In four months, I’m going to be 30 years old. I’m not really worried about it. Things don’t feel much different from when I was a kid. The space shuttle is still the primary space vehicle, ketchup still isn’t a vegetable, and Clash of the Titans & The Karate Kid are new in theaters. Not everything is the same, more people care about who Jacob is than who shot JR, and of course, there’s Pluto (sorry, buddy). As a toy collector, things feel especially the same. I’m still hitting up stores looking for Black Spidey, Desaad, He-Man, and Wreck-Gar. Over the last few years, toy companies have, ingeniously, figured out that I’ll buy all my old toys over again if they at least try to make them better. It’s an 80s love fest out there. I’ve been enjoying every minute of it.
In particular, Mattel has me hooked on their trio of Classics: DC, MOTU, and Ghostbusters. I’m thrilled to be getting updated versions of Cyclotron and Golden Pharaoh! Hasbro, in the last few years, got me with 25th Joes (and Matt Trakker from M.A.S.K.). And I’ve noticed that more than a handful of Marvel Universe figures have snuck into my collection: Brown Wolverine, Black Spidey, Iron Man, Daredevil. When I realized I was waiting on Baron Zemo & Magneto, I knew why. But something new is encroaching on my nostalgia fest. Something that, while it’s at least partially home in the eighties, doesn’t feel like it: Megos. They’re back and I’m not sure why.
Before I say anything else, let me say that I begrudge no one their Mego habit. I’m well aware that I’m a slave to my timeframe. There’s a reason that I look back more fondly on He-Man and Transformers than say, Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers. Looking back, 1984-86 seemed to be some pretty important formative years in my life as a toy collector. Super Powers is still one of my favorite toy lines. Battle Armor is the quintessential He-Man. The best Joes were from those years and I have a soft spot for movie Transformers first and foremost. I’m sure that if I’d just been a little older, I’d probably have owned at least one Mego and I’d be sharing in the excitement surrounding their resurgence. Well, maybe, see the truth is, even though I love the old properties, I don’t love all the old toys.
When I was in grade school, a “natural” disaster changed the face of my toy ‘collection’. I was the first to get home, and upon entering found that my house was flooded. Though the smell should’ve immediately given it away, I didn’t totally understand what I was looking at. It was raw sewage.* I never saw what my room looked like and, to this day, I can’t tell you what toys were lost other than most of them. Every once in awhile, I’ll see a picture of an older collection and go “I had that!” That’s how I went from messy kid to organized toy collector in one harsh lesson.
* – I love the term “raw sewage”, like it would have been more okay if my house was just flooded with well done sewage.
It may seem trivial to focus on my lost toys in light of all that went on, but I was a kid and it seemed like a big deal at the time. Plus, in the span of two weeks the house was gutted, floors ripped out, new floors puts in, and everything was refurbished courtesy of the city. The only lingering consequence for me was the annihilation of every toy I had innocently left on the floor. Which, sadly, was most of them. My parents took care of it though. Some of the settlement was used to give me the most amazing toy day of my young life, the closest I’ll ever get to a TRU Toy Run.
I don’t know how much was spent that day, but I remember being plenty satisfied when it was over.* My toy collection would forever be in flux after that, switching to newer properties, and at one point being completely dominated by Playmates Star Trek line. When I got older still, I found myself going back and picking up those old toys I’d lost. Tons of G1s. The ’86 Joes. My Super Powers Collection was rebuilt completely with my family & friends chipping in to pool enough money to get me some of the more expensive items as Christmas and birthday gifts. For a few years, things were going great, but I was ready for something different. I just didn’t know what.
* – I’d be remiss if I didn’t point that while I loved the G.I. Joe Crusader Space Shuttle, it could never fill the hole made by losing the Defiant Complex.
