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Metaluna Mutant - "Only Mego Fans Would Debate This" prompt...

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  • Tothiro
    Kitten Mittens
    • Aug 28, 2008
    • 1342

    Metaluna Mutant - "Only Mego Fans Would Debate This" prompt...

    Ok. To start let's take on faith that Mego, in a "1978 re-imagined" sense, would never have taken on a property like This Island Earth. The license wouldn't have had enough recognition in it (leaving aside the Sid & Marty Kroft and Lost In Space vs the why the hell Our Gang topics) ... I digress. There can be differing schools of thought on whether they might have started a Fearsome Film type offshoot - but I think they'd be more likely to go the no name route and do a Metaluna homage rather than pay licensing fees. Whether it had glow hands and eyes is a whole other thing...

    Anyway here's the short form -
    IF they had produced a figure based directly on the design of the mut-ant, (and I have always had a pretty solidly formed outfit construction and design idea in my head) would they make standard hands or elongated arms for the claws?
    Which is to say - Presuming that the character had a printed sleeve ala spidey for whatever length the arm became, AND they didn't Cher-Disco-Monkey out the design like half the trek figures, do you think MEGO would have made:
    A) a specialized hand in normal hand scale (IE T2 Lizard, apes etc) that was a claw... or do you think they would have designed
    B) a longer construct for the claw hand part that began at the wrist, essentially giving the figure a "second elbow" so the arms were the right length ... or do you think they would have gone with
    C) a static, wrist-free longer forearm-claw combo like the T1 Lizard?
    Last edited by Tothiro; Feb 24, '11, 4:31 AM.
  • thunderbolt
    Hi Ernie!!!
    • Feb 15, 2004
    • 34211

    #2
    I think itwould either be a claw hand or a glove to go over the standard Mego arm sculpted into the claw arm. And don't forget he gets pants!!!
    You must try to generate happiness within yourself. If you aren't happy in one place, chances are you won't be happy anyplace. -Ernie Banks

    Comment

    • sprytel
      Talkative Member
      • Jun 26, 2009
      • 6541

      #3
      Yup, my money is on gloves.

      Comment

      • hedrap
        Permanent Member
        • Feb 10, 2009
        • 4825

        #4
        I think it would go by design evolution if we're holding to a 1978 chronology.

        The two main previous developments were FF/Titans/Andorian gauntlets and Mugato's feet. A Lizard/POTA hand sculpt would be out by this point, so it comes down to whether you see Mugato's feet as an evolution from Neptunian's boots or is the Mugato just a cobble of rejected POTA experiments. I believe the latter, and considering the joint failure of Mugato's legs, Metaluna would have enlarged hollowed gauntlet forearms.

        Comment

        • rche
          channeling Bob Wills
          • Mar 26, 2008
          • 7385

          #5
          gloves. regular hands on a colored body with gloves that are shaped as claw hands.

          Comment

          • Tothiro
            Kitten Mittens
            • Aug 28, 2008
            • 1342

            #6
            Is it about increased production cost? This is something that has confused me about MEGO business practice... We can look at the Neptunian and say, "Well, clearly the would have been shooting green into the body molds already for Green Goblin, so this doesn't require as much production change, they must go with gloves and boots..." But then on the other hand we have Lizard, with his dedicated PAIR of hand tooling as well as right and left legs...

            Now one might assume the Mut-Ant would have come on an Andorian/Keeper colored body, so you can make the argument they were already around/in the production run... and there is a cost saving angle for the legs, because boots would be left-right compatible, saving them the tooling of a matched pair of legs with mirrored joints. The arms though could be the same, considering the design of the claw they'd only need one set of mold tooling for a hand element OR a glove. The extended glove without anything on the interior would be fairly fragile... previously the gloves are fairly closely matched to the hands.

