Mego 50th Anniversary-- The Return!

[Yellow Oval]

I only had the one Batman because my dad hated anything about action figures be it Mego, G.I. Joe, Johnny West, Big Jim, The Six Million Dollar Man, etc. He went absolutely ballistic ruining Christmas morning for everyone when I got both the Evel Knievel stunt cycle and scramble van. Ah, good times.

Your Dad hated them because they were dolls?
That's pretty sad.
[/quote]

That it was.

[Yellow Oval]

I can identify with Randy, but with a twist. We had a guy named Goulardi in Cleveland late night Friday showing and mocking scary movies. You will know him better as Ernie Anderson, the voice of ABC. Anyway he used to blow up toys on the show, like GIJoes and Aurora models. Needles to say, my talking GIJoe was blown apart, my Creature and Mummy models were melted, and so on. Little brothers, Argh! In 2016 I cleared out the rest of my original Megos, Batmobile and Spidermobile, along with a bunch of Comics, posters and other rarities (Marvel Treasury Editions and DC first editions including a hardcover Detective 27. It was a tough day.... but love these new versions, and some of the others i’ve Assembled. I hear they plan to bring out the original 13 DC figures. Have not seen any Marvel news. Plus I have a 1/9 Batmobile coming in the new year, so that will be a project after I get the Spider-mobile together.

Lou, in Detroit back in the day we had The Ghoul who was a sort of rip on Ghoulardi but what with his wearing a toilet seat around his neck, a weird bathing cap, and sunglasses missing a lense, he was just as fun and nutty as Ernie seems to have been. The Ghoul was on Saturday night on UHF channel 50 showing Godzilla, Hammer Horror, and all that. Channel 7 would show the 1966 Batman movie once or twice a year which was always a 'must-see' for me and all my school pals. Talking G.I. Joes, I remember you could actually shave their beards off with a shaving razor, although you'd never hear the tag-line, "Clean-shaven G.I. Joe... By Marx!" In any event, it's great hearing people's memories about their Mego figures. I only had the one Batman because my dad hated anything about action figures be it Mego, G.I. Joe, Johnny West, Big Jim, The Six Million Dollar Man, etc. He went absolutely ballistic ruining Christmas morning for everyone when I got both the Evel Knievel stunt cycle and scramble van. Ah, good times.

Between the Ghoul and Sir Graves Ghastly, I was half scared to death to watch tv late at night, or Saturday afternoon for that matter. For me Kresgee at Northland Mall and KMart at Tel Twelve Mall had everything a Mego , GI Joe, or Marx collector could ever want! I sure miss those stores.

Sir Graves Ghastly? Now we're talking, greatlakes6! NEEEEEEYAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! That weekly graveyard intro with the lightning and slowly creaking open coffin was awesome. Is it just me or did/does anyone else sort of find a natural association between Batman and vampires? Well, if anything Sir Graves and The Ghoul joyfully distracted me from the fact that I only had one Mego.

[AndyFish]

Hey I love the oven mitts even though those were the first things lost when you played with them. I don't know anyone as a kid who had these whose figures eventually had bare hands and marker drawn on emblems.

[Therin of Andor]

I don't know anyone as a kid who had these whose figures eventually had bare hands and marker drawn on emblems.

I did rather nice replica emblems from those woven-fabric self-adhesive name labels. You know, those ones that said, "Hello, my name is..." that you wore at seminars and social gatherings. They were more durable.

[Jimmy L. 66]

Lou, in Detroit back in the day we had The Ghoul who was a sort of rip on Ghoulardi but what with his wearing a toilet seat around his neck, a weird bathing cap, and sunglasses missing a lense, he was just as fun and nutty as Ernie seems to have been. The Ghoul was on Saturday night on UHF channel 50 showing Godzilla, Hammer Horror, and all that. Channel 7 would show the 1966 Batman movie once or twice a year which was always a 'must-see' for me and all my school pals. Talking G.I. Joes, I remember you could actually shave their beards off with a shaving razor, although you'd never hear the tag-line, "Clean-shaven G.I. Joe... By Marx!" In any event, it's great hearing people's memories about their Mego figures. I only had the one Batman because my dad hated anything about action figures be it Mego, G.I. Joe, Johnny West, Big Jim, The Six Million Dollar Man, etc. He went absolutely ballistic ruining Christmas morning for everyone when I got both the Evel Knievel stunt cycle and scramble van. Ah, good times.

Between the Ghoul and Sir Graves Ghastly, I was half scared to death to watch tv late at night, or Saturday afternoon for that matter. For me Kresgee at Northland Mall and KMart at Tel Twelve Mall had everything a Mego , GI Joe, or Marx collector could ever want! I sure miss those stores.

Sir Graves Ghastly? Now we're talking, greatlakes6! NEEEEEEYAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! That weekly graveyard intro with the lightning and slowly creaking open coffin was awesome. Is it just me or did/does anyone else sort of find a natural association between Batman and vampires? Well, if anything Sir Graves and The Ghoul joyfully distracted me from the fact that I only had one Mego.

Came for the Mego talk, stayed for the Ghoul and Sir Graves Ghastky chat.