I think it started with Marvel Legends and 200x Masters of the Universe. For the first time, I wasn’t buying old copies of things I loved as a kid. I was seeing those characters, those toys, updated. That, to me, is what kept me toy collecting all the years since. I’d be out, so to speak, if it weren’t for the updated material. I still feel the nostalgia of a vintage piece, but I’m so much happier with MOTU Classics than I would have ever been with a commemorative collection. I still love my Super Powers, but DCUC is my dream toy line. These modern figures, to me, represent the pinnacle of what started with Kenner’s Star Wars line.
Kenner and Star Wars popularized the modern action figure. They shrunk it down to the 1/18th scale and over the last thirty years we’ve seen better and better figures with more sophisticated articulation, better likenesses, and better paint (usually). Amidst those advancements, the figures also got bigger, closer to Mego size, but more on that later. I love modern action figures. When done right, they move well and they look great. In essence, I feel like the figures I’m buying now are the toys I always wanted. A decade ago, I’d have been okay with reissues and expansion of the Super Powers line. Not anymore. I want DCUC to be as thorough as possible. So, in that respect, I don’t understand the popularity of bringing back Megos. They don’t seem to be better than the Megos of old, but maybe I’m not seeing the right ones. Still, If I’d been raised on Megos, I don’t think I’m the type of person the companies would be catering too. As such, I’ve been mostly oblivious to their return. At least, up until this weekend.
The Mego resurgence didn’t really impact me in anyway. I saw the Star Trek figures make a comeback and was happy to see characters that didn’t get Megos the first time around get some love. That’s cool in my book and I imagined the Trek fans appreciated it. I’m not interested in Lost or Venture Bros figures, so I had no opinion on Bif Bang Pow!’s decision to go retro and make figures in the Mego format. I wished them well and still do. The DC Retro Heroes, at $20, make me feel better about paying $15 for my “modern” toys when I see them next to each other on the pegs at Toys R Us.
Nothing I wanted in articulated 1/12 scale had ended up in ‘Mego format’ instead, so I didn’t mind. That is, until a sharp eyed poster at the MegoMuseum caught a commercial for Attack of the Show. If you’re not familiar, G4’s Attack of the Show (airs at 7/6c) will reveal some of Mattel’s SDCC Exclusive offerings today (4/12) and the rest on Thursday (4/15). One of them, featured in the commercial, will presumably be a Retro Action (Mego) figure for The Real Ghostbusters line.
If you read my blog regularly, you’ve probably seen me mention that I’m buying the movie-based Ghostbusters Classics, but really holding out for Real Ghostbusters versions. To hear that Mattel is finally doing some was wonderful. To hear it was a Mego was not. Now, I’m not “jumping to conclusions” or “spinning my wheels” here. I still have hope that Mattel is going to offer Real Ghostbusters in my beloved 6″ articulated form. If they can sell these Retro figures alongside the line I’m hoping to see, more power to them. Heck, I have to admit some intrigue myself. It appears they talk, and that could be cool. If there’s a proton pack hiding out in the bottom of that package, that’d be nice. If they get the costumes cartoon accurate, that’d be great. Winston Zeddemore could end up being my first Mego. But, still I have to ask, why was this decision made?
Up until now, Mattel has been pretty solidly trying to update my own childhood. Ghostbusters is about as 80s as a property can get. Filmation Ghostbusters as Megos would make sense*, but Real Ghostbusters didn’t even come about until years after Mego filed for bankruptcy. This seems like a mismatch. An 80s toy trapped in a 70s body.
* – One more reason for Mattel to grab that Filmation license…
Looking at the Bif Bang Pow! announcement in that same light, I’m similarly puzzled. The Star Trek and DC Retro lines made sense. If you had Megos as a kid, they’re probably not in the best condition. With the reissues, you can buy immaculate new ones. By making characters that were surreptitiously looked over the first time, collectors can fill decade-long holes in their collection. But does the same thing work when a license is added to the Retro roster that wasn’t part of the Mego lineup? Will fans of Lost and Venture Bros. gobble up the toys? Will Mego enthusiasts buy figures for properties they may not be familiar with?
