Magnum Mania!

Guys, is this a GMC Blazer (full sized) or a GMC Jimmy?


("The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii", January 1981)

I've been calling it a Jimmy, but I've had a few people say it is a Blazer.

AFAIK, they are basically the same vehicle, come from the same assembly line, but got different trim.

The one shown in your picture looks TO ME like it even has the "JIMMY" emblem right there on the front fender, so I'd say it's a GMC Jimmy!

I've been wrong before, and I'm sure I will be again, but it sure looks like a Jimmy to me!

This is a 1981 Blazer:

The badge looks different to me than the screen shot.

Here is a Jimmy badge:


JJ, I think 308 is right: I think it is a Jimmy in the screengrab you posted.

I guess I'm still confused over the distinction between a "Jimmy" and a "Blazer" circa 1980/1981. I've seen many references to the Jimmy not appearing until 1982/1983, and when it did it was a compact S-10 model. The Blazer is a K5, full-sized. And yet, I've seen many people refer to the K5 Blazer as a "Jimmy"!

It's looking more and more like the original Robin 3 (first couple of seasons) should be referred to as a "Blazer" not a "Jimmy"...

Find a closer shot of the badge, if you can. That would seem to answer the question.

I'm losing my mind. I swear I looked for a closeup of the badge a couple of times (in different episodes), but never saw one. So now I go right into the scene in "The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii" and immediately see one! LOL!



It definitely says "Jimmy"! I guess there is two different kinds of Jimmys: a full-sized Blazer Jimmy and a compact S-10 Jimmy.

To make matters worse, Magnum actually calls it a "Jimmy" in the episode! I missed it completely! So, aah, let's just pretend this never happened, ok.

What never happened.......

I had a 73' Blazer that looked exactly like that, and that body style has been around AT LEAST that long before MPI first aired. Not sure exactly what year they were introduced, or what year the S10 first appeared, but a Blazer and/or a Jimmy, started out looking just like that.

I also thought I remembered either Higgins and/or TM calling it "the Jimmy", in the episode mentioned.

As I said, the Blazer and the Jimmy are basically the same vehicle, with different trim.

I used to work in a Ford plant where they made Torino's (like in Gran Torino - Clint Eastwood) and the Merc's were made on the same line, but when it came to the finishing end, they went different ways, the Fords got badged as Fords and the Mercs as Mercs. That's not to say Ford and GM both do it, but that IS the way it used to be done.

Gibson and Epiphone guitars USED to be the same way. "Divide and conquer" or "diversification" is/was the principle that was applied to capture more of the market, still used today. Like lawn mowers, most of the comsumer level machines were all made by one company, then badged according to who was paying for them.

Or take Standard Oil. Rockefeller split it up into different named smaller companies to comply with the "no monopoly" ruling, but it was still all Standard Oil, and the buck stopped with him.

Ok, enough rambling from the peanut gallery!

Nothing to see here.......move along...

GMC was the Jimmy, Chevy was the Blazer! Same vehicle!

To me, looking at the Grille, it looks like a 79-80 Jimmy. Which goes along with them buying a new car for filming.



Looking at a catalog for replacement parts, the 81 started stacked headlights and the 78 had a different headlight bezel. So, that narrows it down a lot.



Not a bad car for the islands, the roads aren't always great and there's a lot of potential offroading. For that reason, Jeep Wranglers are popular in rental lots right now.

TBOU wrote: Not a bad car for the islands, the roads aren't always great and there's a lot of potential off-roading. For that reason, Jeep Wranglers are popular in rental lots right now.

4 wheel drive is needed just in case you wander into someone's 'patch'.


Mitch: They're growing grass. We've stumbled into their patch.

DiGorgio: Grass? Why would anybody be growing grass in a banana patch?

Chris109 wrote:

TBOU wrote: Not a bad car for the islands, the roads aren't always great and there's a lot of potential off-roading. For that reason, Jeep Wranglers are popular in rental lots right now.

4 wheel drive is needed just in case you wander into someone's 'patch'.


Mitch: They're growing grass. We've stumbled into their patch.

DiGorgio: Grass? Why would anybody be growing grass in a banana patch?

And if you’re going off the estate. My last rental car was a Nissan Sentra, don’t know how many times it scraped bottom going up my cousin’s driveway on the Big Island

The GMC version of the SUV was called the Jimmy. The Chevy Version was called the Blazer. You are right that they were essentially the same vehicle but the GMC was considered more upscale and had different trim but the same running gear. You will note the GMC on the grille right above the bush guard on the front grill.

J.J. Walters wrote:Guys, is this a GMC Blazer (full sized) or a GMC Jimmy?


("The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii", January 1981)

I've been calling it a Jimmy, but I've had a few people say it is a Blazer.

The Jimmy in MPI was 1980 GMC K5 Sierra Classic Jimmy with part time 4 wheel drive, 350-CI engine rated at 175HP. The truck was purchased in California and shipped to the island. It was eventually sent back when it was replaced by the 83 Jimmy S-15.

Glen A Larson was also working on The Fall Guy and GM also furnished vehicles for that show.

The K5 Jimmy and K5 Blazer were the same vehicle in regards to frame and suspension. There were multiple engine packages available in 1980 with 1 diesel engine package.

The K5 Blazer eventually morphed into the Tahoe, the K5 Jimmy morphed into the Yukon.

The Jimmy came with a few more bells and whistles and was considered the more upscale vehicle.

waverly2211 wrote:

J.J. Walters wrote:Guys, is this a GMC Blazer (full sized) or a GMC Jimmy?


("The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii", January 1981)

I've been calling it a Jimmy, but I've had a few people say it is a Blazer.

The Jimmy in MPI was 1980 GMC K5 Sierra Classic Jimmy with part time 4 wheel drive, 350-CI engine rated at 175HP. The truck was purchased in California and shipped to the island. It was eventually sent back when it was replaced by the 83 Jimmy S-15.

Glen A Larson was also working on The Fall Guy and GM also furnished vehicles for that show.

The K5 Jimmy and K5 Blazer were the same vehicle in regards to frame and suspension. There were multiple engine packages available in 1980 with 1 diesel engine package.

The K5 Blazer eventually morphed into the Tahoe, the K5 Jimmy morphed into the Yukon.

The Jimmy came with a few more bells and whistles and was considered the more upscale vehicle.

Any idea of the trim package or who customized it?

I found a Chevy forum talking about it:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/show ... p?t=628946

Flipping around the TV today, it caught a couple minutes of a Magnum P.I. rerun that prominently showed a very cool 1980 GMC Jimmy. A little bit of googling, and it turns out it was featured in a couple of episodes that can be watched on Netflix.

Season 1 Episode 8 has the most Jimmy airtime, but Season 3 Episode 16 has some cool driving scenes. The Jimmy is clearly fully loaded. Some brief interior shots show it was an PW/PL rig with the speakers on the door panel. At first I thought it may have some Hickey accessories, but after some closer looks I think the push-bar and rear tire carrier were from other vendors. It did have a hidden winch, but more of the Ramsey style rather than Hickey.

The most interesting thing to me was the graphics package. I have never seen anything like it before, so I don't think it was factory. But very nice nonetheless, and would look good today without being over-the-top 70's like the Desert Fox package. It would even be fairly easy to replicate with today's vinyl tech - it seems to be simply overlaid on the factory brown/cream two-tone. I'd like to try something like this but with a mid-70's woodgrain.

But this 1980 GMC brochure has nothing like it:

http://www.tocmp.com/brochures/GMTrucks ... 06_jpg.htm