Name: Anthony B. McElveen
CM: Is there any personal info that you are willing to share: (Married? Kids? Pets? Occupation? Where from? Other hobbies or interests?).
AM: I’m married, and my wife and I have two grown children who inhabit the space I should be using to display my Mego collection.
I don’t really claim ownership of any pets right now, but we’re feeding more than a dozen cats and one puppy that my son seems to enjoy having around.
I was born and raised in southeast Louisiana, near where I’ve lived for the past seven years, but I don’t intend to live here the rest of my life. I’ve also lived in Scotland, Texas, California, Maryland, Georgia, and Florida.
I guess I’m a natural-born collector. I collect Planet of the Apes merchandise (my first love), science fiction paperbacks, knock-off 8” figures, and anything else that appeals to me when I’m in a buying mood. I’m also obsessed with spheres and clear acrylic cylinders and rods.
CM: How did you get started collecting Mego?
AM: I got into Mego collecting by way of Planet of the Apes. Although I had figures from nearly every Mego 8” line as a child, I was really only interested in filling the Mego gap in my Planet of the Apes collection at first. Since I only needed to replace my lost Astronaut to have all of the figures, he was my first Mego purchase as an adult. This was in August of 1992. After I got him, I upgraded a couple of the others and then decided I needed the Action Stallion, the catapult and wagon, the battering ram, the throne, the jail, and the playsets. In the course of acquiring these, I discovered Toy Shop magazine and Mego lines I didn’t know existed. After that, there was no stopping me.
CM: What is your favorite original Mego figure and line?
AM: Planet of the Apes is easily my favorite line, and Cornelius is my favorite figure from that line. It never occurred to me as a child how fortunate I was that Mego got the license to make Planet of the Apes figures. If Marx or Hasbro or Mattel had made them, I probably wouldn’t be a toy collector now.
CM: What is, in your opinion, the biggest “hole” in Mego’s original lines? (What figure or figure line is missing that should have been done?)
AM: Unlike most, I think Mego covered the superheroes adequately. What we needed more of were generic characters who could stand in as victims, bystanders, witnesses, and henchmen.
Another area where they dropped the ball, in my opinion, was in not making figures with more racial diversity. Not counting the non-human characters, there were only eight figures with non-Caucasian bodies, and two of those have abnormal hands. I think that’s sad.
non-Caucasian customs
CM: What motivated you to start customizing?
AM: I started customizing because I found myself in possession of a handful of parts that I suddenly realised could be used to make a character that Mego didn’t produce. A lot of my customs are born that way; I just put the pieces together mentally and discover new combinations that work. It helps that I’ve hoarded a few extra parts specifically for use on customs, and rarely get rid of anything that I might be able to use later.
CM: What was your first custom?
AM: When I was either sixteen or seventeen years old, I made my first Mego custom; a more accurate version of Urko than the one that Mego produced. I always hated the goofy purple and tan clown suit that Mego put him in, so I wouldn’t have him when I was younger. It wasn’t until I found some discarded pieces of one whose elastic had snapped and gathered the rest up from my cousin’s yard that I gave in and accepted Urko into my collection. I put his head and boots on a regular Soldier Ape, then I trimmed his bandolier into a belt that would fit around his waist. I didn’t know anything about painting vinyl heads, so I used a blue Sharpie to make his helmet match the blue vinyl of his tunic.
CM: How did it come out, looking back on it now?
AM: I still have it, and it still looks pretty good. Since then, I’ve added the studded yoke and a custom pair of gloves.
Urko with one custom glove
CM: What have you done or learned that has improved your customizing skills?
AM: Operating a sewing machine is undoubtedly the most useful customizing skill I’ve learned. Learning the limits of the sewing machine’s capabilities has enabled me to design practical patterns for outfits, secure in the knowledge that the finished pieces will turn out the way I expect them to.
CM: What areas of customizing are your strongest points, or favorite things to do?
AM: I think my strongest point is my ability to look at existing figure heads and imagine what they’d look like with different hair or repainted features, and then create other recognizable characters from them by making slight modifications. This isn’t always possible, so my second favorite thing to do is just to disguise the original head.
I like for my customs to surprise and shock people when they find out that the “new” head they’re seeing is really a common Mego head that they probably have in their own parts boxes. If I can make someone mentally change gears, my day’s work is done.
Dead Ed
Vapor, a continual work in progress
Swami
Pyro the Clown
CM: What resources make it easier for you as a customizer? (is there a source for parts? Information? Etc. that aids you more than anything else?).