It may not matter. As I mentioned earlier, figures have steadily worked their way back to being Mego size, except with injection-molded details and tons of little pieces. That, along with other factors, have made them more expensive. When you started reading this article, DC Classics were fifty cents cheaper than they are right now. Mattel’s Classics, even with heavy part reuse are still climbing out of the price range of the average collector. Toy companies, looking for solutions, have turned back the clock. We’ve already seen some lines shrink back to 1/18th scale and now we’re going further back. See, a retro line wouldn’t seem to be afflicted with high costs. The body is identical from figure-to-figure. The clothes and one-piece head are surely cheaper to produce. And it doesn’t just make sense on a cost analysis spreadsheet. When you factor in the higher price point adding to the bottom line outright, a Retro line makes sense. If Retro takes off, then it looks to have good returns for the companies producing them.
The associated costs aside, one thing that Megofans seem to like to remind us young 30-year old whippersnappers (kidding, kidding…) is that all their toys were compatible. They didn’t have to worry about He-Man being a 7ft tall bodybuilder if he came to the DC Universe or if, for the sake of accuracy, you need to go back and grab an Iron Monger from the first movie to be in-scale with your Iron Man 2 3.75″ figures. Everything fit together. DC and Marvel toys haven’t really been compatible ever since. So, maybe that can overcome any gaps in the nostalgia. Even if you never dreamed of having the Dude and Egon Spengler duking it out against Ming the Merciless and the Gorn as a kid, it can soon be a featured matchup on your toy shelves.
Me? I really don’t like soft goods on my figures. That cloth cape is going to cost Trigon points come his IAT judgment day. I look at the amazing things being done in 1/6th scale, and while I marvel at it, I know it’s not for me. If I had a few hundred to buy an individual toy, I’d be on vacation right now. Still, 1/6th scale is booming and maybe that’s got some of these companies thinking they can do something with these retro figures. Honestly, I wish Bif Bang Pow! and Mattel luck. Maybe the market for these is there and my thinking it’s about cutting costs is me getting pessimistic in my old age. Did I mention I was turning thirty?
Ghostbusters Megos couldn’t be better news! While I won’t be buying Venture or Lost toys, I’m going to be all over Ghostbusters Megos. That’s just one of a dozen properties I’ve seen over the years and thought how I’d love to see done as toys from my era.
Hopefully, you’ve got some like minded friends out there and this will work out! 😀
Thanks, but no thanks, Mattel. RGB is where the money is on the Ghostbuster franchise and this is strike two on that front. I thought I’d have to suffer through the movie toys and then get to the good stuff, now it seems I’ll just be waiting longer and longer for the real deal.
I agree that RGB is where the money is, I’m still holding out hope.
I’m quickly losing it. The line is nearly a year old and we have three toys to show for it.
This is a great article and I agree completely.
Thanks, Nik! I saw your post on Poe’s site about this being a way around the different body styles the RGB’s would need. Mattel needs to man up! LOL
Fantastic article!! That really sucks about all your old toys.
Yeah… It’s been over twenty years, but it still stings a bit. What really gets me are the Joe vehicles that are missing panels, missiles, etc. I also wonder if that got me on track to keep buying them into adulthood.
Nice article. Any chance of larger pics? I’d like to see the HoJ up close.
Yes… but you’ll probably see them as Amusing Articulations. We like to use all of the cow here at IAT!
Good article!
Thank you!
This was an awesomes artcle, Niosy! And, it really helped me better understand the “Fanboy” mentality. I bought a few mego style pieces years ago, but ended up giving them away. Like you, I prefer the uniforms sculpted.
You continue to have the all around best site I’ve encountered thus far! Cheers!
Yeah I agree but if only he’d get the rest of the DCUC’s reviewed (hint hint….)
Just kidding!!! Its only because I like you reviews so much. 🙂
Great article!
LOL. Don’t blame me! Blame Mattel! XD
I haven’t had a chance to go back with all the stuff coming out! I’m finally caught up, but DCUC13 looms. Still, I bet we’ll see a retroreview on wave seven or four soon… hopefully…
And i’ll be looking forward to it. LOL
😀
This was an awesomes artcle, Noisy! And, it really helped me better understand the “Fanboy” mentality. I bought a few mego style pieces years ago, but ended up giving them away. Like you, I prefer the uniforms sculpted.