            So does this mean a regular arm-length glove is the answer?

            joint failure of Mugato's legs
            I'm not in the Mugato club yet - Are they known for floppy stand failure?
            Last edited by Tothiro; Feb 24, '11, 12:47 PM.

            Comment

            • SeattleEd
              SynthoRes Transmigrator
              • Oct 24, 2007
              • 4350

              #7
              Roberto,

              You planning on making a Metaluna Mutant?

              I'd be interested.

              Comment

              • YANOULI
                Part-Time Timelord
                • Jan 9, 2006
                • 2209

                #8
                I would say gloves, like on the Neptunian.

                I'm guessing it would be a lot cheaper to do it like that than sculpt new body parts.

                Originally posted by ealdrett
                Roberto,

                You planning on making a Metaluna Mutant?

                I'd be interested.
                You can pick up the 8" sideshow mutants on ebay quite cheaply sometimes.
                Last edited by YANOULI; Feb 24, '11, 3:16 PM.
                " But you can't kill me, i'm a Genius "

                Comment

                • Tothiro
                  Kitten Mittens
                  • Aug 28, 2008
                  • 1342

                  #9
                  Originally posted by YANOULI
                  I would say gloves, like on the Neptunian.

                  I'm guessing it would be a lot cheaper to do it like that than sculpt new body parts.
                  Mmm - but why? Both would be the same size new mold tooling. A glove would actually be additional parts, which I would guess means higher cost - wouldn't it?

                  Originally posted by ealdrett
                  Roberto,

                  You planning on making a Metaluna Mutant?
                  I got a bunch working at snail's pace already, so I'm not sayin' nuthin!

                  Comment

                  • Meule
                    Verbose Member
                    • Nov 14, 2004
                    • 28720

                    #10
                    Well, they sculpted forearms for the Lizard and hairy hands for the apes, so I'm gonna go with a claw
                    "...The agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair..." - Edgar Allan Poe

                    Comment

                    • hedrap
                      Permanent Member
                      • Feb 10, 2009
                      • 4825

                      #11
                      Is it about increased production cost? This is something that has confused me about MEGO business practice... We can look at the Neptunian and say, "Well, clearly the would have been shooting green into the body molds already for Green Goblin, so this doesn't require as much production change, they must go with gloves and boots..." But then on the other hand we have Lizard, with his dedicated PAIR of hand tooling as well as right and left legs...
                      IMO, the heyday sales of '72-'74 lead to a lot experimentation for '75 that didn't payoff since the Marvel figures, as noted by the Mego record keepers, didn't sell well. Lizard was very experimental and costly, which IMO meant there must have been an issue with his tooled limbs, (perhaps the fist), because they decided to re-appropriate POTA bodies with hairy hands for Gorn. If cost wasn't a factor, why not go all-in? Hell, why does Falcon have ape hands?

                      Now one might assume the Mut-Ant would have come on an Andorian/Keeper colored body, so you can make the argument they were already around/in the production run... and there is a cost saving angle for the legs, because boots would be left-right compatible, saving them the tooling of a matched pair of legs with mirrored joints. The arms though could be the same, considering the design of the claw they'd only need one set of mold tooling for a hand element OR a glove. The extended glove without anything on the interior would be fairly fragile... previously the gloves are fairly closely matched to the hands.
                      Good call on the Keeper/Andorian body. That would be the base. The arm would stay on since the mold was done, but the glove-claws - if they were going to be Metaluna huge - would have to form-fit around the elbow joint and not be as open as the FF/Titans gauntlet or they'd fall right off. Otherwise, it's a Neptunian-type monster glove that would blend with the fabric to appear as longer.

                      I'm not in the Mugato club yet - Are they known for floppy stand failure?
                      Broken legs. My assumption has always been the foot size created a pulling issue.

                      There's another consideration; the packaging. What claw-size could fit under a normal bubble? I think that alone would kill off any elongated arm designs.

