25. Male Bodies

The Mego Body design was the key to producing many different action figure lines. The body was uniform is size, and all it took was a different head and clothing to create a new toy. The bodies were jointed at the neck, allowing the head to rotate an inhuman 360°. The shoulder, elbows and wrists were also jointed. The waist could swivel, and the legs moved at the hips, knees, and ankles

The Bodies came in several colors, including Caucasian and African-American for human characters. The Human Torch body was entirely Red, and several bodies were also available in green, blue, black, orange, pink and tan.

One thing to keep in mind is the copyright dates inscribed on both heads and bodies. These often times won't match. Type I bodies may have ©1971 inscribed on them. Type II bodies may be ©1974. The heads were © the year they were first made. Thus, a Green Arrow figure could have a Type II body ©1974, with the head ©1976.

25a. Male Bodies: Type I or Type II.

Type I bodies are less refined than type 2, with much less muscular definition. The sculpted chests appear to be sunken. The second major difference is the joints. Type I bodies use metal rivet, and are not anatomically or aesthetically pleasing. Type II joints are plastic, and the fit into the wrist socket is handled quite nicely.

On both body types, the left and right hands are posed open, and can hold accessories. The only exception to this is a clenched fist on the right hand of The Lizard. An earlier Lizard came with the hands and forearms being a single piece. The Lizard's lower legs are also unique in that they are sculpted with a lizard scale texture, and the ankles lack joints. Later Lizard's had smooth green appendages, with no scales.

The are only two variation on the standard jointed legs.

First is the Pirates' Long John Silver, whose right side has a peg leg. This was only a Type I body.

The second variation is the Star Trek line. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty have molded black boots as the lower portion of the leg. Because of this, it's always easy to identify true Star Trek bodies. These were done on both Type I and Type II bodies.

25b. Type I/Type II Availability

Boxed figures could be either Type I or Type II.

Aside from the early Kresge cards, it's unknown whether any Type I bodies were used in Carded figures.

Unless noted below, any figure could have been released with a Type I or Type II body over the years.

These Product Lines/Figures had Type I Bodies only:

Action Jackson

Don, from the Dinah-mite Line

Robin Hood figures

Super Pirates

Batman/Robin Removable Masks

These Product Lines/Figures had Type II Bodies only:

Aquaman (Great White Shark variation)

Hulk

Thor

Conan

Fantastic Four (males)

Fist Fighters

Teen Titans (males)

Star Trek Aliens

Happy Days

Starsky & Hutch

Waltons (males)

One Million B.C. (males)

Our Gang (males)

CHiPs

Dukes of Hazzard (males)

Space:1999

Written by Anthony McElveen.

[email protected]

25c. Unique Bodies

From the position that standard bodies were 8" tall, several unique bodies were created for special circumstances. First off, the Teen Titan bodies were 7" tall, while the Little Rascals measure 6". 8" body variations start with the "fat" body, for characters with a little more heft. This body was used on Mr. Mxyzptlk, The Penguin, The Wizard of Oz, The Cowardly Lion, Friar Tuck, Blackbeard, Grandpa Walton, and Boss Hogg. This body has no pelvic section, instead the legs jut out directly from the body.

The One Million B.C. male bodies have no pelvis, instead the torso is larger to accommodate the spear throwing feature. Unfortunately, without the pelvis as a guide for the lower legs, these figures are tough to pose.

Both the Incredible Hulk and The Thing had "Muscle Bodies", which were also a little shorter than the standard 8". Both of these bodies have 2 clenched fists instead of open hands. These figures lack wrist, waist, and ankle joints.

A third Variation was for the Mad Monster Series. These were normal bodies, but had glow-in-the-dark hands. Type I versions had hands that were specifically sculpted to be unique for each character.

25d. Hands

There are many instances of hand colors being different from body colors for the male figures. This was often done to simulate gloves or what not.

White Joker

White Penguin, Oz's Wizard - Fat Bodies

Red Spiderman, Human Torch

Tan POTA's Dr. Zaius, Galen, Cornelius

Yellow Oz's Scarecrow

Light blue ST Keeper and Andorian

Orange ST Mugato

Green Green Arrow, Lizard, Star Trek's Neptunian

Silver WOZ Tin Man

Purple Riddler

Pink The Green Goblin

Pink Mr. Mxyzptlk - Fat Body

WGSH Falcon, and the POTA Apes all had hair hands.

ST Cheron had one black hand and white one.

Finally, the hands for the CHiPs series were also unique. These were designed as if they were wearing short black motorcycle gloves, and have black hands with black cuffs built in.

26. Female Bodies

There are 2 main variations on the female body.

One is a slimmed down version of the male, similar in the joints, although slightly different in construction, especially in the neck. A second version had more traditional doll arms, that were solid rubber with no joints. The reasons for this are still a mystery. The legs on both versions were jointed as the male body.

Wonder Girl, Our Gang's Darla and Daisy Duke have the doll arms, while Invisible Girl has been seen with either type. Supergirl, Batgirl, Catwoman, Isis, Dorothy and the Wicked Witch tend to have the jointed arms. Figures with doll arms tend to be the first issue of the body, and subsequent new figures had the fully jointed arms.

Bodies came in all colors, including Caucasian, African-American, tan, pink and green. There are no instances of hand colors being different from body colors on the women. However, both the Oz's Wicked Witch and POTA's Zira have hairy "ape" hands.

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