takes Jack to a haunted castle. Jack manages to kill Blunderbore and his brother Rebecks by violently choking and stabbing them. He frees three ladies held captive in the giant’s castle.

On a trip Jack tricks a two-headed giant into cutting off his belly. After this Jack becomes the servant of King Arthur’s son.

They spend the night with a three-headed giant and rob him in the morning. In gratitude for saving the castle from him, the three-headed giant gives Jack a magic sword, a cap of knowledge, a cloak of invisibility, and shoes of swiftness.

Along the way, Jack and the Prince encounter an Enchanted Lady who serves Lucifer. Jack breaks the spell with his magical accessories, decapitates Lucifer and the Lady marries the Prince. Jack is rewarded with membership in the Round Table.

Jack ventures out alone with his magic shoes, sword, cape, and cap to rid the kingdom of troublesome giants. He encounters a giant who terrorizes a knight and his lady. He cuts off the giant’s legs and then kills him. He discovers the giant’s companion in a cave. Invisible under his cloak, Jack cuts off the giant’s nose and then kills him by plunging his sword into the monster’s back. He frees the giant’s captives and returns to the home of the knight and lady he had earlier rescued.

He prepares a feast, but is interrupted by the two-headed giant Thunderdel singing “Fee, fau, fum”. Jack defeats and decapitates the giant with a trick involving the house’s moat and drawbridge.

Tired of the festivities, Jack goes out in search of more adventures and meets an old man who takes him to an enchanted castle that belongs to the giant Galligantus. The giant holds captive many knights and ladies and a duke’s daughter who has been transformed into a white doe thanks to the power of a sorcerer. Jack decapitates the giant, the sorcerer flees, the duke’s daughter regains her true form, and the captives are freed.

At King Arthur’s court, Jack marries the Duke’s daughter and the two receive an estate where they will live happily ever after… or at least until the adventures of Jack The Giant Killer end badly, since he never left his “need” to kill giants.

Tracing its origin

Apparently Jack is based on a handful of ancient human stories, discovered in the Real World.

Some of the most famous Jack human fairy tales are:

• Jack and the Beanstalk
• Jack Frost
• Jack the Giant Killer
• Little Jack Horner
• This Is the House That Jack Built

While these heroes are not necessarily the same, nor are they congruous, their characteristics are related and in some instances interchangeable.

Jack nature

Jack is somewhat a young adult. Like moralizing human fairy heroes tales about the “Jack” character, Jack is lazy and foolish, but emerges triumphant through wit and trickery, resembling the trickster or rebel archetypes of his fairy tale relatives. Some of the stories feature Jack’s brothers, Will and Tom. The notional “Jack” corresponds with the Real World’s German “Hans” (or Hänsel) and the Russian “Ivan the Fool”.