Professor J.H. "Trader" Slick is the travelling and stationary merchant dealer of "Jumanji", who appears frequently in the animated series and also in the 1997 Hasbro LCD game.
Personality[]
Slick is the wicked merchant of "Jumanji", who sells items to anyone who can meet the terms of his transactions, and has been known to sell simple tools to rare and powerful artifacts to a vast clientele throughout the series. He lives and sells his wares at a trading post located at the heart of the jungle. He always says his whole name when introducing himself, but his middle name changes a lot of time. Some of the items he has sold include a rare paint he tricked Alan into buying, the Slickomatic, a giant potion to make Peter grow and later the antidote, the ChronoRepeater, a "Get Out of "Jumanji" Free" Card that only worked once, a love potion for Judy, and even a motorboat which allows Peter and Judy to return to their time. If necessary, he becomes a real danger to the trio, but his biggest part in the series is just a sly, cunning swindler a.k.a. "Honest John Dealership".
Double entendre.
As Trader Slick is devoted to his enterprise, even going easy on first-time customers and ensuring his store is often open at all hours unless he is travelling or imprisoned somewhere else. The main downside to Slick's items is that he will not part with anything so easily without receiving something valuable to trade. The second downside is not everything for sale is always as they seem and may end up resulting in no-one's satisfaction guaranteed but Slick's own. Slick's shop can be conveniently found by anyone intentionally; When the Stalker approached Slick to employ him for an important mission, and when various villains of "Jumanji's" community gathered to attend Slick's auction for the Trans-Vector due to their common hatred for the trio. Slick, like everything else in "Jumanji", was terrified of the imposing Stalker and did whatever the grim reaper told him out of fear, but clearly tried to avoid having anything to do with him as seen when, upon approaching the Bog of despair (where he dwells) Slick retreated to the point of cancelling his trade with the kids altogether.
Episodes of Jumanji[]
Bargaining for Time[]
The 1st meeting with Slick.
After escaping the fearsome Manji Tribe, Alan, Peter and Judy, encounter the malicious and cunning Trader Slick for the first time, who holds many items, a well as a valuable artifact that can release Alan from Jumanji, a "Get Out of Jumanji Free" card. Judy tricks Slick into taking a broken watch for the card. Alan is allowed to leave, but the trio realize that time in the real world has frozen to a stop. Judy promised Slick that the watch keeps perfect time, so "Jumanji" holds her to her word and as long as Slick has the watch, time stands still in the outside world.
They return to "Jumanji", but Slick refuses to return the watch unless they deliver him a game hunter's pith hat, worrying Alan as the only "Jumanji" resident who wears one is none other than Van Pelt.
Although the trio delivers the stolen pith helmet at great risk, Slick reneges after he "received" a shipment of hats just like Van Pelt's and rectifies his deal for the hunting spear from the Manjis.
At the trio's own risks, they steal the spear from the Manjis, but again Slick reneges the deal after he apparently just got a delivery of identical spears.
The trio becomes angry at Slick's deviousness, but Judy tricks Slick again into trading the watch for a mystery box. Slick opens it to find nothing in it; therefore holding Slick's phrase throughout the episode, continually stating that he "Wants nothing, needs nothing,". Slick storms into his shop in a huff, claiming that they will be doing business with him again, but Judy's trick solves their clue and causes time to return to normal and solves their clue returning Peter and Judy. Alan can't follow as his "Get Out of "Jumanji" Free" card was used already.
Masked Identity[]
When searching for the secret back-door out of "Jumanji", Alan found it under a deep pit full of Snakes, so he headed to Slick's shop to trade for a basket, rope and catcher stick equipment to help him dispatch of the Snakes in his path, in exchange for 57 pounds of fighting ivy, 1/2 leopard spots and a bottle of pollywog juice, and the key asks Slick for skull wax.
No Dice[]
Slick fears the imposing Stalker.
When Judy and Peter enter "Jumanji" without any dice, they start searching for Alan to get the dice back. Unable to find him, they find Slick's shop, where he reveals his favourite pet; an Elephant sized hound called Gungtar who can find anyone lost in "Jumanji". Slick agrees to trade finding Alan with his hound for "the most powerful thing in "Jumanji"" (the game's dice) after using Gungtar's tracking skills to find Alan (who has the dice).
When Gungtar finds Alan's trail and stops in his tracks, Slick sees that the scent is leading to the Bog of Despair which he dreads, (where Alan is fleeing from the Stalker) he cancels the deal and leaves the kids behinds before retreating with Gungtar.
Love on the Rocks[]
Trader Slick turned to stone by Flint.
Stormy Weather[]
When the two kids arrive in time for the oncoming JuMonsoon, Alan is destroyed by a bolt of lightning. After they mourn his death, Slick shows up on the scene and gives Peter and Judy a ChronoRepeater to repeat time. After several failed attempts to save Alan's life while learning each stage of the Monsoon, the two start fighting over the ChronoRepeater and after several resets, it falls off a cliff and is destroyed. On their last attempt, the two put aside their differences and work together to save Alan. This time it works: the trio is sucked into a tornado, where Slick is selling insurance for tornado life expectancy.
