This post was originally published on July 31 2009
Periodically I'm going to discuss bits and pieces of my collection. Chances are, some of you readers have similar artifacts, if not the very same mementos of your childhood. A few years ago my wife and I decided to finish our basement for our teenagers and their friends. As part of the renovation, I lobbied for and was awarded my very own Sanctum Sanctorum! The pictures below are snapshots of my collection, and I'll show more in the coming weeks and months.
MEGOS -- They weren't called The World's Greatest Super-Heroes for nothing!!
I loved Megos!! I was fortunate enough to receive as a Christmas present the very first Mego Batman, complete with removable cowl! And beneath said mask was a pretty generic-looking Bruce Wayne, but who cared?! What a cool action figure. I never did acquire the Superman, but as you can see, I did have quite a few other characters, both Marvel and DC. My sister owned Wonder Woman, but I have no idea what ever became of her (WW, not my sister -- I know where she is!). Also not pictured, primarily because I don't know what ever became of them, are the Penguin, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and Tarzan figures. I never cared for Tarzan's skin-toned body suit underneath the leopard skin. Also, that skin was over-the shoulder -- Johnny Weismuller wouldn't have been caught dead in it! I guess the quality control or people or censors thought that by the time Conan was produced they didn't need the cover-up. By the way, I clearly recall finding the Tarzan figure in my Easter basket when I was 9.
(Note - every Mego in the picture was sold in my auctions, around three months ago. And as-is, I got a tidy sum for the collection!).
Funny story -- those of you who remember Megos will recall that they were initially held together by thin pieces of elastic. Elastic isn't too strong, and of course repeated use (in a rough, super-villain crunching manner, of course) will weaken it quickly. Of my initial collection of 8-10 Megos, almost all of them "exploded" -- and again, if you had any in this style, you know what I'm talking about. When that elastic broke, blamm-o -- arms and legs all over the place! About the time the last one broke, my mom had had enough. She got an empty shoebox, threw all of the pieces, costumes, and accessories in it and wrote a "can't you do a better job with the durability?" letter to the powers-that-be at Mego. That was that. UNTIL, about a month later I got a huge box in the mail. I had no idea what it could be. But opening it was like Christmas in July, baby!! There, inside, were brand-spanking new carded (the originals had come in a window box) figures of all the ones my mom had sent in!! Wow!! I was eternally grateful, and really thought Mego was a great company for having not only improved their technology with thick rubber bands, but standing behind their initial product.
A couple of random comments: My Captain America shield is long gone. No idea where it went to. I had a friend who had the Mr. Fantastic figure. We used to put his costume on the Aquaman figure and use him as our Johnny Storm -- I mean, seriously -- why is every action figure of Johnny in "flame on!" mode? I had a friend who showed me a neat trick with the Hulk's pants -- of course they came all clean and almost pressed. The tattering at the bottoms was pretty stiff and straight. But, by dunking the Hulk's legs into water and then letting the pants dry, they would shrink, wrinkle, and the bottoms would really look a mess. Much more authentic, we thought (as 8-year olds!).
Buttons -- Now where the heck did I get these??
I have no idea how I acquired the buttons you see. The "Ron Riley's Batman Club" button was a tie-in to the hit television show that aired in the late 1960's. Ron Riley was a DJ on Chicago's "Big 89", WLS radio. You can read more about the history of that radio station, as well as see a membership card that accompanied the button, at this link:
The "Send Batman to Vietnam" button is in pretty good shape, and would again date to the late '60's. I have seen buttons with the same saying but without the Bat Signal on online auctions for prices ranging anywhere from $35-85. Not sure how much mine is worth...
The Superman button also dates from 1966. You can see a better image of it and get a little background here:
Next time we'll discuss Marvel's calendars of the late 1970's, as well as take a foray into the world of Secret Wars action figures and maybe even Slurpee Cups!
UPDATE...
Doug: Well, since we've had the past two days out of school due to the extreme wind chills (and today, too), I had some time to tend to business down in the comic book room that has long needed tending to! It took a couple of hours, but I was able to do some dusting, rearranging, unshelving, and reshelving. And I came to a conclusion: I have a ton of books! To be honest, over the past several years I've been able to buy myself a book after each high school sports season. I am the timer/PA for boys soccer, I keep the score book for boys basketball, and am the PA announcer for baseball. So I get a nice check of extra money three times a year. I've also used a little of the proceeds from my comics sales. Anyway, there are brand new photos below, and I took Edo's advice from long ago and took the action figures away from the shelves' edges. You should have a pretty clear shot of what's there -- and if you don't, just ask! Oh, and if you don't feel like counting, there are right around 350 reprint books (hardcovers and trade paperbacks).
I loved Megos!! I was fortunate enough to receive as a Christmas present the very first Mego Batman, complete with removable cowl! And beneath said mask was a pretty generic-looking Bruce Wayne, but who cared?! What a cool action figure. I never did acquire the Superman, but as you can see, I did have quite a few other characters, both Marvel and DC. My sister owned Wonder Woman, but I have no idea what ever became of her (WW, not my sister -- I know where she is!). Also not pictured, primarily because I don't know what ever became of them, are the Penguin, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and Tarzan figures. I never cared for Tarzan's skin-toned body suit underneath the leopard skin. Also, that skin was over-the shoulder -- Johnny Weismuller wouldn't have been caught dead in it! I guess the quality control or people or censors thought that by the time Conan was produced they didn't need the cover-up. By the way, I clearly recall finding the Tarzan figure in my Easter basket when I was 9. (Note - every Mego in the picture was sold in my auctions, around three months ago. And as-is, I got a tidy sum for the collection!).
