Mego Memories: Mego Apes

Betsy opens a Mego General Urko in this great bit of vintage toylove. Betsy also got a Mego batman and Robin this year and a long friendship with Evel Knievel ensued..

Enjoy previous Mego Memories at the Megomuseum, Part 1 and Part 2 are full of vintage coolness. Got a pic to donate? Send it on down!

Mego Invites You On A Journey That Begins Where Everything Ends

In 1979, Walt Disney sent out a press kit for their upcoming block buster film "The Black Hole" included in this was a specially made Mego Toys Catalog for the event. Full of items that were never produced, we are happy to show case it for the first time.

Check out the 1980 Mego Black Hole Catalog.

One week until Mego Meet, hope to see you there.

The Results are in!

The votes have been tallied and the results for the 1978 RE: Imagined contest are in. Come check out what the panel of judges which included two former Mego employees had to say.

Then if you haven't already come see all the entries at the Mego Forum, there is an intoxicating amount of talent and imagination put into all of these. Well done, everybody!

Less than one week until MegoMeet, this year's Mego Convention, hope to see you there.

The Mego Corp 1960 Catalog

A new entry into the Mego Library today, this time it's something rarely seen or talked about. Before they were the World's Greatest Toy Company Mego was an efficient company that sold modestly priced toys in something called "The Basement Department".

For a small company, they could provide an entire toy department with what needed and it's an interesting and terrific piece of Mego history.

Check out the 1960 Mego Toys Catalog

Browse the Other Mego Catalogs in the Library.

Then join us in the Mego Museum Forum, the largest and friendliest forum of it's kind on teh interweb.

EMCE Toys presents the Gorn!

I'm a bit behind but Mego Museum Community members have been buzzing about the new photos of the EMCE Gorn figure from the classic Star Trek series. You can almost hear him hissing.....

Nate posted this fun scene using this transporter room diorama recently and it's this week's custom spotlight.

These are just some of the items available in this years Mego Museum Raffle (which goes to support our bandwidth) Check out the rest here.

The Museum Raffle will be drawn at Mego Meet this June, hope to see you there!

Final Date for 1978 Entries

Today is the closing date for the Mego Museum's 1978 Re:Imagined project, so if you have projects/concepts today is the final day.

The entries will be judged by two members of the MegoMuseum Forum as well as two former Mego Employees, the selected pieces will then be included in our 1978: Re Imagined Catalog to be published later in the year.

Check out all the Entries Here

Two Weeks Until Mego Meet the fourth annual Mego Convention.

The Waltons Go To Oz

Wonderful catalog spread today just added to the Mego Museum Department Store Gallery, this time it's a spread for the Walton's and Wizard of Oz. It's rare to see a back view from the Walton's farmhouse so I thought I'd showcase it here.

I'm not sure what John Boy is doing....

Lex Luthor Source Art Discovered

Chris Franklin has made another discovery in sourcing the origins of Mego packaging art, this time with the 1978 Superman the Movie Package.

It seems Lex is from the classic Treasury Edition Comic "Superman VS Spiderman" which of course our own Scott Adams paid tribute to with our Superhero Checklist Trading Card:

View more of these discoveries at our Comic Book Origins Section.

Speaking of Superheroes: Be sure to check out World's Greatest Toys Blog today, which has a funny and insightful tribute to Captain Marvel entitled "Mego Shazam Hanging by a Thread"

8 Reasons to Attend Mego Meet 2008

With this year's fourth annual Mego Meet Convention fast approaching and looking like it'll be a great event, it was high time to extoll the virtues and give reason to those uncomfortably sitting on the fence about attending.

1) The Official Keychain : Thanks to the ferocius generosity of Mike Conlon, Megomeet attendees get a free MegoMeet/Mego Museum key chain this year. This thing is sweet too, a lot of love went into it. So much so you won't want to actually use it but will likely keep it "MIB"

2) Dealers Room : This should come as a no brainer, our dealers room has been for the last events an incredible concentration of toys produced by Mego Corporation, along with replicas, mego-esque items and enough customs fodder to keep you going for the rest of the year.

3) Full Frontal Nerdity : One should never discount the euphoria of being a room of people who totally get it, people who hear "Type 1 and Type 2" and don't think it's a discussion of diabetes.

4) Panel Discussions: Guest speakers talk about Mego centric topics, this year's speakers include Dr. MEgo AKA Paul Clarke who will discuss EMCE toys "Planet of the Apes" and "Star Trek" lines.

5) It's in a Toy Museum!: The Kruger Street Toy Museum is an attraction in itself and a great place to take break and wander. Also it's a completely family friendly venue.

6) The Mego Display: Each year a wonderful display of Mego is put up at the Kruger museum, MIB, loose and custom items are on display. Even if it doesn't inspire you to spend, you can soak in the trip down memory lane.

7) Exclusive Figure: Like every year, Chris Johnson has put together a new exclusive for the event. Click here to read the announcement of this year's figure.

8) Mego Museum Raffle: You don't have to attend to get in on the Megomeet raffle but it sure adds to the fun. Great prizes are being added each day, check it out.