You continue to have the all around best site I’ve encountered thus far! Cheers!
Thanks! I think the thing to remember is that it’s about “acceptable tradeoff”. If these “unevolved” Megos are a hit, it’s because they sufficiently meet the needs of that particular fanbase. For me, even though I see some “cool potential” in these, articulation and sculpted details are essential to my being happy with a toy, so I’d never buy that many of them.
Still, if toys do evolve past the lines I consider the “pinnacle” they might be beyond me just like some folks who feel it’s been downhill since Kenner took the torch from Mego.
Best article YET!!!!!!!!!!! Hell I wrote three of the ones on the site and I’m saying that.
LOL. This was written in a coffee-induced non-coma. Maybe I should try that more often. XD
I am a Mego kid through and through and even I am having a hard time understanding this retro flashback, company finances notwithstanding. Don’t get me wrong; the 8″ Mego is one of my favorite styles and scales. I loved it so much that I had a hard time dealing with those puny 80’s toys. G.I. Joe:RAH hooked me and I bought Super Powers and Secret Wars, but none of them besides The Joes were ever favorites of mine. I guess my confusion comes from the fact that Megos were also improved upon, just like the other 80’s toys, first by Toy Biz and their Famous Covers line, then by Hasbro and their DC 9″ line (which was later carried over to Marvel when Hasbro first aquired the license). I was very disappointed when the DC 9″ ended prematurely (character-wise) because it was this Mego kid’s dream line. Yet, now we are going backwards, even to using rubberbands in the bodies (Mattel). And unlike the 70’s when every license seemed to work for Mego, I am not so sure the same is true of today. “Lost” seemed to fail as a statue line from McFarlane, so who is really going to buy the Mego versions? 2010 will be the year of the Mego, but 2011 will tell whether it was sucessful or not.
The rubber bands bother me, particularly when you see the figures and their “broken spines” on the pegs. They could “evolve” a Mego to today, I guess that’d be an 8″ Hot Toy, but that would defeat the purpose of costcutting I suppose.
This first comment by Nik (http://www.poeghostal.com/2010/04/real-ghostbusters-mego-style.html#comments) is genius, for the revelation that the Mego style allows Mattel to use the same body for all four cartoon Ghostbusters, rather than the individual bodies that at least Ray and Egon would require in a 6″ GB line (Peter and Winston could probably use the same (new?) body). I don’t know if that’s the entire reasoning behind the rather odd choice, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a big factor.
These are kind of interesting, assuming they do actually include proton packs. If they don’t… I don’t have the words.
The proton packs are a must! I’ll take back any nice thing I might say about these if they don’t get proton packs. They can be blue and cartoony, like last time, but they must be done!
I echo most of your sentiments in this article. The original RGB figures were so great, I can’t fathom why they wouldn’t release them closer to the original style…well, I CAN but it’s mostly dickish reasons (like being able to use the same body as stated above).
I was thinking that scale could have factored in. The movie busters are all about the same height, so the single buck didn’t stick out that much. That wouldn’t work on an animated line.
Great read, Noisy!
And I’m totally with you on not wanting to re-buy exact carbon copies of childhood toys.
We are, in fact, NOT kids anymore, and the things we buy should mature at least slightly along with us.
I think this is part of the explanation behind such high-end companies as Hot Toys having the success that they do.
Where Kool-Aid once satisfied, people are now looking to wine. 😛
The only problem with these kind of nostalgia-heavy roll-outs is that they are finite, by definition.
That’s part of what drew me to 200x MotU so much. It was RE-invention in a lot of ways.
Toy companies may be able to make a quick buck off of the nostalgia train for the time being, but as soon as the SP characters are done, they’re done.
They would be better advised to look into creating NEW toy lines.
That way, fans can be drooling over updates of THOSE, 25 years from now! 😉
The kool-aid to wine analogy is apt!