AM: Most of my sources are people I talk to in Mego Chat, like John Schipper, Theressa Chapko, and Paul Clare. Together, they can supply anything I can’t make myself. John is really more of a collaborator than a supplier. He makes great hats, masks, and belts, and he supplied the wired bendy tail for my Hellboy custom. He’s never been afraid to try a new idea.
To me, a Mego figure has to have plastic boots or shoes, and a separate belt if the character wears a belt. I usually buy my plastic accessories from Paul because I encouraged him to become a CTVT retailer in the first place, and now I feel a bit obligated. Just kidding. Speed and service are the main reasons. Plus he’ll trade parts for “candid” pics of Flocked Dinah.
Theressa is just amazing. She can sew anything, and someday I’ll ask her to make a custom outfit that challenges even her worthy skills. She’ll probably improve the design and finish it off before we leave chat.
I’ll buy resin heads from almost anyone, but I’ve accumulated a fairly large box full of them that I can’t find a use for, for various reasons. I’ve been carving a lot of them up lately.
Resin parts
CM: What is your favorite custom you’ve done and do you think it’s your best work? If not, what do you think is your best work?
AM: I’m very happy with my Tawky Tawny custom because his head is an original Mego Wolfman head that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to use. His suit also fits very well, and his Cowardly Lion feet are perfect. I don’t consider him to be my best work because he wasn’t much of a challenge once I came up with the idea to make him.
My best work, in my opinion, is the suit I made for my unfinished Terminator. It’s the first suit I made completely from scratch after learning to use the sewing machine.
Tawky Tawny
The Terminator (unfinished)
CM: Why do you choose the projects you choose?
AM: I tend to do characters that “feel” like ones Mego would have made if they’d had a chance. I’ve been known to make characters that I don’t like, simply because I had the parts to make them and they scored high on the Megometer. I rarely try to improve a figure that Mego made, or make a character that Mego obviously rejected, but I’ve made a few exceptions.
I’m a huge fan of '60s and '70s science fiction films, so I’ve customized a few characters from my favorites, and I’ve made a few characters who are just cultural icons from that era.
Thorne (Soylent Green)
James Bond
Hellboy
CM: What are your favorite customs others have done and why?
AM: I like any custom that looks like Mego could’ve made it. Ron Peritore’s Apache Chief and Samurai stand out among the superheroes, as does Laurie Halbritter’s Lois Lane. I had to buy Brian Heiler’s Greatest American Hero and Joe DeRouen’s Rod Serling (head by James Brady) because I was so impressed by them. I like most of Jason DeWitt’s original customs because they have personalities and revel in their toyness. Cat Gough’s original characters are also a lot of fun, and John Schipper’s customs are always clever and different.
There are many more that I’m forgetting, of course. It would actually be easier to tell you which customs I haven’t liked, but I won’t do that here.
CM: What is on your “to do” list in the near future?
AM: There are a few Planet of the Apes characters I want to get out of the way, and I’d like to sculpt more heads for television and movie characters. I can’t tell you any more without spoiling the surprise. I’m always putting together “normal people” customs for my own amusement, but those are rarely planned in advance. Their names are often puns or double entendres. I’m easily amused.
Pearl Neckless
Plum, the Carny
Invisible Steve
CM: How do you think customizing affects the mego collecting hobby?
AM: Customizing presents challenges that have kept the hobby interesting for me since I decided years ago that it isn’t necessary for me to acquire the half dozen exclusive or foreign figures that are missing from my collection of stock Mego figures.
I don’t know that my own customizing affects very many people directly, but I suppose customizers as a group do. If it weren’t for customizers, there would be a lot more broken and incomplete Mego figures around. Customizers are the scavengers of the Mego community. We keep the algae off the glass so all the “real” collectors look good.
CM: Any tips or words of customizing advise to new customizers?
AM: Know exactly what you want before you start, and don’t sacrifice quality for the sake of expediency. Be patient. A custom that isn’t impressive isn’t worth doing.
CM: Do you sell custom figures or parts? If so, why?
AM: I’ve tried selling custom heads, but it always takes too long to get them finished and mailed out. Hopefully, I’ll have some stuff to sell at Megomeet this year. I’ve sold only one complete custom in my entire customizing career, and I regretted it immediately. I’ll have to make another Captain Atom someday. In researching the character, I found out that we share the same birthday.
CM: What do your family and friends think of your Mego custom work, and your Mego collecting hobby in general?
AM: My son is a member of the Official Mego Museum Forum, and he’ll give me honest criticism of my work when I need it. The others only pretend to be interested when I show them sculpted heads and completed figures. My wife used to help me sew, but she isn’t able to do that anymore. I don’t expect them to understand, so it doesn’t bother me. I love them anyway.
ABMAC
CM: Thanks for chatting with us, Anthony!
AM: It has been my pleasure.