Their clothes were ratty and torn. Skin blemished here and there. Some were even missing a limb.
No, I didn’t grow up in a war zone. I’m talking about my childhood collection of Mego action figures. They happily filled my childhood days, following me to my first job and still keep an eye on me to this day.
What are Mego Action Figures?
If you’re unfamiliar with Mego, they were a great toy brand from the ’70s, responsible for making action figures (okay, okay, you can call them dolls) based on popular movie and TV show characters. My sister had the Wizard of Oz gang, as well as a handful of spooky humanoid monkeys from Planet of the Apes.
I had a few Dukes of Hazzard figures, along with Tarzan and a slew of the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes (an amazingly cool collection of Marvel and DC figures).
What made these Mego action figures so unique was their poseability (rubber band guts helped their shoulder joints stay flexible), and the cloth costumes they came with. Some even had various accessories like Dorothy’s ruby slippers or Thor’s helmet, belt and mighty hammer Mjolnir.
They also had a fantastic collection of licenses to work with. Happy Days. Star Trek. CHiPs. Starsky and Hutch. Dallas.
Sadly, in the early 1980s, Mego filed for bankruptcy and went out of business. But that wouldn’t be the end of Mego… not by a long shot.
[Cue foreshadowing music…]
My Best Friends Were Megos
What made Megos so lovable to me and all my friends growing up was the fact that we could actually play superheroes with them. That and the fact that we had one line of action figures that included both Marvel and DC characters.
The lineups were so great too. Sure you had the core characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman from DC, as well as Hulk, Spider-Man and Thor from Marvel. But it went much deeper than that.
On the DC side, there were villains like The Joker, Penguin, Riddler and even Mr. Mxyzptlk. There were the Teen Titans: Aqualad, Speedy, Kid Flash and Wonder Girl. And the coolest DC superhero action figure of all time? That would be Green Arrow.
I never owned the bow-carrying Ollie Queen, but my friend Gary did. He had one massive collection of Megos, and I can’t tell you how many summer afternoons we spent in his basement with our other friends Ethan and Eddie, pitting DC and Marvel’s finest against a horde of supervillains.
Yes, today’s super detailed and highly articulated action figures are a comic geek’s dream come true. But there’s still something about those Megos. They were the first action figure line I collected and I still have many of them today.
Captain America (obviously) being my favorite. The white paint on his nose has peeled. The sticker star on his chest lost its adhesiveness decades ago, but mom was there to save the day and sew it right onto his costume. And then there’s his iconic shield, complete with forever-peeling red, white and blue colors.
I probably owned about five or six different Mego Hulk action figures. That’s because the connector pin always seemed to break in his leg.
My Batman and Robin figures had plenty of foes to face including Penguin and Joker.
And Superman constantly crossed paths with the imp from another dimension Mr. Mxyzptlk.
Tarzan even joined us on occasion, although I never quite understood why he came with a tan-colored body suit to put under his leopard skin outfit. His natural skin color worked just fine.
Plus, Kirk and Spock from Star Trek, who came with some nifty belts that let you carry their weapons in.
Sometimes the Justice League of Avengers (that’s what I called my combo team of Marvel and DC Megos) would take on some brand-new adversary. When my sister wasn’t looking, I’d borrow her Megos and use the Cowardly Lion as the vicious beast out of control. Or Cornelius and a Guerilla Soldier from the Planet of the Apes would play the pivotal part of Gorilla Grodd and company.
The Mego House of Horror
Jump ahead to my first job at college. I was a copy editor at Wizard magazine, a monthly publication all about comic books, toys and video games. We were all proud card-carrying members of geekdom who constantly tried outdoing each other by seeing who could fit the most action figures on their desk.
At one point, I dug out my old Mego action figures from the closet and brought them in to the office. At first I set them up on a shelf in some generic action poses.
But on some days, I’d came into my office to see a few figures had moved into more… um… provocative poses.
It didn’t take long for my wholesome little Megoville display to turn into a true Mego House of Horrors. (Yes, I even printed out a little sign with that name on it.) My ragtag collection of figures was infamous.
There was Captain Kirk, who commanded respect with his aqua-colored phaser.
Innocent in looks only, Shazam wasn’t just missing the lightning bolt on his chest, but the hand on his right arm.
The one-armed, jacket-less Joker looked like he just stepped off the bus from Derry, Maine, ready to truly spread some horrific joy.
Iron Man wasn’t just missing his boots, gloves and belt, but the “armor” on his leg was split down the seam. If ever there was a despondent superhero, Tony Stark’s metallic alter ego took the cake.
And poor Robin. The Boy Wonder was actually my best looking Mego action figure, complete with his green booties, yellow cape and belt. His costume was crisp and his skin tone unblemished. Clearly, he was too pretty for the Mego House of Horrors.
Twisted ToyFare Theatre
The horrific antics continued in my Mego House of Horrors until one fateful day. We were in the process of putting together our first toy-related special magazine called ToyFare. I was sitting at my desk proofing an article, when Editor-in-Chief Pat McCallum popped his head in my office.
He walked over to my House of Horrors, scanned the latest HR-would-never-approve-in-a-million-years scene, and grabbed my Mego Spidey figure.
“Can I borrow this?” he asked, assuring me that no Megos would be harmed in the making of whatever production he was working on.
I said sure and with the help of a rubber band, Mego Spidey taught the world how to do the macarena.
From there, that one little photo comic strip led to a full-fledged Twisted Mego Theatre (later redubbed Twisted ToyFare Theatre), quickly becoming the most hilarious and popular column in the monthly ToyFare magazine.
Even though they might not have as much articulation as today’s toys, it was the Mego faces that just had so much expression. Twisted ToyFare Theatre tapped into that, and gave unique personalities and voices to each of these Mego action figures.
The combination of the nostalgia, ridiculous storylines and ludicrous dialogue all helped raise the awareness of Megos.
Mego Makes a Marvel-ous Comeback
Nearly three decades after Mego shuttered its doors, Marty Abrams, son of the company’s founder, brought the property back to life.
Woo hoo!
In 2009, his company Abrams Gentile Entertainement (AGE) reclaimed the rights to the Mego name.
Relaunching the line in 2018, the Mego family welcomed action figures based on properties like The Facts of Life, The Brady Bunch, Married with Children, Cheers, KISS, Charmed, Charlie’s Angels and more.
But even better, when they relaunched the Mego line in 2018, there were some great DC Megos made. Not just new versions of classic characters, but some all-new, much-coveted characters like The Flash! For some reason, the original Mego World’s Greatest Super-Heroes line from the 70s never got around to making the Scarlet Speedster. They’ve since made some other fan-favorite characters including Firestorm, Deadman and Harley Quinn.
And recently, Mego struck a deal with Disney to finally bring us some Marvel Mego action figures. Available at Disney Parks and for a limited time on the Disney Store website, they just released a Spider-Man World’s Greatest Super-Heroes set.
This limited-edition four-pack features three classic Marvel Megos (Spider-Man, Green Goblin, The Lizard) and one all-new baddie in Electro!
I was lucky enough to be one of the few who successfully ordered the set. There were a number of website glitches and cancelled orders the day they went on sale online, but apparently the Mego Gods were smiling on me that day.
This set can’t come soon enough because I’ll finally get my hands on a Mego Green Goblin and Mego Lizard! I’m hoping the crazy collector demand convinces Disney to put out more Marvel Mego sets in the future.
Who knows, maybe we’ll finally get some Mego X-Men figures. Or a Mego Dr. Doom. Or even a Mego Daredevil action figure.
I’m just happy I still get to hang out with some of my best friends from childhood.
Visit the official Mego website