For Xmas my Santa brought me all the DC characters along with batmobile, and copter ( my brother got all the Marvel characters and spidey dune buggy.)- best xmas ever. Sir Graves was a big part of my Saturday afternoons as a child, and we couldn't wait for Saturday nights to watch the Ghoul. My Dad thought blowing up Froggy was the funniest thing. I remember him on channel 20 though, I could be wrong.

[Therin of Andor]

Tarzan is no great loss as that flesh-colored bodysuit was all kinds of stupid.

We removed the bodysuit, cut the sleeves off and put it on Robin, so he had flesh-coloured tights like the '66 TV series.

[hisyouthfulward]

Robin was the first Mego I owned, followed by Batman. I first became aware of them by seeing a full page ad in Famous Monsters of Filmland. I think I purchased them at my local Ben Franklin 5 and 10 store. By the by, I found that if you took a twist tie and went around Robin at the wrists, his gloves would look more like they were drawn in the comic books. For those interested (since the topic worked its way into this one) here I am as Sir Graves Ghastly at the Greenfield Village Hallowe'en Nights walk a few years back with my beautiful wife and kids

[greatlakes6]

Great picture, you look just like him!

[SprangFan]

Hey I love the oven mitts even though those were the first things lost when you played with them. I don't know anyone as a kid who had these whose figures eventually had bare hands and marker drawn on emblems.

The mitts got lost, the emblems fell off pretty much immediately (sometimes still in the box), the boots split down the seams, the capes frayed at the edges and eventually unraveled entirely, and if you were lucky, you got in a year or so of play before the elastic bands holding the things together broke. But in the meantime you had fun figures that couldn't stand up or (with the mitts on) hold anything. Whee.

I'm as nostalgic as the next guy but let's face it, at Mego, the "control" part of "Quality Control" meant the same as it did for "fire control": stamp it out early before it can spread!

We removed the bodysuit, cut the sleeves off and put it on Robin, so he had flesh-coloured tights like the '66 TV series.

That's pretty clever! I can't remember my first figure to have the elastic band break but whoever it was I swapped his head out for the Riddler's, so the Prince of Puzzlers was stuck with that shattered body. His tight-fitting one-piece bodysuit with the footies could more or less hold him together until he "fell" from the top of the Wayne Foundation...or got run over by the Batmobile, or had something dropped on him...and then he made for an impressive spectacle with his mutilated form lying there at crazy angles. "Poor Riddler, guess he never learned that crime doesn't pay."

The Star Trek figures were harder to swap with other lines thanks to those "boot" lower legs, so Captain Kirk had to soldier on with his injuries: his left arm cracked and broke at the shoulder "ring" that the elastic band went through, so it wouldn't stay on. You can't imagine how hard it is to deliver an intimidating speech to Kang the Klingon when your arm keeps sliding out of its sleeve and landing at your feet.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Hey I love the oven mitts even though those were the first things lost when you played with them. I don't know anyone as a kid who had these whose figures eventually had bare hands and marker drawn on emblems.

In our house, to keep the gloves on, we used masking tape reversed in a loop inside the glove, and it worked, since we were never that rough with the Megos in any case. As for emblems, we used tape or rubber cement for the backing. Just writing that brings back a ton of fun Mego memories.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Hey I love the oven mitts even though those were the first things lost when you played with them. I don't know anyone as a kid who had these whose figures eventually had bare hands and marker drawn on emblems.

The mitts got lost, the emblems fell off pretty much immediately (sometimes still in the box), the boots split down the seams, the capes frayed at the edges and eventually unraveled entirely, and if you were lucky, you got in a year or so of play before the elastic bands holding the things together broke. But in the meantime you had fun figures that couldn't stand up or (with the mitts on) hold anything. Whee.

I'm as nostalgic as the next guy but let's face it, at Mego, the "control" part of "Quality Control" meant the same as it did for "fire control": stamp it out early before it can spread!

They did improve body construction (Type 2 bodies, I believe) and costuming as the line moved along; Thor, Iron Man, Green Arrow, Mister Fantastic and Conan were big leaps forward for Mego's quality.

[SprangFan]

I was a square so I couldn't go for Thor with his long hair (that hippy!) My brother ended up with him (and really all the Marvel figs in our house) and I have to admit I was impressed with the helmet, easily one of the best accessories in the line. Although maybe you can't really call it an "accessory" since was essential, not optional. Without it, Thor had a surely fatal hole in his skull!

My brother also ended up with The Falcon, who was always a "meh" character for me in the comics but the figure was pretty cool looking. I'm glad Sam got a chance to shine: in the comics, Steve was the cool one and Sam was a less cool hanger-on,but with the Mego figs it was the other way around.

[AndyFish]

Ha-- none of us wanted Thor because of the hair-- made him too doll like for us. I think my whole group were made up of DC Fans. The Filmation Justice League Cartoons, Adventures of Superman and Batman re-runs ruled the neighborhood. We used to laugh at those Marvel cartoons with the limited animation.

[Keith Mayo]

Even as a kid I hated those oven mit gloves.

[Larry A.]

Even as a kid I hated those oven mit gloves.

So did I, Keith!