Vintage Mego: The Waltons

[Falstaff13]

How did this fine thread turn into Little House? I lost an eye, watching all that blindness!

That's my fault--I suggested it as the kind of thing Mego might have licensed. I actually think it would have worked in a similar way, all with the idea of selling as dolls, but I was thinking you could align it more with "action" because it's closer to a western. I could have suggested a line based on Apple's Way, but I think I'm the only person left who remembers Ronnie Cox's Depression-era show...

[Wee67]

I assume the Waltons and WOZ sold better with young girls. Does anyone know if they were located in the "girls" section with other dolls, or on the "boys" side with action figures!? (((exclamation included to emphasize my manliness as I say ACTION FIGURES!)))

Here you can see the doll divide- Superheroes for me, Sci Fi for my brother and, in the background, you can see my sister's Waltons playset-
Christmas Enterprise.jpg

[Earth 2 Chris]

I (and my entire family) much preferred Little House over the Waltons. Less depressing, despite the blindness. Plus the bonkers series finale where they blow the town up!

Chris

[hedrap]

Ironically, one of the retro channels plays Little House twice a day. We started leaving it on during the covid reality break.

Dear God...Michael Landon was one screwed up guy. For every light hearted episode, you get a half dozen eps where people immolate themselves, kill each other over gold, rape, spousal/child abuse, rampant alcoholism, drug addiction, death by rickety bridge, plague, pestilence, random acts killing parents, crippling injuries, and of course, blindness along with the burning of school houses full of said blind people. No wonder Gilbert became an alcoholic during the show.

[scott metzger]

To this day, I don't see how the Waltons ever got to the end of an episode without the whole family walking out the barn and hanging themselves. In the 70's, "drama" meant unrelenting depressing and hopeless, it seemed. I could never sit through Waltons or Little House, and still can't. I basically have all the parts from all the figures and could assemble a full set in a few minutes, but I've never really felt the desire to have them to display. They are great custom fodder, but without a connection to the show, they don't mean much more to me than that. But they are very good quality figures, in sculpt and in costuming, really some of Mego's top work, and this video really does a good job of explaining why Mego went this route. It was a sound business move at the time. Sometimes the story is more interesting than the figures.

[phil]

I was never much of a fan when The Waltons originally aired and knew Mego made the figures but had no interest. From a business viewpoint it made sense for Mego to take a chance for the reasons mentioned in the video.