I have no idea how I acquired the buttons you see. The "Ron Riley's Batman Club" button was a tie-in to the hit television show that aired in the late 1960's. Ron Riley was a DJ on Chicago's "Big 89", WLS radio. You can read more about the history of that radio station, as well as see a membership card that accompanied the button, at this link:
Do you know what makes great packing material for the USPS Flat-Rate envelope? All the corrugated cardboard that comes in a carton of furniture purchased from IKEA, that's what! There is so much 2- and 3-ply thick cardboard, that the seller is only an exacto-knife away from really stiffening an envelope. I'll admit to giving expensive books a little more care than something that sold for $10 or less. 
Here's my standard operating procedure for listing a book --
But what a magical world lay within that small stack! I know at that time, among others, there were Avengers, Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men, Justice League of America, Captain America, Batman, Rima the Jungle Girl, Tarzan, Marvel Two-In-One, and Marvel Team-Up. I read those books over and over, traced off of them onto tissue paper, cut out the corner boxes and Marvel Value Stamps -- never concerned with collectability or future value. I know when I was very small I had no sense that the comics came out monthly, so stringing together stories wasn't always possible. It didn't take too long to figure out the "to be continued" motif, and then I tried to keep my eyes peeled whenever I was in places that had magazine racks. I do distinctly recall figuring out that some places had more choices than others. For example, grocery stores may have stocked only 10-12 titles; drugstores with spinner racks were the gold standard of choice!
I loved those old black and whites. I'll throw in here, too, that I saw most of the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby "Road" films during this era. How formative! But back to Tarzan -- again, I was insatiable. The Ron Ely television show was a "can't miss", and was every bit as popular in my elementary aged brain as the $6 Million Man. Did I mention The Wild, Wild West? Jeez -- get me that time machine! Anyway, in the midst of all of this digressing, it was fun to play Tarzan outside with friends. One of us would be a native ally (we didn't care about political correctness back then), or Boy, and we'd explore the neighborhood letting our imaginations run wild. It was quite awhile later, around the bridge between junior and senior high school that I discovered the ERB novels. It was like falling in love all over again.
Someone Saved My Life Tonight, and Rocket Man, Three Dog Night's Joy to the World, and Johnny Wakelin's Muhammad Ali: the Black Superman were all favorites that spilled out of WOKY in Milwaukee. FM radio and album rock? No idea at the time. Just give me those sappy songs and catchy tunes!
As a child, I really had no idea that this novel was the source material; I assumed that it was somehow an extension of the films, and the author was taking sacrilegious liberties with my Apes! I suppose I should give it a re-read all these years later. I'd probably appreciate it more.
It was only recently that I discovered that Mego had also made figures based on characters from the TV show. There were also accessories and playsets. All I had though was three figures: Cornelius, Zira, and the Gorilla.
Karen: There was also the POTA board game, which I think my brother played with me grudgingly once. It was reminiscent of the old "Mousetrap" game, as you had to build a cage out of the cardboard pieces included and capture your opponents but I have no idea how the gameplay worked. Again, it was colorful and had apes on it. That was good enough for me.
I loved my Megos almost to death when I was a kid. I wouldn't say I'm a collector these days, although I do retain several that I had as a child. So for those of you reading this, whether you are collector or enthusiast, I can't recommend this book enough. Sure, there are fantastic websites about Megos (the Mego Museum comes immediately to mind), but as we've discussed when the subject was comic book reprints, sometimes you just can't beat the feel of a book in your hands, and this one's pretty darn near comprehensive.
The scan above left shows the various styles of arms and legs; if you look at the joints, you'll notice the evolution of technology over the life of the line. And details like that are present throughout the tome.
Doug: As to this year, once again I've put the TwoMorrows tome Mego 8" Super-Heroes - World's Greatest Toys. I've long been fascinated by the Mego line -- truly my favorite toys as a child. All of the accessories, variants, and characters I never had make this book a must-have for me. Who knows? Maybe this will be the year...
This book contains the back-up stories that ran in Thor, the Amazing Adventures series, Medusa's solo appearance in Marvel Super-Heroes, and Avengers 95 (the midst of the "Kree-Skrull War"). The artists contained in this book are a Silver/Bronze Age hall-of-fame in their own right -- Jack Kirby, Gene Colan, and Neal Adams. I only own a smattering of these books, so this would be a welcome addition to my library.
Of note were films about Reggie Miller vs. tje New York Knicks, the Hank Gathers tragedy at Loyola Marymount, the influence of the Los Angeles Raiders on the gangster rap movement that grew out of LA's Compton neighborhood, and the day of the O.J. Simpson "Bronco chase". There are other fine offerings in the series, and I look forward to the second box set collection.
