LCA: Birthplace of the Mego Superheroes

[RSS]

This 1973 article interviews Licencing Corp of America’s Stan Weston and Don Levin. Weston’s impact on our childhood is immeasurable, from the creation of GI Joe and the Mego World’s Greatest Superheroes, we also find out he was involved in the creation of the Super Friends with the intent of selling more Mego Superheroes. It’s…

More...

[Earth 2 Chris]

Wow, fascinating stuff.

I don't think I've ever heard they were instrumental in getting Super Friends on the air. I always heard that Hanna Barbara wanted to do a "Scooby-Doo Meets the Super Heroes" series after the wild success of their Batman and Robin episodes of the New Scooby-Doo Movies. They even wanted to include Marvel characters at one point! DC took more control and jettisoned the Scooby connection, but kept similar characters in Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog.

Maybe the LCA idea was peculating at the same time, and the two just eventually merged?

Chris

[sprytel]

That is fascinating bit of pop culture history there. So much of this is just commonly accepted business practice today, but this helps remind you what a novel concept it was at the time. Weston was a visionary.

[Wee67]

I thought I remember Neil Kublan telling a story that it was Stan Weston who originally proposed using Action Jackson as a base for a Dick Tracy line, which ultimately became WGSH. I've always credited Mego with moving the licensing business forward and I still think their success did just that. I had never really known about LCA's massive role in this. I always assumed they acted simply as a broker between licenser and licensee. I didn't realize they were responsible for the concepts. They seem to set up an entire business model around it.

Does this mean LCA was responsible for WGSH solid boxes?

I wonder if this is the Chan movie they're discussing - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067670/

[palitoy]

I thought I remember Neil Kublan telling a story that it was Stan Weston who originally proposed using Action Jackson as a base for a Dick Tracy line, which ultimately became WGSH. I've always credited Mego with moving the licensing business forward and I still think their success did just that. I had never really known about LCA's massive role in this. I always assumed they acted simply as a broker between licenser and licensee. I didn't realize they were responsible for the concepts. They seem to set up an entire business model around it.

Neal mentioned Dick Tracy and other characters. I remember Marty saying in an interview one of the characters was Charlie Chan, which at the time seemed weird and random but now it makes perfect sense.

Does this mean LCA was responsible for WGSH solid boxes?

Yup! The WGSH Solid Boxes were drawn by Neal's old instructor Mike Germakian, who worked at LCI and would later go on to design "The Thundercats".

I wonder if this is the Chan movie they're discussing - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067670/

Oh wow, that was a very dated premise, even for 1973.

[Godzilla]

That is a fascinating story! I love Ross Martin, but Charlie Chan? Oof.

[hedrap]

The Munster's connection is new to me and I've done a fair amount of research into Weston.

The way it breaks down is Weston had the DC and Marvel licenses from when he created Captain Action. He went to Hanna Barbera about a cartoon based on Secret Origins as a tie-in to a superhero toy line. HB changed that into Super Friends (IIRC, they felt Superman and Batman would be able to maintain an audience better than a new character each week), while Weston was also selling Abrams on the idea leading to WGSH.

I hadn't heard about Dick Tracy, which makes sense since that was also in the LCA holdings. It's ironic that the guy who created GI Joe helped established the company who created GI Joe's most successful knockoff.