Best Non-Licensed Mego line?

[PNGwynne]

What do you consider the best non-licensed Mego line?

Love 'em all for different reasons--And I suspect many will choose the spiffy Knights.

(I veto the Knights because, IMO, their admittedly nice armor has design flaws.)

My (difficult) choice is the Pirates.

I just love them--colorful, great head sculpts, terrific accessories. The costumes are outstanding, too.

And if you put them in a Matchbox Sea Fury playset, it will blow your mind.

[megomania]

I'd go with Pirates also...they are my next quest...watching a few on ebay now...

-Chris

[megojim]

No design flaws that I see . . . . Knights win it hands down!

[PNGwynne]

I like the Knights alot, but it always irritated me that the torso armor was glued in place. If the sword-belt had been sturdier, it & the shoulder pieces could have secured the other pieces without glue.

Again, just my opinion.

[boss]

Knights. I always hated figures with peg legs. It's hard to make them be someone else.

[megojim]

there are design flaws with ALL mego lines

[raider5gt]

I would say Knights,I really think they are a cool set of figures and I love anything Medieval. :grin:

[pmwasson]

Were the Mad Monsters licensed?

[thunderbolt]

Any of the original stuff is pretty sweet, kind of partial to Robin Hood and Co.

[Werewolf]

Mad Monsters. Terrific original designs and they glowed in the dark. Stuff that glows in the dark is total win. Seriously, that's epic. More monsters would have added to the fun but when you have the big four (Drac, Mummy, Frank and Wolfie) you are good to go. They also make good WGSH villains.

Now, the knights look great but they lack play value. King Arthur without Merlin is boring. There's also no Morgan Le Fay or Guinevere. No princess to rescue. No castle to defend or attack. No Dragons or Ray Harryhausen style skeletons to fight. They have jousting gear but can't even use it because the horses are so insane rare only a few are known to exist. A real missed opportunity and just not a lot of fun for kids.

The Robin Hood figures also look pretty nice. But, Robin Hood without Maid Marian!? What's the point.

Lastly, do the Knights, Pirates, Robin Hood or Western figures glow in the dark? No, no they do not. I rest my case.

[jwyblejr]

I like the Western stuff.

[HumanWolfman]

Mad Monsters all the way. Like Werewolf said, they had glow in the dark action. The Human Wolfman(my personal favorite) was years ahead of its design with the "Wolf" style head. If you take notice, most werewolf movies that followed also began to move away from the more human look to the more wolf-like look, ala Human Wolfman.

[tllgn]

i liked the mad monsters the best ,with the glow in the dark eyes & hands,even though they didnt look like the monsters in the movies,they had imagination,the wolfman was the coolest,an interesting twist,like gwen conliff said in the wolfman "red riding hood was a werewolf story,and thats the kind of wolf this figure was .

[PNGwynne]

Were the Mad Monsters licensed?

No, they were not.


I love the Mad Monsters & their aesthetic, as well as play value. They are sooo fun, & the Castle is sweet.

But they didn't make my cut because (even thought I really like him), honestly, Dracula is...The Weakest Link.


(Of course, this is all pretty subjective & Lafitte is prob. the weakest Pirate effort.)

[drmego]

Knights have the best boxes - extra money was spent on the production
of the boxes to have that wraparound clear plastic and the special
cut-outs.

All the unique accessories - they could have done 1 shield and had
sticker emblems - all the chestpieces are unique, and have a good
amount of fine detailing.

For a manufacturer, plastic is more expensive than clothing, and the
only thing they got to re-use was Arthur and the Black Knight's shoes.

[tllgn]

^^^^
and some of the heads

[warlock664]

Mad Monsters. Terrific original designs and they glowed in the dark. Stuff that glows in the dark is total win. Seriously, that's epic.
Lastly, do the Knights, Pirates, Robin Hood or Western figures glow in the dark? No, no they do not. I rest my case.

:smiley1:
Can't argue with the logic, so I must agree !

[GlobalObserver]

Mad Monsters

[kingdom warrior]

Knights hands down! I loved them! seems Mego did too looks like they were inspired by the 1953 movie Knights of the Round table

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKMhknOAjRQ&feature=relmfu

[ctc]

>Stuff that glows in the dark is total win.

True. Monsters win.

Don C.

[galaxyexplorer42]

I have to agree on just about everything here. For me, Mad Monsters & Knights are my favs of the non licensed figures. Monster head sculps & hand sculps (t1) are great, but Knight clothing & armer are also great, but should have been more easy to remove. If I had to list em in favs, my list would be:
1) Mad Monsters
2) Knights
3) Robin Hood
4) Western
5) Pirates

[theressa]

How can one not like the Knights?
I like this line so much that I replaced 2 windows in their boxes and replaced the handle on Galahads sheild! Oh, and the parts hunt is/was a trip!
Not to mention making my own Guinevere!!

Posting a brag pic! :wink:
http://megomuseum.com/mmgallery/files/1/2/0/IMG_7104_original.jpg

[rchatlin]

No question about it - the Knights.

The first time I held one of the figures - Ivanhoe -
it looked, and felt, perfect.

The attention to detail, the accessories, and if only, the Castle was branded as part of this line.

