This lovely ballroom dance/fight scene is from the 1975 Mego catalog provided by Rob Chatlin. I don't want to overdo the use of catalog shots, as I like real-life toys that people have in their collections, but this is a classic. As the catalog was prepared well in advance of production, the figures are all Type 1 bodies!
This is significant in that the Mego Fist Fighter are souped up Type 2's. As you can see from the illustration above the torso is essentially the same, but the hip unit attaches to the torso via an axle that is connected to the switch in the waist. The armholes are tooled out to accommodate freedom of movement.
The switch twists the axle which is connected to the arms in a ball-and-socket assembly that enables the arms to swing back and forth in a counter-motion to each other creating the left-right-left fighting action. The twisting of the torso enhances the illusion.
These instructions from the back of the British Palitoy card courtesy BRaIn Heileralso describes that when the left arm is pulled out it disables the arm and the right one throws an up and down Karate-Chop. Does it work? Pretty much. Things tend to turn into a slap fight after awhile, but a little practice helps. The clothes do tend to get in the way.
Palitoy Fist Fighter back review courtesy of Tom (who also provided much of the content). Only Palitoy Fist Fighters have black buttons. When the US FF's were first released. Robin's tunic was obviously modified to allow access to the fist fighting button. This was the only change for Robin. The Batman, Joker, and Riddler FF outfits originally contained two sets of snaps. The first was located at the top of the neck like the regular outfits, while a second set of snaps was located right above the fistfighting button. The additional set of snaps was then dropped as later FF outfits came with only one set of snaps. Mego most likely decided to use standard type 2 outfits on later FF's. Outfits containing one, or two, sets of snaps are accurate.
The slits on the original FF outfits were the same length as slits found on some standard type 1 body outfits. The slit length does vary among outfits of the same character. The slit on type 2 outfits did get smaller when compared to the type 1 outfits. I am not sure if Mego purposely increased the slit length for the FF's or it was just variance among production runs. If the original two snap outfits have the same slit length as some standard T1 outfits, I would guess no specific variation in slit length was intended.
Joker's jacket was initially made with a higher slit in the coat tails to facilitate access to the fist-fighting button. This was specific to the FF Joker, but it is possible that some FF Jokers have the regular jacket and even some regular type 2 Jokers have the jacket containing the higher slit. FF Jokers containing both versions of the jacket are accurate.
When the four additional characters for the Palitoy FF's came out, the outfits for Lizard , Spiderman, Superman, and Captain America were all uniquely modified to facilitate access to the fist-fighing button. These modifications were done with greater detail when compared to the US FF's. (photo by Steve Cabellero)
For a collector wanting to own 100% accurate FF figures the way Mego intended, it would be as follows.
Batman (two sets of snaps on outfit)
Riddler (two sets of snaps on outfit)
Joker (two sets of snaps, and higher slit on jacket)
Lizard (Labcoat is same ads regular one)
Robin, Superman, Spiderman, and Captain America all came only one way with altered outfits. .
Lili Ledy
Super Heroes Peleadores and Super Pillos Peleadores are some of the hardest to find Mego figures in the world. The Guason (Joker) has never been reported as found!
A more recent discovery is that Mexico's Lili Ledy released it's own Fist Fighting Superheroes series during the seventies. Much like Palitoy, few of the Mexican released Fist Fighters were released elsewhere. The line included Joker (Which has never been seen) Riddler Tarzan, Iron Man Green Arrow and the Falcon. Almost impossible to find loose, these figures has never surfaced packaged.
The Ledy costume accommodated the button (note most Ledy Fist Fighters are missing their buttons) 
Fist Fighter Packaging
However, It is my opinion that packaged is the only way to go with these things. The fighting mechanism is a little dodgy, as I said, but as a collector how often are you actually going to play with them? For display purposes they are essentially identical to the regular versions, so I think it's best to have a nice colorful box that says "Fist Fighter" loud and proud. Course, that's just me, and I'm doomed to just my loose Joker because of it. That said...
On to the LOUD AND PROUD!
Each package above links to the character's page where you can find larger, very nice images of the terrific Mego Fist Fighter Boxes. Or, CLICK HERE to see them all on one page (may be easier).
Click on the pics to see original Mego Fist Fighter Ads and the Fist Fighter sections of every Mego Catalog!
Click here to view the original palitoy UK Commericals for the Mego Fist Fighting Superheroes!
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