So there you have it, 8 reasons to attend Mego Meet, a celebration of the World's Greatest Toy Company, hope to see you there this June.

Mego Meet Website

A Salute to Mego 12" Batman

The 12" Mego World's Greatest Superheroes are often overlooked and that's a shame because they are well made toys with a lot of fun variations. The 12" Heroes began in Canada, when Parkdale Novelty CEO Morris Kotzer created the line by ordering the minimum. The first 12" Batman is largely the most familiar as he is rather common due to Parkdale having overstock up until the 80's.


The first 12" Batman has a unique head sculpt that was more realistic than his 8" WGSH counterpart.

While his gloves were of similiar material, his cape was a shiny vinyl and belt was merely sewn on.

The rest of this series was rounded out by Spider-Man, Superman and Robin who was 9" tall.

THe figures utilized "Skinny Bodies" that were also used for celebrity figures like Captain And Tenneil.

The artwork on the from utilized the 8" Packaging stock art which was actually dating back to the 1960's. The heroes heads in the bubbles can also be seen in the 1976 DC 8" card art.

The back of the box utilizes much of the same art seen on the original solid boxes.

The notable distinction being the crudely traced swipe of a Jim Aparo Batman from Detective comics 443 (thanks to Chris Franklin for that tip)

In 1978, Mego began to solicit the 12" line across the world, packaging for the 12" heroes can be found in UK, Italian and French packaging.

There is even a second release of this figure that believed to sold to the American market.

This second release of the 12" Batman has a new image of the caped crusader and the smiling hero head bubbles are taken from the 1979 DC comics 8" hero card.

It's interesting to note that the Batman figure has a small emblem, this is a legitimate variation and only seems to happen with this box.

There is an Italian version of the packaging as well but it seems Mego corrected the sticker problem by that time. This version of Batman has a cloth cape as well.

It's largely thought this figure was released in the US for a brief time before Mego decided to finally release a 12" Batman.






The back of the box uses the popular Neal Adams Batman that is also seen on the Japanese Popy Batman box.

Mego actually used that image of Superman in ads to promote the WGSH and who doesn't love that happy skipping Robin?

While the Superman box in this series recieved new artwork, there has never been a sighting of a revised Robin box although by this time Mego had swapped out the original 9" Robin and added a 12" figure.

In 1979, Mego finally embraced the 12' line in America, Fly away action was introduced to combat Remco's line of Energized Superheroes.

Magnetic Batman received not only a new muscular body but a revised head sculpt, man was he PO'd looking. This was possibly the most comic accurate Batman figure Mego produced.

Both Batman and Robin were given Magnetic hands and feet, a wonderful concept that had many Batman figures hanging from fridges.














The back depicted happier times with the Dynamic Duo as they hang from a girder. Mego made a big splash about these figures with TV and comic book advertising.

This line was sold in Canada well although boxed Grand Toys versions are hard to find.

What's interesting to note is the Magnetic concept only ran one year and didn't appear to succesful, by the 1980 catalog Mego was marketing the figures without the magnetics and in new packaging.











These figures represented the end of the 12' line for Mego.

The box is now a sharp purple and the flap now protudes the reverse of the other packaging. Fly Away Action is now written on the packaging.

The box has a stark feel to it, almost symbolizing what was going on at Mego at the time, a company who by the early 80's had lost a great deal of it's creative energy.

It's interesting to note that these Purple boxed Batman figures are incredibly rare with only four known specimens reported. One of which has a sewn on vinyl belt, so a variation abounds.

Mego must have shipped these out in very limited quantities, they were advertised until 1981.




The back of the box recycles the wonderful neal Adams Art used for the Wayne Foundation Playset as a cheery dynamic Duo going flying off somewhere.

In 1982, Mego pulled the 12' Heroes, although their tenure in the US was brief, it did make for some memorable and interesting figures while it lasted.

For More Info, check out our 12" Mego Superhero Gallery.

Buy, Sell or Trade Mego Superheroes at the MegoMuseum Froums.

1978 Project: Mego Employee Panel Announced, Final Submissions due by May 20

Hey everyone! Our deadline of May 20th is fast approaching.

We are excited and proud to confirm that former Mego R&D employees Harvey Zelman and Tory Mucaro will be on our panel evaluating and offering their insight on submissions.

The catalog lineup will be announced May 21st. The selected submissions
will be displayed and photographed at Megomeet so remember to make sure you give yourself enough time to get them mailed to me by May 30th. After that, they might not make the event. (June 6-7)

Everyone who has submitted should contact me for a shipping address. You can ship them whenever you want, just make sure they are in my hands no later than May 30th.

Remember to make sure there is a note in that that gives all the information on the figures, and on who you are, complete with return address. Also remember, you are responsible for return postage, so you might want to toss in an MO, or cash or something that will cover the return trip.

Not exactly sure when the catalog will be complete, but we plan on locking Scott up in the Museum basement until he completes his task.

Check out all the submissions in the 1978 Forum.

At World's Greatest Toys Benjamin is showcasing images from the 1979 Mego Annual Report, if you don't click there and check it out you lose your status as a Mego Collector. That's right, we're pulling your union card, we can do that.