The Mego Museum is proud to unveil thesuperheroshop.com, an online tribute site to the legendary Heroes World stores.
Before the internet, 70s kids got the majority of toy news from Department store wishbooks and TV. However, for a child who loved Superheroes there was no better check list than the many ads and catalogs produced by New Jersey based comic book chain Heroes World.
Thesuperheroshop.com will serve as a repository for all those ads, catalogs and any other bit of information or memorabilia relating to those days we can find.
Right now we’ve got the 1976 and Fall 1977 catalogs scanned in their entirety along with a gallery of the chain’s many comic book ads. The goal of the site is predictably to collect ‘em all!
So click on Snyderman and begin the tour!
Watch for regular updates to this ever expanding site.
The new special issue, on sale now, is titled “The A-Z of Star Trek” and is the “ultimate guide to all things Star Trek.”
Interviews in the magazine include Star Trek into Darkness‘ Simon Pegg, Benedict Cumberbatch and Alice Eve; other inteviews are with Rene Auberjonois, Brannon Braga, Michael Dorn, Ronald D. Moore and many more!
Articles include Star Trek’s Fifty Best Moments, an in-depth look back at each of the first eleven Star Trek movies; overviews of the televised series; a guide to the best tie-in movies; a look at the 1960s comics, and an over view of the Mego Star Trek toys by Brian, Megomuseum editor and chief!
In addition to the magazine, purchasers will receive three gifts: a Starfleet insignia badge, a Star Trek into Darkness poster, and an original series print based on the Mirror, Mirror original series episode. For more information visit the SFX magazine website.
The Mego community, indeed the entire toy collector world was taken by surprise a few weeks ago when it was announced that Figures Toy Company had acquired the licenses for Batman, Dukes of Hazzard, Conan and Tarzan, Evel Kneivel, Gilligan’s Island and Dallas. After a lifetime of waiting we learned we’d be seeing Mego-style Adam West Batman 66 figures as well as reissues of World’s Greatest Super Heroes.
The stunning and exciting news has been greeted with a tremendously positive response along with a few notes of caution. Figures Toy Company (AKA Classic TV Toys) has been extremely active in Mego reproductions since 2005 when they entered the market with reproductions of Mego public domain lines such as Mad Monsters and Super Knights, Mego licensed properties such as Happy Days and Space 1999 and new lines in the Mego style (I Love Lucy, Married With Children). These early CTVT figures manufactured in India and were plagued with quality control problems. Nonetheless, the Mego community was blessed to have so many parts and clothes and accessories available for endless projects over the years and CTVT remained a popular destination for many of us.
Figures Toys persevered and clearly learned from their past mistakes. Their most recent work with the KISS line of 8 and 12 inch Mego-style figures has been a substantial improvement and has proven to be a hit with Mego and KISS Fans alike.
Now Figures Toys has vaulted into the big leagues of toy licensing with some of the most high profile licenses of all. Expecttaions are sky-high and we all wish them the best.
In this Q&A with the Mego Museum’s Steve Moore, Anthony Balasco discusses upcoming figure lines including a peek at the Dukes of Hazzard prototypes. Read more »
UPDATED: The May 5th episode of Toy Hunter on Travel Channel featured this very playset variation!In the episode host Jordan Hembrough barely misses out on grabbing the set when Mego collector extraordinaire Mark Huckabone runs off with it. Mark tells us that he only knows of 2 that exist. He confirms that the set contained carded Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk figures placed inside the playset.
Jordan is kind enough to stop by the Mego Museum Forums to chat with fans from time to time. If you aren’t a member of the forum yet you are missing out on one of the best vintage toy communities online.
This week we are keeping an eye on this eBay auction. It’s a Star Trek Enterprise Playset…and it comes with no furniture, no transporter, is very sloppily put together….and yet, we LOVE IT!
We’ve heard people talk about this set before. In fact, Palitoy says he saw one years ago at a toy show and I have a friend I worked with who has vivid memories of getting his in San Diego at Fed-Mart, a discount grocery store chain. This is the first photographic evidence we’ve had of this piece.
A little history: We know that Mego playsets were manufactured in Hong Kong and then assembled in the United States. They were likely shipped flat and then folded into shape and riveted together stateside.
Our educated guess: There were probably extra playset cases left after the supply of furniture and transporters were used up making proper playsets. Whether it was Mego itself or, more likely, a third party distributor—someone just slapped these sets together–notice in the photos they didn’t even rivet all of the flaps and shipped them off in a discount close-out sale. Note also that the white edge piece at the center of the playset is cardboard, not plastic as is the case on a normal playset.
An empty shell of the Enterprise may not be much to write home about, but with this printed card attached it’s a whole other story. Mego never used photographs on their Trek packaging, so having the pictures of the actors on this piece is really special. The retro typography is wonderful, and has the distinct feel of a discount store from the 1970s. It’s doubtful Mego printed the paper card, it doesn’t bear any markings from Mego. It was probably printed by whatever distributor got them without regard for licensing propriety.
The set is advertised to come with two figures, Kirk and Spock, but the seller says they are nowhere to be found inside. This is puzzling because he does not feel the paper was removed to open the playset, it’s actually adhered with tape or light glue on the back of the card. It’s possible the figures were attached to the outside, we can’t be sure. (Edit–We have since learned that the carded figures were included inside the playset, but this example did not have them present. The set must have been opened contrary to the seller’s opinion.)
Thanks to the seller, Devon Alexander – of The Vintage Toy Chest for sharing this item with us and letting us add it to the Mego Museum Star Trek Gallery.
For more about the official Mego Enterprise, visit the Star Trek Gallery or visit the Library for our article about the various prototype stages of the playset.
Other remaindered oddities from Mego:
“Kitchen Sink Aquaman”, a figure slapped together at the warehouse from the last vestiges of the WGSH line.
Figures Toy Company is set to Release Retro 8 and 12 inch Action Figures based on Batman TV Series, Retro Batman, Dukes of Hazzard, Evel Knievel, Conan The Barbarian, Tarzan, Dallas TV Series, Gilligan’s Island and a Talking Barack Obama figure
Season Three of Game of Thrones premieres on HBO tonight and there’s no better way for Mego-heads to celebrate the return of this amazing series than with a batch of amazing Custom Megos!
