Palitoy of the Day: Superman

Another beauty of a Palitoy/Mego card, courtesy of Bill Frost. Today's feature is the man of Steel hisself.

Mego Museum Superman Gallery

MegoMuseum Forums

It's Vinyl Cape Superman!

Megohead Steve Bracha sent in this rarely seen variation of the Mego Man of Steel, the vinyl cape. Check it out here at the Mego Superman Gallery. Thanks Steve and thanks also to Chet for pointing this out.

Mego of the Day: 12" Lex Luthor

Mego of the Day is the completely underrated 12" figure of Lex Luthor, looking like he just stepped out of the legion of doom, it's hard not to be in awe.

Check out our Superman the Movie Gallery

Discuss this figure on the Mego Forum

MegoMuseum Takes a Look at Superman: The Movie

December 15th, 1978 saw the release of the Richard Donner helmed Superman: The Movie, the world's first (but definitely not last) comic book blockbuster movie.

Mego Corporation, being the toy licensor for action figures was well prepared for this event and created a great deal of product to coincide with this fantastic opportunity.

Having a good relationship with DC Comics meant Mego had plenty of reference materials from the film itself.

Former Mego Designer Harvey Zelman elaborated in his interview " I remember sitting down with everybody and they lined up all the still frames from the movie and we got the insight of what was going on. Sitting there in the meeting saying: OK, we gotta do a Fortress of Solitude, we gotta do this, we gotta do that"

Evidence can be seen from Mego Designer Vinny Baiera's production notes from one of those meetings, the notes mention that the "New Movie Line" would feature and "Ali Size" (10") Chris Reeve, a Krypton with Space Ship playset and a series of action figures that would be 12.5" tall.

While most would have imagined there would be additions to the 8" World's Greatest Superheroes line, Mego President Marty Abrams had an inclination to produce figures in 1/6th scale for movie characters.

Harvey Zelman explained this philosophy to the Museum "You got a lot more for a 12" [figure] than you did an 8" figure. [Abrams] wanted more detail to the outfits, when you did a 12.5" figure you did nice, dressy outfits whereas the 8" were [not as nice]. "

Mego ordered six headsculpts from toy artist Ken Sheller, they included a Reeves Superman, Jor El, Lex Luthor, General Zod, partner in crime Ursa and his silent henchman Non. It's not known why the latter two were not released maybe Mego was made aware that much of their contribution to Superman The Movie would be put into the sequel (The majority of Superman 2 was filmed at the same time as the original) but in the end four 12" characters were released.

Mego was optimistic about the line and Marty Abrams was especially impressed with Sheller's work, as Mr. Sheller relates "when I delivered the six wax heads, I recall that Marty (Abrams) was so happy to have them that he held up the Chris Reeve head, looked at it, said "he looks great Ken!" and then gave it a big kiss. He did this probably for two reasons. One, he liked the head alot and two, he had to get on a plane to Hong Kong right away with them, and I'm sure that he was very happy that I made the deadline."

Only the Christopher Reeve Superman Figure bore both a head sculpt and outfit that matched the movie character. The rest of the line had outfits that followed the directive of their comic counterparts. It's not known why Mego chose to do this, it may have involved rights to the movie costumes or the fact that the company simply felt the movie apparel wasn't "toyetic" enough. Certainly in the case of Lex Luthor this is true, most would prefer purple and green to one that resembled Hackman in the movie.

Mego also pitched a playset for the 12" line that would include different scenes from the Movie, the playset though not released seems to have gone through several transitions and can be seen in great detail at it's new gallery page.

Mego also added new characters to their fledgling Pocket Super Heroes line in the guise of Jor El, Zod and Luthor. These figures appeared rushed as did their resulting generic packaging and were not good sellers for Mego.

Later revisions to the Pocket Superheroes packaging would still show the movie trio but they were not produced past their initial run.

Mego also pitched two playsets for this line, both movie based The Fortress of Solitude and Earth Quake sets were clever recycling of old "Comic Action Heroes" molds that made sense but buyers balked at the concept and both were not released.

In the end, the man of Steel movie merchandise did not fly for Mego. Former Mego VP Cindy Schriebman explained in a 1982 newspaper interview "Superman didn't increase sales for us" she added "It came out at the time of Star Wars and other blockbusters. It was a question of vying for dollars for action figures."


Today, the Mego Superman line is somewhat underrated, the Pocket Heroes can be found MOC for under $20 and the high quality 12.5" figures are somewhat under appreciated for what they are. We are pleased at the Museum to debut our new galleries for this line:

Superman Lex Luthor Jor El General Zod Unproduced Playset

Discuss this on the Mego Forum


Also be sure to check the World's Greatest Toys Blog today, as they present the fifth and final segment in their series unveiling the 1975 Mego Spring Catalog, today's reveal is all about the heroes!

The Mego Superheroes Still Strong in 1979 Wards

To start a new month off right why not showcase a beautiful page such as this in the Mego Museum Department Store Catalog Archive . The 1979 Mongomery Wards Catalog had an impressive selection of Mego Superheroes including the Elastic Heroes and the larger then life play set The Wayne Foundation.

Buy and Trade Mego Superheroes at the Mego Museum Forums, click here

Speaking of Superheroes, check out this killer Mr.Fantastic figure, it's this week's custom spotlight. Check out all the cool goodies at Custom Mego.

Only two months left for Megomeet, the world's only Mego Convention. Check out the official site for more information.

Get it at the Superhero Shop

A bit of toy insider history today with this staged toy store shot from Licensing Corporation of America (LCA) who in 1977 handled the DC comics Superheroes. This four page ad, meant to entice toy manufacturers into licensing the heroes, shows the top licensors at the time which means lots of Mego product in the mix.

Check out the MegoMuseum Ad Archive for more toy insider information on the World's Greatest Toy Company and stay tuned to this blog for a big announcement!

Look! Up In The Sky!

This great black and white ad featuring the Mego Mego Superman the Movie toy line is courtesy of Rob Kelly. If I may editorialize, this beautiful line of figures doesn't get the attention it deserves. If you're into Black and White Comic Magazines, check out the terrific blog All in black and white for 75 cents

Check Out this Months TV Film Memoribilia

This month's TV Film Memorabilia has an expansive history of Mego Corporation article written by Spencer Peet, many of the photographs are from the Mego Museum. The article covers the rise and fall of Mego and includes a wide amount of rare product from all their lines.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super-Spider-Man? Ron's latest creation is a very imaginative alagamation of two pop culture icons.

Rare Superman from Peru

Thanks to Rudy we have pics of the ultra rare Superman figure from Basa (Peru). Very few of these are known to exist and we're lucky to have shots of it.

Jason has created a pretty fantastic mego sized version of Corsair from the pages of the X-Men. Check it out here.

Ray posted this great video of one of Scott's Dida play sets from last weekend's Megomeet. Well worth a look

I'll take ten!

New to the Department store gallery is this amazing deal on Mego Superheroes nobody in their right mind would pass on today. Removable Cowl Batman, Superman and Removable Mask Robin for under six bucks? I wish, this very rare Aldens catalog is likely the first appearance of the WGSH.

Discuss this at the new Mego Forum.