Lili Ledy Super Heroes

Lili Ledy was a Mexican toy company that distributed many US based
toys such as GI Joe, rival toymaker cipsa had released Mego’s
Planet of the Apes line to much success in Mego. Mexican law
required all toys sold in Mexico to be produced
in Mexico, therefore Ledy struck a deal with Mego Corp to license
the WGSH for the Mexican market.

This resulted in there being Mexican versions of each WGSH figure,
sometimes the differences are subtle other times drastic, Robin
has red gloves and boots, Captain America had red gloves unlike
his US counterpart. Also, because of Ledy’s 3 regional factories,
variations exist on each of the figures themselves. You can find
examples of each on their individual character pages here at the
Museum, or visit ForeignMego.com
for the whole assortment on a
single page.

Ledy produced mostly DC characters and avoided characters with
unique body types such as the Hulk. Most interestingly was Ledy’s
choice of Fist Fighters, the company released
Tarzan, Green Arrow,
Falcon and Iron Man in their hero series,
while Riddler and (apparantly) Joker rounded out the villains.

Enter the Lantern
Update to this story: We regret to announce that this wonderful piece has been debunked as a carefully made custom. It was nice to think that there was a Ledy Green Lantern out there but sadly, this ain’t it folks.

In the mid eighties, well known collector John
MacGonagle made claim to finding 8″ versions of Green
Lanternand Flash at a toy
show. His excitement was dulled by his realization that while the
figures resembled Mego, there were subtle production issues with
the bodies and outfits that made him dismiss them as knockoffs.
Many have theorized that John had discovered Lili Ledy versions
of the characters and didn’t know it.

Years later, super collector John
Bonavita received the surprise of his life in a box of parts:

A Lili Ledy Green Lantern Head!

Much like the foreign Superpowers Riddler, The Ledy Green Lantern is based on an existing figure, this time it’s a retooled Ledy Superman head. The figure poses many questions. Did Lili Ledy produce a Green Lantern or is this figure a sophisticated knock-off? (NOTE most Mego knockoffs found from Mexico are of MUCH lower quality) The head is marked Lili Ledy on the back of the neck. If Ledy did produce it, why is there no trace of Green Lantern on the Ledy box art (which like Mego’s featured other characters on the sides) or other material? Many of these questions may remain unanswered as the Mexican toy collector community is small and shrouded in mystery.   Like we mentioned above, it was a custom made by a very talented person in Mexico.

Green Lantern costume pictured
here is a custom by Brain Heiler
to illustrate how the Lili Ledy Green Lantern might have appeared.

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