Die-Cast Super Heroes

 

 

Only the “Big Four” characters were produced for these lines, The Diecast figures seemed to sell well, Mego Packaging for this line has been found from Canada,Italy, the UK and Germany. The diecast figures were 5.5 inches tall and were marketed as “Limited edition” no doubt to interest collectors which may have been one of the first times a toy company thought to attract action figure collectors.

The Magnetic figures were produced in Italy only and released by GIG ( who also did innovative things with Mego lines such as The Black Hole Micronauts and Eagle Force) although a prototype for the US cards has surfaced, Mego had attempted to launch them stateside.

These 7″ tall figures have a crossover popularity with both Mego, Superhero and Micronaut collectors and remain difficult to find packaged. The artwork used for the cards was also used for the Elastic Heroes andPocket Hero Denim Cards

This very cool GIG ads for the Mego Magnetic and diecast heroes are courtesy of Stefano

Batman


Mego diecast Batman

Boxed Mego Diecast batman

Diecast Batman was available worldwide, released by GIG (Italy), Palitoy (UK) and many more. Above is the US packaging. Mego was attempting to cash in on the collectors market by making these figures “Limited editions”. It appears to have had an impact as these figures are often found MIB. Diecast Batman has a fabric cape but Magnetic Batman has a plastic cape modified from the Micronauts Emperor.

Magnetic Batman was only released in Europe, packaged examples of Magnetic Batman are hard to find. These figures incoporporate the magnetic features from the Mego Micronauts.

Thanks to Batman collector extraordinaire Rich Hilliard, we have a shot of the difficult to find boxed Magnetic Batman.

Boxed GIG Magnetic Batman

The back of the GIG Batman box. Note the colour scheme for this series is a bit different than conventional Mego product.

Boxed GIG Magnetic Batman

6This carded Gig Magnetic Batman uses the same style guide artwork as many later Mego products, carded examples are very uncommon. This is most likely due to these figures being released in limited quantities in France (where they were distributed by Pin Pin) and Italy (by GIG).

carded GIG Magnetic Batman

carded GIG Magnetic Batman

The back of the GIG Carded Batman.

This is the only known example of a US carded diecast Batman and it believed to be some sort of production sample as these figures did not make it to US retail. Batman is courtesy of Heroes West Coast.

carded US Magnetic Batman

carded Mego Magnetic Batman

The back of the US carded Batman gives the English version, check the Hulk Gallery for the US proof card.

carded Pin Pin Magnetic Batman

Thanks to Tom L, we know have evidence these figures were released in France by Pin Pin as well.

magnetic Superman mint on card

Magnetic Superman was pitched in the US but eventually not brought to North American Markets, this very rare carded example was actually used as the Toy Fair sample and is the only one of it’s kind known. (Photo is courtesy of Mark Huckabone of Heroes Toy Company

Hulk

Die cast Hulk is a a very solid figure and one of the better sculpts out there

All Die Cast heroes were sold window boxed, the only known variants are the distributor logos on the packaging.

Italian released Magnetic Hulk

These 7″ tall Magnetic figures were only produced by Gig of Italy and are obvious attempts to cash in on the Micronauts craze. These figures are based on the Magno figures such as Baron Karza and Force Commander, Gig also produced Magno figures of the black hole figures, for futher info please check out The Mego Black Hole Pages .

While more commonly found on cards, the Magnetics can be found in boxes as well. The only known figure to be found boxed is Hulk, perhaps his TV popularity constituted a separate release?

Mego Magna Heroes Hulk Card

Essentially a pasted together mock up, this card was probably used at toyfair to generate buyer interest states side in the Magna Heroes line.

The reads 1979 and shows the Hulk used for the 1979 card as seen below:

When the toyline was released by Gig in 1980, they used the Neal Adams artwork that also adorned the Diecast heroes and Denim carded Mego pocket heroes.

The Backer is a photocopy with the pictures glued on, notice the corrections in red pen.

Sadly the line never took off in North America but it is nice to see how it might have looked. ( scans of card courtesy of Raj)

Diecast Mego Spider-Man is 5 1/2 inches tall

Boxed Diecast Mego Spider-Man

 

Mego Diecast Spider-Man in Rare German packaging

Mego Diecast Spider-Man in Rare German packaging.

Here is a rare Mego Diecast Spider-Man in German language packaging, this is not an easy thing to find. (Thanks to Nick Yesman for the photo)

 

The Mego Magnetic Spider-Man was limited to European only markets and is difficult to find.

Thanks to Sy, webmaster at the incredible Spicderman Collector we have shots of his GIG Spider-man MOC, very nice! Now if only somebody would unearth a boxed version.

magnetic Spiderman mint on card

Magnetic Spider-man was pitched in the US but eventually not brought to North American Markets, this very rare carded example was actually used as the Toy Fair sample and is the only one of it’s kind known. (Photo is courtest of Mark Huckabone of Heroes Toy Company

Superman

Boxed Mego Die Cast Superman figure, this particular figure bears the Palitoy logo.

magnetic Superman

Magnetic Superman was released only in Italy by a company called GIG, he has a hard plastic cape very similiar to that of the Micronauts Emperor

magnetic Superman mint in box

Magnetic Superman was first issued in window boxes, these are extremely rare and the one pictured is the only one that has surfaced in some time.

magnetic Superman

The box has a unique washed out blue for a color scheme, this goes along with the light green of theMagnetic Hulk Box.

magnetic Superman

magnetic Superman mint on card

Magnetic Superman was pitched in the US but eventually not brought to North American Markets, this very rare carded example was actually used as the Toy Fair sample and is the only one of it’s kind known. (Photo is courtest of Mark Huckabone of Heroes Toy Company

 

magnetic Superman mint on card

Magnetic Superman was also released in Italy and France on a blister card, which is more commonly found but still by no means easy to find.

magnetic Superman

The back of the Italian released card.

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