Why no repro love in this style?

[MegoCapnMike]

I am curious, with all of the various sites/places to get repro parts such as Doc's site, Mego Store, Etc, I am just curious as to why there is no real interest in repro parts for the 3.75" figures. I know repros are done, but in my experience, none are really on a professional level. To be fair, I have not really searched in depth to know for certain, but yeah, just curious.

[johnmiic]

There could be several reasons:

- The 8" body lends itself better to swapping out heads and other party parts. It can be disassembled and reassembled fairly easily. If Mego needed to, they could change heads & costumes and re-purpose the toy if a character was unpopular, (tho I don't think anyone can point to a specific example when this actually happened. I've never heard a story describing this happening). That feature also has been a bonus to Dr. Mego & customizers as you only need a few small parts to make a new figure or repair an old one. You don't need to make a total figure from the ground up.

- The 3 & 3/4 inch line had molded on clothing so you might not be missing costume accessories but to do a different costume or character you need another body to swap the head to. In the ST, Black Hole & Buck Rogers line what you see is what you get.

- The 8" bodies were produced over many years. They covered a lot of different and popular characters, movies and TV shows. There was a huge range: Comic Book Heroes, classic literature, historical characters, TV shows, movies. So lots of kids grew up with a fondness for them and a desire to reacquire them as adults.

- The Mego 3 & 3/4 inch line was on the market only for one short period. They were not as popular as the film that started the 3 & 3/4 inch line: Star Wars, (1977). Also the smaller G.I. Joe figures of the 1980's used a similar design but surpassed the number of characters and popularity of the small Megos.

[johnmiic]

I also think in the case of the Sci-Fi, 3 & 3/4 inch Megos, the lines would have benefited from more playsets and vehicles. The Black Hole Palimino ship & Cygnus bridge playset were cancelled. I think the Buck Rogers line would have benefitted from more vehicles from the TV series. Kids who played with Star Wars figures and toys would have probably played with them anyway. Parents would have bought Buck vehicles for their kids for X-Mas thinking they were just as good as Star Wars.

The Star Trek Bridge was a huge disappointment for me. It was made of cheap vacuuform plastic and not a complete circular bridge. I dabbled in making a custom bridge that was more authentic-looking. This is made from a plastic salad bowl which is just as flimsy as the material Mego used for their bridge but looks a whole lot better because it's circular & resembles the actual bridge. The celling has a removable top, actually a lid top from a different size bowl, but the center was left clear to allow light to shine in. This would be about the size of Kenner's Millenium Falcon.

Star Trek The Motion Picture Bridge



This outwardly resembles what the Enterprise bridge looks like on the movie Enterprise model. That resemblance is important, I think, when getting potential consumers interested in buying the toy.









Being a toy you don't have to duplicate the real bridge exactly but just have enough stations to accomadate the main characters and most noticable features like the elevators, viewscreen and Checkov's weapons station.



If these had really been made bridges for other ships could have been produced by just painting them different and adding different chairs and wall controls-probably stickers.

Star Trek 6 Bridge, (noteworthy for it's extra arches). It could just as easily be the U.S.S. Excelsior.





Bridge stations are quite roomy even in this small scale



A feature I added afterwards was an extension to the rear, past the turbo-lift elevators, to also allow for the docking port. External vehicles like shuttles could plug into the bridge and that would add playability.

U.S.S. Reliant Bridge but it could just as easily be the U.S.S. Grissom

[MegoCapnMike]

All good points. I am just surprised there isn't at least some small scale factory repros being done. If nothing else, just to make characters that were never made for some lines. Or like you said, more playlets and vehicles.

I like your custom bridge. The attention to detail is awesome. I had thought about doing something similar a few years back with the factory made Mego bridge. I have two bridge sets that I was considering putting together and then looking for maybe a 3rd one to make a complete circle but as the sets are complete and in the box, there was no way I'd go through with it as my plan called for some cutting and retooling.

I would love to see more pictures as your bridge becomes more complete though. I assume you are still working on it?

[johnmiic]

It's been sitting around for a while as I've been unemployed. I have the 2 bridges I started and the 3rd, Star Trek 6 bridge, is sitting around unpainted. I need to get more of these bowls. I found a type which is sturdier and slightly larger, (more stations for crew members, yay!), which I have to track online to see if I can get it at a cheaper wholesale price.

I'm still not sure how to make the inside more accessible. I was thinking of having some side walls slide open to get at the interior but they would have to be featureless and maybe have stickers for detail only. Then I would have to get someone to make stickers for it. Or they could drop down like the walls on the Playmates Next Gen Bridge. I think some would prefer to have the bridge just split in 1/2 but that defeats having the circular shape.

I also worked on some Buck Rogers new vehicle concepts.

I think even if you don't have FB I think you can view these albums:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1435111006073.2059195.1481906333&type=1&l=8d0ac31116

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1206386728109.2031353.1481906333&type=1&l=7294ea2117

[LordMudd]

It really wouldn't be that hard to break these down and make molds of them for recasting. Then you just need heads and you can make as many different people as you want.

I also have a STTMP punch out book of the bridge. It is 360 degrees. It comes with 6 punchout figures of the crew. They are 2 3/4 inches tall. These are 3 3/4 inches tall. A little math and a color copier...and a lot of money I don't have, and there you are.


CCC.

[ctc]

>It really wouldn't be that hard to break these down and make molds of them for recasting.

True; but engineering them to go together neatly is a bit tricky. I've done some 3.5" Micronaut/Microman customs, and they're not as easy as the 8" ones. The Mego T2 body is designed for easy customization.

Don C.

[LordMudd]

I have done some resin casting using latex molds. Mostly Warhammer, but I did some larger wall pieces. The only problem I see is the arms. Everything else has a flat surface for molding for a vertical pour, but the flat surfaces on the arms force a horizontal pour which increases the risk of air bubbles. It would take at least 2 jars of latex to make a full figure set of molds, at about $20+ each, plus another $25+ for the resin, but you could probably make 4 or 5 figures with that. The upside is that once you have the molds, they are reusable so that much is a one time cost.

I personally would ship the figures unassembled, allowing the customer the option of choosing the head they want. I would also leave them unpainted, leaving the option of matching the originals or matching the movie, since Decker is the closest to being the right color.

CCC.

[Bionicfanboy66]

Wish EMCEE would start producing 3.75" scale lines for Planet Of the Apes, ST, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers In the 25th Century, Starsky & Hutch, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly. Maybe even Dynamite's current Bionic Man & Bionic Woman comics. Maybe take a page or two from Takara's defunct Microman line as far as figure design and articulation goes. The Microman line was probably the best ever produced, IMO. Sorry, Mego & Kenner/Hasbro.

[johnmiic]

Spacecaps pointed out this customizer in the Auction Watch forum. These are more what you're looking for in this format:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Custom-made-3-3-4-Flyboy-Dawn-of-the-Dead-vintage-Mego-style-action-figure-MOC-/251248340710?pt=US_Action_Figures&hash=item3a7f916ee6

[Spyweb007]

Those 3"3/4 customs are pretty cool!

[Bionicfanboy66]

Cool looking customs.