Perfect Match[]
When Slick attends the forced wedding of Alan and Gina to pronounce the duo, he successfully marries Alan and Gina but Aunt Nora defeats Gina and punches Slick out of the way.
Gift[]
When Judy and Peter enter "Jumanji" for Alan's birthday, they are attacked by a swarm of venomous giant "Jumanji" Centipedes, leaving Alan bitten by one. Peter vows in anger that he'll destroy the game if Alan dies. Without noticing, Stalker overhears him and plans to protect "Jumanji", enlisting Slick, Van Pelt, and Ibsen to dispose of them.
Judy ventures to Slick's looking for a cure. Instead, he gives her "Tracking Juice" in exchange for her shoes which reveals her footprints and allows the evil trio to hunt her. The familiar Monkey gang steal the bottle from Judy, deplete the juice before the villains find them, instead of her.
Peter then journeys to the Manjis to meet Tribal Bob, who is being watched by the villains, who doesn't help Peter but plants a Mosquito carving his hair as a clue for him. But upon capturing one, the villains attack, armed with weaponized vehicles from Ibsen. The kids elude them, and Tribal Bob and the Manjis carry off the villains for harassing Bob earlier.
The Palace of Clues[]
The two kids journey to "Jumanji" and the two appear in front of a roaring skeleton head, but the head is revealed to just be controlled by Slick. He gives Alan a can of paint but plans to have him pay it off by doing odd jobs for him. After they paint Alan's door, Slick reveals that the paint is very rare and as such Alan will be paying it back for the rest of his life plus 3.5 years.
While the three are trying to figure out what to do, Ashton Phillips shows up and invites Alan, Judy, and Peter to join him on his adventures but Alan is initially reluctant to go due to his debt to Trader Slick but Aston convinces him to. On the way to the Palace of Lost Clues, Peter starts to turn to ice as an apparent consequence of Alan going back on his deal with Slick. The three realize Peter's only hope is to solve the clue and go home, but removing the rubies causes the palace to start to collapse and Peter to shatter, but the rubies fall away from Aston, land on Peter's eyes and restore him not only from his shattered state but back to his original one as well.
Back in the jungle, the trio hand the rubies over to Slick, who is so delighted with them, he expunges Alan's debt. They realize their clue referred to the debt being broken but fixed with the eyes of the statue which are the rubies and the two return home. Alan starts to leave, but Slick tries to interest him with wallpaper for his house.
The Magic Chest[]
Slick turned into a Rat. Somewhat fitting for his nature.
The Trial[]
When Peter and Judy try to defend Alan at his trial for taking the Singing Orb, the first witness in the trial is Slick who reveals to the judge that Alan got a map of the caverns where the Singing Orb has always been kept from him. The next day when Judy questions Alan on the stand who claims he found the Singing Orb in the grass and was returning it when the cave started to collapse, he explains Slick, Ibsen and Van Pelt merely saw him while he was returning it. Alan desperately tries to tell the judge something, but he's just ignored.
Young Alan[]
Slick shows off his Juroceros horn.
After sailing through a current, Judy and Peter actually travel backwards in "Jumanji's" timeline, viewing projected visions of their past adventures, including their 1st meeting with Slick. Discovering they're over 20 years in the past with a 10-year-old Alan Parrish, they soon find Trader Slick. They leave without buying anything and spend the night in a tree. Peter and Judy discuss their predicament of being stuck in the past and how this Alan can't survive without them and Alan hears and is gone in the morning when they wake up.
They head to Slick who reveals Alan traded with him, paying cash and they find Alan with a motorboat which he bought for them to go back up-river and home. When the duo passes through the cave and travel back to their own time where the boat goes off a waterfall, they are saved by present-day Alan. He does not remember what happened in the past (he says he must have hit his head) and warns them Ibsen's on the warpath. Ibsen got a cure from Slick but it shrunk him and made him blue. Judy and Peter realize their clue's solved and return home leaving Alan unhappy that he did not get to see them much, but they tell him they got to see him a lot, confusing him.
Oh, Grow Up![]
After Alan tries (and fails) to cheer Peter up for losing out on everything for being smaller than everyone else, the three head for Slick due to the clue mentioning "one small trade." There Slick tries to trade them a "divining rod" (a stick) but they don't go for it and leave except for Peter who asks if Slick has anything to make him bigger. Slick has a potion to do exactly that, and Peter trades a rabbit's foot for it and drinks some of it. Instantly Peter grows so he's a bit taller than Judy, but starts growing more overtime again, eventually to giant size and gets hungry, eats bananas from a couple of trees (one which damages Slick's place when he throws it, but luckily Slick has insurance) and then heads to the river for water. Judy and Alan go to Slick for an antidote and while they're gone, Peter finds the Manjis under attack and tries to help them, but only makes things worse, demolishing the Manji village. Judy and Alan force Slick to give them an antidote for free and he warns them only three drops are to be taken as its extremely powerful. At the village, Peter continues his battle and does even more damage (and accidentally demolishes Slick's place with a rock that misses, but he has insurance for that too) but he loses the battle, however, the Manjis drive the creature away. The Manjis, angry, tie Peter up and plan to drop him in the Pit of Doom. Alan distracts the Manjis and Judy manages to get Peter the antidote, but he drinks the whole thing and becomes very tiny while due to Tribal Bob's actions, they're suspended over the Pit of Doom. Alan saves them and Judy pretends Peter was killed, horrifying Tribal Bob as Peter was his friend and he realizes the mistake he made. Alan and Judy take Peter to Slick's to try to find a cure, but he's gone and Peter gets taken by a rat. Peter drives off the rat and Alan and Judy try to figure out how to help him. Thinking about their clue, they guess the trade part meant Peter's trade with Slick and Judy figures out that "what remains" means what's left of the giant potion. There's a drop left and using it on Peter cures him and restores him to his correct size.