                      Comment

                      • TrueDave
                        Toy Maker
                        • Jan 12, 2008
                        • 2343

                        #12
                        I myself would LOVE to understand the idea of making gloves/boots . I think it would require at least a three part mold. Whereas a new body part would be two.
                        I vote for new forearms, non articulated wrists and the "difference" made up with whatever Mego sews on the sleeve cuffs ala Green Goblin.

                        Comment

                        • Tothiro
                          Kitten Mittens
                          • Aug 28, 2008
                          • 1342

                          #13
                          Originally posted by hedrap
                          If cost wasn't a factor, why not go all-in? Hell, why does Falcon have ape hands?
                          Well cost clearly would always be a factor - Maybe they felt it would be mitigated as such by gambling on a Marvel popularity that didn't come to pass at retail?
                          There's clearly a sweet-spot of Tooling VS License Fee at play, looking at Knights, Pirates, American West - they had ridiculous amounts of new molds not just cost of added pieces. Falcon had new boots, and I think the hands are left over from the sheer number of POTA figs pumped through the production run... My Huggy Bear and Captain Dobey are the only standard brown hands I've seen. GG had new boots (and satchel) and they didn't give him gloves - he got the cuff treatment. I think they must have made it up on a case by case basis.

                          Originally posted by hedrap
                          The arm would stay on since the mold was done,
                          Again though, the arms are six separate pieces (upper, fore, wrist disc, hand, both cross pins) that need to be individually shot and then assembled by workers. How that assembly line cost matches up against the machinist cost of tooling new molds I don't know, but in a case of new molds being needed anyway, I would think cutting the arm down to three pieces (upper, one-piece forearm claw and single cross pin) would be cheaper. OR, again, just the hands... this would be like a Mad Monster glow hand argument. Why are the glow hands not standard hands but a whole new monster sculpt?

                          Originally posted by hedrap
                          There's another consideration; the packaging. What claw-size could fit under a normal bubble? I think that alone would kill off any elongated arm designs.
                          That would probably be less of a factor - The arms are longer, but not that much larger in diameter since the claws aren't super Crabsville (probably on a size par with Star Raiders Yog claws). I think they'd fit in a normal bubble with either design pretty easily. More easily than a Mugato it seems anyway.

                          Comment

                          • Tothiro
                            Kitten Mittens
                            • Aug 28, 2008
                            • 1342

                            #14
                            Originally posted by TrueDave
                            I myself would LOVE to understand the idea of making gloves/boots . I think it would require at least a three part mold. Whereas a new body part would be two.
                            Well here you go:
                            It's the same mold arrangement... instead of material being pushed through under pressure like the arms and such, it would be a smaller amount with air pressure behind it, (like FF gloves/boots) or a different material put in the two-part mold and rotated under heat at high speed, forcing the material to coat the wall (like the heads, or TT gloves/boots, or like legs and chests)

                            Comment

                            • PNGwynne
                              Master of Fowl Play
                              • Jun 5, 2008
                              • 19456

                              #15
                              My gut feeling is (and maybe wishful thinking):

                              --Keeper body

                              --screened suit

                              --new "pincer" hands & feet

                              I suppose you could make the case that new gloves & boots could accomplish the same thing. I've always been surprised that Mugato got new feet but a crap outfit.

                              And I cannot see Mego acknowledging the Mutant arm-length. By '78, they were back-tracking--keeping oven-mitts and cancelling more complex figures the following year.
                              WANTED: Dick Grayson SI trousers; gray AJ Mustang horse; vintage RC Batman (Bruce Wayne) head; minty Wolfman tights; mint Black Knight sword; minty Launcelot boots; Lion Rock (pale) Dracula & Mummy heads; Lion Rock Franky squared boots; Wayne Foundation blue furniture; Flash Gordon/Ming (10") unbroken holsters; CHiPs gloved arms; POTA T2 tan body; CTVT/vintage Friar Tuck robes, BBP TZ Burgess Meredith glasses.

                              Comment

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