One of Mego's best, licensed or not.

r
o
b

[bobws]

I really haven't gotten to these yet.... but i would probably go with western and then Merry Men. i'm just more familiar with those characters and people.

[generic]

I never saw any of the non-licensed Megos as a kid, but as an adult, I'd have to go with the MONSTERS for personal favorites. I will concede that the Knights certainly had some awesome accessories and Ivanhoe's head sculpt was awesome. I also understand what was said about their boxes taking extra effort, but man, the monster box art and glow eyes & hands really keep them on top of my list!

[drmego]

You are probably indicative of the opinions of the kids of the '70s - who thought
glow-in-the-dark monsters were a better choice than some overdressed knights
who nobody ever heard of anyway.

I never knew anything about any of MEGO's non-licensed lines until adulthood,
and as an adult, and a history buff, the monsters just look goofy - especially
Dracula with that bug eye expression - and some of the pirates seem redundant.
Captain Patch puzzles me to this day.

After the knights, I like Robin Hood, then pirates, then monsters dragging well behind.

[batmanmc]

action jackson .

[cjefferys]

I agree that the Knights are the best. Mad Monsters are second for me, fantastic box art, and I love all the figures EXCEPT for Dracula. His goofy head sculpt and bad outfit make him the weak link in the set by far (his nicely illustrated box gives him a couple points though).

I'm always surprised how many people never saw the non-licensed Mego figures at retail when they were kids. I saw them all, I remember owning a Mummy, Long John Silver, Robin Hood and Little John, and although I never had a Western or Knight figure as a kid, I definitely remember seeing them in stores.

[HardyGirl]

Action Jackson. It's where the 8" figures started, 'Nuff said.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

Action Jackson. It's where the 8" figures started, 'Nuff said.

Right there with you and BatmanMC. To me it is all of the different pieces of equipment, clothing and accessories. Mego branded his name and had a game plan with the figure. Plus, my 5 year old self fro 1972 wouldn't have let me vote any other way.:silly:

[drmego]

You know - I remember seeing the mini-catalog that came with the POTA treehouse
even though I didn't own one as a kid, but when I saw it as an adult, I remembered
seeing it before - and that had pictures of the monsters, western, etc. maybe I was
just too much of a superhero kid to pay attention to anything that wasn't Apes or
Supers.

[drmego]

If only Action Jackson had the face of the one on the outfits package.
That was the same face used for the Colorforms kit.

How did he go from handsome man in the art to fugly in production?

[PNGwynne]

I remember the mini-catalogs, & I did have Ivanhoe & Mad Monsters as a kid.

However, I grew up in the sticks--If a Mego wasn't in our Christmas catalogs or my local supermarket, I didn't get it. I don't recall seeing Mego Pirates originally, although I had some Fighting Furies as a child.


Paul makes a good point about the work involved on the Knights--it's interesting to get a manufacturer's perspective.

But Patch is my favorite Pirate sculpt lol. Some of the "legends" lines have great accessories but mediocre sculpts (Am. West.).

[HardyGirl]

If only Action Jackson had the face of the one on the outfits package.
That was the same face used for the Colorforms kit.

How did he go from handsome man in the art to fugly in production?

I didn't think his face was so bad. It was just unique. And certainly better looking than Captain Action who looked as if he were going to break down and cry at any moment!

[drmego]

But Captain Action was supposed to have his face covered up!
He was the hero born to have a bag on his head. At least AJ
grew a beard.

[Falstaff13]

I think other Western lines actually come out a little ahead of Mego (well, basically I rank The Legends of the West above them), but I'd make it a close call between the Knights and Robin Hood, and I think the two are both excellent. I like the pirates but just not as much.

Meanwhile, I still am surprised, given their success with these lines and the movie success for The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, that Mego didn't produce a Musketeers line (World's Greatest Adventurers? Literary Characters?). They would have only needed to make one costume and repeat it (maybe change the color of the hat or something), and then just reuse bodies already in production--perhaps blonde versions of Ivanhoe and King Arthur/Buffalo Bill, a reworked Robin Hood, a slightly changed Little John, and you've got Athos, Porthos, Aramis, & D'artagnan!

[PNGwynne]

^Re: Musketeers--You make a great observation & suggestion.

But of course they would have skipped Cardinal Richelieu lol.

CAT released some nice Musketeers in a similar vein using CTVT parts a while ago.

[drmego]

The Musketeers were adult movies - definitely not kid fare - even though it
was PG.

[kingdom warrior]

If only Action Jackson had the face of the one on the outfits package.
That was the same face used for the Colorforms kit.

How did he go from handsome man in the art to fugly in production?

That's what I always thought! :rotfl:

[kingdom warrior]

The Western line was awesome too but it was a shame that mego didn't have the license to do an 8' Lone Ranger line to go with the Western heroes that would have been killer!

[actjac01]

The Musketeers were adult movies - definitely not kid fare - even though it
was PG.

I don't agree. I love the Three Musketeers when I was a kid, especially because of the movies. In my opinion, they were as much adult as "The Adventures of Robin Hood' with Errol Flynn or "Ivanhoe" with Robert Taylor.

[PNGwynne]

^I think Paul is referring to the more bawdy '70s Salkind films.

But Musketeers in general could easily have been a Mego line--virtually no new tooling would have been needed.