BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES PLAYSET ...sort of...

[palitoy]

I'm just speechless, these are the coolest things to come around in a long time.

[Goblin19]

That's a great story. Welcome aboard. You were definitely a precocious kid.

[jessica]

This is all so EXCITING!!

[vulcan2074]

It Just Keeps Getting Better
Sammy

[mego73]

All great stuff.

[cjefferys]

Great clippings! We gotta get scans of these for the Museum.
I really wish I had the foresight to keep stuff like this. Scott, you were really ahead of curve on this kind of thing. That makes me wonder: if you collected an "archive" like this when you were a kid, and didn't throw anything away, do you still have all your childhood Mego Apes with their packaging and everything? I'd have to admit that I'd be surprised if you didn't.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

very cool. I'm also digging that trade mag!

[ditcin]

Great clippings! We gotta get scans of these for the Museum.
I really wish I had the foresight to keep stuff like this. Scott, you were really ahead of curve on this kind of thing. That makes me wonder: if you collected an "archive" like this when you were a kid, and didn't throw anything away, do you still have all your childhood Mego Apes with their packaging and everything? I'd have to admit that I'd be surprised if you didn't.

Yes, you guessed right - I do still have all my Mego POTA stuff, and in their origianl packaging. In fact, I've been selling some on Ebay recently. Just sold a Galen in a box. I er, have an extra Fortress and Treehouse I might be putting up at Ebay as well. I've be asking about my POTS horses as well, I have at least 2 or maybe 3 I might part with. (One thing there is that they just stopped working! They're still in thier original boxes and haven't been touched for years and years, but they just sopped working?! I've seen this on Ebay as well, other complaing that it just stopped?!
Oh well.
That reminds me. I also made a wagon cage as a kid made out of the wooden bracing from kites . I'll dig it out of mothballs and post a pic.
- Scott B.

[Raydeen1]

And I thought I was the most anal kid on the planet, keeping old Xmas catalogues and so on. I would have been your best friend when I was little. Just Wow.

I am just in awe Scott. Thanks so much for sharing!

[Raydeen1]

Guys,
I think a proper interview is called for here.

[blastphemey]

Guys,
I think a proper interview is called for here.

you are absolutley correct!

[ditcin]

When Vinnie came to my home to take pictures it was early in the game for Mego and POTA. As of yet there was no Urko or even Ursus available. Because I was such a fan this not to be. Below is my take on the Ursus helmet. Also - since I had made a General I felt I had to represent the other end of the spectrum by making a frock for a priest, as seen quickly in PLANET and longer in BENEATH.
I not longer have the seperator walls seen in both PLANET and BENEATH. In the film they were unevenly stacked squares of wood in colums of about 5 or 6. I recreated that with cubes of styrofoam painted. I made 5 of them and stood them up in a hexagon patteren to create a room. After all, I had to have a place to bless my gorilla troops when they went into battle!

The Ape City Vinnie from Mego saw is long gone. I had made an arena/ampitheatre for all my POTA figures to sit in. It was made, like my other buildings out of Paper-mâché’. I would use a heavier gauge of screening and bend it to a shape close to the kind seen in POTA. Then I would apply the Paper-mâché’ - strips of newspaper dipped into a mixture of flour and Elemer's glue. It would take days to dry and weight of the wet layers of paper would cause the screen structure to bend and get a kind of "melted' look with soft curves. After it dried I would mix sand to latex paint and cover the structure. I had made two buildings, on ampitheatre that had a walkway that streched across the front and connected to a 3 story building that was made of styrofoam which I named "the Armory" where I had all my gorilla guns, and clubs. I named it the Armory in a nod to BATTLE were the weapons were kept. I think but have no proof that it became "The Fortress". Like mine it had 2 levels, a gun rack, a cage, a table and in stead of a over the door walkway leading to the ampitheatre it had an awning over each door large enough for an ape to stand on. Both mine and Mego's had a ladder as well reaching from one level to another.
I'm currently looking for a photo of it.
- Scott B. :ape

[miguet]

Nice work on the helmet and priest robe!

[saildog]

Scott, I am so glad you have shared all of this with us. Thank You!

Too bad Mego never had the chance to get excited over the spaceships I made out empty Kleenex boxes with empty toilet paper rolls for rocket engines. Had I the courage to approach them, as you did, who knows what kind of story I would have to tell!

I am tickled to death to know that Mego actually wanted a kid's input (albeit, a very remarkable kid, comparatively).

I hope you stick around and get to know all of us!

[ditcin]

Scott, I am so glad you have shared all of this with us. Thank You!

Too bad MEGO never had the chance to get excited over the spaceships I made out empty Kleenex boxes with empty toilet paper rolls for rocket engines. Had I the courage to approach them, as you did, who knows what kind of story I would have to tell!

I am tickled to death to know that MEGO actually wanted a kid's input (albeit, a very remarkable kid, comparatively).

I hope you stick around and get to know all of us!

A spaceship! Now that would have been great. You know, the Astronaut, along with Burke and Verdon got the short end of the stick when you think about it. I mean, there was nothing for them. Everything was "Ape" minded. I think a ship large enough for the figures to sit in would have been incredible. It should have come with space suits that way we could have dressed apes in them and reenact ESCAPE so they could meed Action Jackson and the like.
Now that was a missed opportunity.

- Scott B.