Armageddon[]
Since the kids haven't been to "Jumanji" in days, they decide to go because Alan needs them despite their other plans. When they arrive inside "Jumanji", things are unnaturally different from normal, since Slick tries inviting them for tea and doesn't try to sell them anything and even bad-mouths his own merchandise and the two find Van Pelt freeing a trapped baby deer instead of killing it. They find Alan who explains that the changes happened gradually during their absence. Later along their way the three encounter Van Pelt and Slick sitting down to a friendly tea and are even more shocked. At Ibsen's factory he reveals he believes there is something wrong with "Jumanji" and that it is perhaps breaking down and if it does that, everything including them will likely be destroyed. After Ibsen's factory flips upside-down, they leave, but outside the ground starts breaking apart and there's a pink river where there shouldn't be one. The three join Slick and Van Pelt on a ship but abandon it when the two plan to go over a waterfall. When "Jumanji" has returned to normal now that the problem has been repaired and the two realize that what they were supposed to let go of was their clue and by doing that they solved their clue, return home and wonder if perhaps "Jumanji" broke down on purpose.
Love Potion[]
Slick sells Judy the Love Potion.
Sorceress of Jumanji[]
Desmona loses the trio by kicking her way through some deadly snakes who block the others path, then goes to Slick to try to find a way out. She steals the Tome of "Jumanji", an evil spellbook and causes Slick's own tongue to grow and tie him up. The others find and free him and Alan is horrified about what she stole because it contains a lot of spells and will make anyone holding it the Sorceress of "Jumanji". Slick reveals Ms. Desmona went to the Manji village to collect spell ingredients and the others head off to stop her.
The Ultimate Weapon[]
Slick's auction.
Who Am I?[]
After Peter and Judy are sucked into "Jumanji" again, the two arrive in a beautiful day in "Jumanji" with a rainbow, but come across many inhabitants having switched bodies including switched giraffes and snakes and Slick who's been switched with a chimp. Slick reveals he sold Ibsen the Tri-Jumiante Prism, something that can switch things around and Alan and the kids realize that that's probably what's behind everything. They decide to head to Ibsen's lab and end up confronted by Van Pelt, but Peter knocks him out and Judy ties him up. Using Slick's blueprints of Ibsen's lab, the group manages to infiltrate it. They get caught in a trap and Ibsen reveals he did all of this on purpose, but Judy manages to activate the Prism using Peter's baseball to throw a curveball that activates it and switches everyone around again. This time, Peter's Slick, the chimp's Judy, Judy's the chimp and Ibsen's Peter. Judy quickly switches on the Prisim again, but accidentally breaks the on-off lever. The Prisim explodes, destroying Ibsen's lab, but sending a wave of energy across "Jumanji" that restores everything to normal, except for Ibsen who's accidentally switched with a rat. Slick then scoops the rat Ibsen up and attempts to sell cheese to him to his dismay.
An Old Story[]
The three decide to head for Jumanjicon, an ancient ruin where the Golden Goblet of "Jumanji" is and if Peter and Judy drink from that Goblet, their youth will be restored. As no one knows where Jumanjicon is, they head to Slick and he reveals he has a compass that will lead there. Peter trades the janitor's keys for the compass and they head off to find Jumanjicon. On the way they encounter Ashton Phillips who takes the compass, revealing Slick stole it from him but Judy manages to trick Ashton into taking them along.Trivia[]
- J.H. "Trader" Slick always changes his initial abbreviations every time the trio encounter him, but always keeps the J & H, which is a reversed abbreviation of Honest John, hence his style of dealership.
- J.H. "Trader" Slick is voiced by Tim Curry, who is best known for being the voice actor for Nigel Thornberry in the Nickelodeon animated show The Wild Thornberrys.
- Slick's role as the main "Jumanji" merchant was later given to the Bazaar seen in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
Gallery[]
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| Books | Novel • Film novel • Zathura | |
| Media | 1995 film • TV Series • Zathura: A Space Adventure • Welcome to the Jungle • The Next Level | |
| Games | Board Game • Jigsaw • Trading Cards • LCD Game • PC Game • PS2 Game • Mobile Game • 2019 Game • Fluxx • Stickers • The Curse Returns | |