Webbed-Hand Aquaman: Search for Atlantis?

[captact]

[QUOTE=imp;98678]Hi Ray. Can you elaborate on this? Also, where did you gather this information? I interviewed several former Mego warehouse staffers (from Bohemia, NY as well as the original warehouse, in Southern California), and no one ever corroborated an actual incinerator in any Mego-operated buildings. In fact, I understand there was a third building in Bohemia, located directly behind the first building, that Mego used primarily for 'dead stock' (such as the woeful "Walton's Farm House") which was eventually sold at closeout to wholesalers. I always thought the whole 'incinerator' concept was simply a metaphor... not to be taken literally. As in: "Ah, we just burned it," meaning "trashed it."

I'm anxious for you to tell me more about your findings! Thanks in advance.

Ray here!
All I know and learned was from my long time (since 1983) friend, and many phone calls with info,... Mark Huckabone...as hes my Guru when it comes to Mego's. Hope this helps Imp.
Ray

[hedrap]

When I saw Baeira's R&D notes, I ended tracing way back. My .02

Jack Weston had the Marvel rights from very early on, holding them from at least 1965 and through the Marvelmania boom. Marvel licensing rights worked in groups - Spidey, FF and Marvel Super-Heroes, which was principally Cap, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man and Namor. Namor was always the weakest seller of the group.

Fast-Forward to Weston grabbing the DC rights and presenting a mixed dozen WGSH lot to Abrams. Odds are the Marvel side was the MSH five, plus Spidey as FF merch was its own group. Since Weston helped generate the Super Friends concept and was a DC licensor, he would know who the show was built around. So the original WGSH presentation line most likely included Aquaman and Namor.

As we see on the Aquaman figure, he has Namor's ears. As we see in the R&D notes from '77, Aquaman and Namor are written with a hyphen, Aquaman/Namor. IMO, R&D were working on both as part of the initial release. When you consider the original waves-

Superman
Batman
Robin
Aquaman
Captain America
Spider-Man
Shazam
Tarzan

It's the male Super Friends, Cap & Spidey with Shazam and Tarzan sticking out. When you look at who comes after, you see each wave gets more detailed; female figures, fat bodies, multiple accessories. IMO, Shazam replaced Wonder Woman, (and possibly replaced Flash in R&D) and Tarzan replaced Namor.

Think of how simple and cheap Namor would be; T1, Robin shorts, Namor head...Tarzan flesh suit. Tarzan was secured in May of '72, six months before the first WGSH trademark and Christmas release. Much later than the rest. Like Aquaman's ears, I think the suit was developed for Namor and then put aside when the character was dropped from the wave. Why was he dropped? Because Weston would have the numbers to show he didn't sell and Weston/Mego knew Aquaman was going to get airtime with Super Friends so Namor was redundant. The Namor/Aquaman head mold wasn't fixed because of character confusion and the flesh suit went to Tarzan, a cheap addition to the line that required as little as Namor. He is, in so many ways, Namor of the Jungle.

Flash-Forward to 1976 and Man From Atlantis was commissioned for four MOTW for the '77 season. When you look at the Baiera notes, some of the other shows listed around MFA - Ark2, Hulk, Code R - were late '76 or '77 premieres. Mego was apparently developing licenses in conjunction with a show's debut and not after. Whether they were simply reading the trades or had someone like Weston actively seeking new licenses, I don't know. Either way, MFA was in the works before its premiere. In November of '76, Mego took out the Search For Atlantis trademark. This would have been around the same time as the show's production was announced. According to the MFA info at Plaid Stallions, Kenner had MFA prototypes in the works from at least Feb of '77. When you see Kenner/MFA was 3 3/4, it appears Mego either lost the rights to Kenner due to the Star Wars 3 3/4 boom, or was brought the rights after Kenner bailed and was developing a "Search For Atlantis" catch-all playset that would include "Aquaman/Namor",(Namor donned the Black Stingray garb in '73 and would have been easy for Mego to make following the Falcon/Neptunian design). If it's the former, perhaps the webbed hands were considered for a green paint job to simulate a gloved look and a way to ride MFA. That would explain the retroactive "First Use" date of July '76.

I tend to think it's the latter, so when MFA as a series didn't pan out as the next Bionic Man, Mego dropped the premise but was left with a huge amount of Aquaman parts, some Jaws rip-off sharks and however many webbed hands. IMO, this would account for why webbed hands are beyond rare. The production started and stopped within months, most was recycled in melts while the bottom was falling out of the 8-inch market in '78.

[johnmiic]

I am really out of my depth in this Aquaman mystery but a couple of things have not yet been mentioned which could help or could be dead ends.

Man From Atlantis also had a comic book series from Marvel comics. Could the production of the hands for the figure coincide with the publishing of the comic book and maybe a request by Marvel to produce such an action figure? Marvel may have wanted to add MFA to their line up of Mego action figures? Perhaps there is correspondence between Marvel and Mego which could be researched? Does anyone have any MFA comics to check the dates of its first issue or if there is any mention a figure was coming out?

This is even a longer shot. There was a notable Star Trek Animated episode where Kirk and Spock met an underwater race and were changed into water-breathing people. Marty said he hated the STAS but the Klingon figure looks like the animated Klingon. Someone sculpted it, approved it and got it on to pegs despite the fact that he didn't like the animated Trek. Could there have been a plan much earlier on to make an alien race similar to the ones in that episode? Could the hands have been for that?

This doesn't really jibe with current theorized timelines as the STAS was around 1973 or so. Still I think there was animation of people showing off their webbed hands in the episode. Maybe the webbed hands were made much, much earlier and long forgotten about? I just wanted to mention it.

[hedrap]

The MFA Marvel comic came out in '78, and IIRC, missed the entire series. IMO, it looks as if the show was supposed to go on, it was sold as such to licensors, and then it got whacked.

[MegoMark71]

This was a question i wanted to ask after reading the aquaman section of bens book. Where did berto get his figure from?

[Blue Meanie]

This was a question i wanted to ask after reading the aquaman section of bens book. Where did berto get his figure from?

I got the figure in an auction on Ebay. It was a lot of about 10 figures. The seller was I think a guy from New Jersey. It will be 10 years in July/August that I got him.

Finding out where the Catalog shot of the Great White set was taken would be about the only way to tell if mine could be the one in the pic. Here's the pic from the Museum Archive/Library:

[Tothiro]

It will be so awesome when all theories are blown out of the water after we find out this was a modified fist fighter concept hand for a Tron disc throwing figure.

[MegoMark71]

Man that is so cool. You bought it in an auction. So what was the highest amount you have been offered for it? That is if you care to divulge that knowledge. I think the fact that only one is known to exist at this point is incredible

[Blue Meanie]

Man that is so cool. You bought it in an auction. So what was the highest amount you have been offered for it? That is if you care to divulge that knowledge. I think the fact that only one is known to exist at this point is incredible

Not going to give out any numbers, but I have turned down 2 offers for it in the past 10 years that I've had it. I have thought about selling it recently though...who know's, it may be in the offing sometime this year...You never know.

[MegoMark71]

Well sir if you ever do decide to sell it, I think you might get a pretty sweet return for it. I couldn't even come close to being able to make a serious offer. However we do have some collectors here that are loaded...lol It would be the sale of the year i bet.