I kinda wonder what updates could be done of some stuff. Mattel doesn’t know it, but they’re finishing me out on DC & MOTU… I can’t imagine the toys getting better than this.
I’m sure the future could hold Action/Reaction Multi-Action Holographic figures, but I’ll be too old for those. 😀
a couple of notes here…
isn’t the expense issue a bit bogus? i mean, mego was a company, not a toy line, so for mattel to make “megos,” they are in essence making a whole new buck body. and what exactly makes megos any different than the standard buck bodies we’re now getting? looking at the formula to “make a cheaper figure” they’re basically saying making one-off heads on a universal body w/ a soft goods outfit is cheaper than making a one off head on a universal body w/ variable accessories and occasional add-on pieces? and while some might point out DCU has more accessory pieces added onto their buck bodies, they’re also smaller than megos, and “plastic is expensive” so i warrant size vs extras pretty much balances out… so how exactly are these cheaper?
is there any chance that the mego move is simply to get a companies product on “robot chicken?” they like their megos on that show, cuz they’re versatile, and new megos are certainly a buttload cheaper than vintage… i can’t help but wonder if this push is at partially in response to that show’s popularity.
as for you kids and your hippie RGB… i’m holding out for the return of C.O.P.S. between he-man and marvel legends, this to me what flat out the best toy line made. the question is, how do you top them, in a modern toy? they were RAH articulated at a 6 inch scale before that was done, and featured unique sculpts… that’s going to be a real challenge for the toy world to surmount.
I can’t speak to what the folks over at Bif Bang Pow! are doing, but Mattel is using updates on a Big Jim base body for their retro line (props to InfiniteHollywood). Even if they completely retooled and recut Big Jim, he still uses less new pieces than any of the Classics bucks so far.
On the new tooling front, for the last wave of DC Classics, Mattel produced at least 100 new pieces for the eight figures. For the last eight MOTU figures, it’s skewed a bit by Trap Jaw and Teela, but it’s upwards of 75 pieces. If you extrapolate the Ghostbusters out to 8 figures not counting the original buck, you could conceivably get up to 40-50 new pieces. The first two waves of retro figures, again not counting the original base, is only looking to need 20-some odd new pieces judging by the Toy Fair pics.
On the amount of plastic used, Retro dolls should be mostly hollow. Again, on Mattel’s at least, the waist is a rubber band.
As for Cops N’ C.R.O.O.K.S.? Absolutely. If enough of them had survived into my collection today (I could only find A.P.E.S.) they’d have been in the images! Buttons McBoomBoom, Sundown, Barricade… I’d love to see those brought back.
continuing this on the forum…
I’m off to look…
Everyone being the same size doesn’t mean they’re in scale. Mego has nothing to offer me.
I agree. That’s why I stuck with compatible. Scale’s kind of a big joke in any toyline with the buck system.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Scale
LOL Yeah, scale’s also a big joke in some non-buck toylines too. 😀
I like some of the animated toys because the different classes help with that… at least a little bit.
Oh no. Like you, I’m enjoying the Ghostbusters 6-inch line but really holding out for Real Ghostbusters. I can only hope that this is not the only way they release those characters, because I have less than no interest in buying them as Megos. Really, really disappointing news.
Yeah, this is a misfire for me. But if Mattel wants to sell things in 6″, 8″, & 12″ already, I just hope they’ve got one more in ’em.
Great article, ND. I’m not feeling the Megos. I enjoy them on “Robot Chicken”, but the thought of paying $20 for those? No, sorry, I’ll pass. I’ll admit, I’ve been tempted by the new DC figures. I’ve seen Green Lantern, Sinestro & Lex frequently, and GL looks pretty cool. But I take a good long look at the price tag and walk away.
Honestly, I think they look home-made and cheapish. If this is the only way Mattel plans to release RGB, then I’m saddened, and will have to skip out. I don’t think that’s the plan, but you never know with Matty…
The one Mego-style figure I may cave for is Batman. He’s my favorite and the figure looks cool. I’m a sucker for removeable masks!