I didn’t forget! Well, okay, I kinda forgot. Between bouts of pneumonia and being overworked at the old job, I’ve been remiss in finishing up the “Toys I Wish I Still Had” series. But now I’m ready to reveal number one! It shouldn’t be a big surprise: it combines the fun of GI Joes with excitement of men in tights. Yes, the Mego Super-Heroes.

I had multiple GI Joes growing up, of course (and many were hand-me-downs from my brothers), and I had a lot of Star Trek Tracer Guns and ammo, obviously. But I had so many Mego Super-Heroes that it really eclipsed all my other toys in sheer quantity. For example, I had at least three Batman figures: two of the normal ones and one removable cowl Batman. The removable cowl was really cool, except that it had a tendency to creep up on Bruce Wayne’s head, sorta blocking his eyes. The great thing, though, was using the removable cowl to make a Super-Batman by making Superman wear the cowl. I also would mix and match from all my figures to make some horrible Composite Superman like creations.

Along with Batman and Superman, I also had an assortment of Robins. I remember very clearly being so excited that the Robin from the television show, Burt Ward, would be at the local TG&Y signing autographs as part of a promotion to sell the figures. I did get an autographed picture (I think it cost about $10), but I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the pony-tailed, five-o’clock shadowed, massively hairy legged guy in the Robin suit. Anyhow, I was really there to get some Mego Robin action figures, anyhow.

Unlike a lot of my other toys, the Mego ones I owned were all mine. They weren’t hand-me-downs. My brothers had little to no interest in them.

Here’s a list of all the figures I owned:

• Batman (3)
• Superman (1)
• Robin (2)
• Batgirl (1)
• Wonder Woman (1)
• Riddler (1)
• Aquaman (1)
• Green Arrow (1)
• Joker (1)
• Spider-Man (1)

Not sure how that Spider-Man one got in there. I was not a big fan of Marvel Comics. I probably bought it because I couldn’t get any of the fabled Teen Titans ones.

But that’s not all. Along with all those figures, I was also the proud owner of several vehicles for the figures. My all time favorite was the Batcycle, though the Batlab was a close second (and had a great Bat-Grappling Hook (by that time, my grappling hook love was in full swing). The Joker Mobile was a superb toy, too, with its rear punching glove trap.

• The Mego Museum: THE place for information on all Mego’s toys, including their Star Trek and Planet of the Apes figures.
• Mego Talk: a great forum on Mego toys.
• Mego Central: Another Mego site, with some nice pictures.
• Wikipedia’s page on the Mego Corporation.

Eventually, Mego went out of business. They apparently had a chance at the Star Wars license, but didn’t take it. As a result, Kenner ended up selling millions and millions of crappy little action figures. By that time, the larger, more detailed Mego figures were going out of style. Seems like some focus groups or competing companies decided that GI Joes and Mego line were really dolls and that boys really wanted to play with 6-inch tall action figures.

Within the last five years or so, some companies have released “Mego-like” dolls. Strangely, Kenner released some nice versions of The Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Aquaman and others. They aren’t as cool as the Mego figures, but they aren’t bad.

As for all my originals? Well, some came apart after being forced to perform some unapproved super-heroics: one of the Robins ended up a quadrapalegic after testing some skateboarding manuevers. Most of the gloves (which were more like oven mitts) were lost, as were many boots and shoes. The chest insignia invariably fell off after a few weeks, too. And, not to sound like a broken record, but as was usual, most of my Mego dolls ended up in my parents’ classrooms, where they met their untimely end.

Technorati Tags: Mego, Batman, Superman, Robin

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 26th, 2006 at 8:57 pm and is filed under DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Toys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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