Wow....the Figures

[madmarva]

Did you ever believe there would be a time when there would be so many 8" figures in production that you'd be forced to pick and choose and possibly go without something you'd like.

So much of this stuff is so good looking. It's really amazing. This really is a crazy fun time.

The Snake, George Washington and Taylor figures are just grand slams.

[rche]

I am already going without for many of the new releases, tho it is grand to gaze and gander at them.

[MIB41]

I have to be honest here and say this period we're currently living in is the new golden era. The output of Mego style product by so many companies is quickly eclipsing not only the Mego age, but it's also eclipsing the long time dominance of 3 3/4 inch figures. Could this not only be a rebirth for the collectors, but maybe worldwide in the industry? What will our retail shelves look like in a few short years? Simply incredible. I don't think there are sufficient words to express the shock value for all of these releases, other than one advisory term to keep it going - BUY!

[Gorn Captain]

Yep, it's amazing.
That is why it's actually a weird kind of blessing when I see a line or specific figure that I find something wrong with. I can easily move on.
You're still left with tons of others to choose from, and it's impossible to "collect 'm all!" these days...

[4NDR01D]

I have to be honest here and say this period we're currently living in is the new golden era. The output of Mego style product by so many companies is quickly eclipsing not only the Mego age, but it's also eclipsing the long time dominance of 3 3/4 inch figures. Could this not only be a rebirth for the collectors, but maybe worldwide in the industry? What will our retail shelves look like in a few short years? Simply incredible. I don't think there are sufficient words to express the shock value for all of these releases, other than one advisory term to keep it going - BUY!

Well, here's my problem. Of all the releases put out over the last few years, I've only seen 2 universal figures in a record/movies store and a couple dc figures in a discount store. I think it was darkseid and tiger woman? and I bought them for my DC obsessed brother in law. He loved them but didnt even know they were being made. he wanted to get some others but didnt want to pay the high cost of having them shipped to Canada (which nearly doubles the cost). it's just my opinion, but to really dent this industry the distributions going to have to get these to stores where somebody like me can find them and not just specialty comic book shops in urban areas. I've had a real hard time getting excited about anything because I know I'm just not going to see them around.

[hedrap]

NECA is its own breed. What they're doing is what a lot of us surmised in the Retro-Action post-mortem. You have to find that sweet spot of "modern" Mego, so it looks like it can sit on a shelf next to other NECA, Sideshow, etc...releases.

[madmarva]

Totally agree, hedrap. I really like what FTC is doing. It's fun and nostalgic, but what I'd really like to see from them is more like that 6" Dark Knight figure from I believe Mediacom, but 8" tall. It's sort of what NECA is doing.

But, man, I'm just drooling over the George Washington figure. Hits my sweet spot of action figures and history. I'm hoping for Grant and Lee at some point

If some company would just do a line of classic Hollywood actors as their key characters I'd be turning flips. I'd love to see a Rick from Casablanca, Charles Foster Kane, Mean ol' Mr. Potter, Rhett Butler, Norma Desmond, Shane, Norman Bates (really can't believe this hasn't been made already), Ben-Hur.

i'd probably be the only one that would want those

[MIB41]

Well, here's my problem. Of all the releases put out over the last few years, I've only seen 2 universal figures in a record/movies store and a couple dc figures in a discount store. I think it was darkseid and tiger woman? and I bought them for my DC obsessed brother in law. He loved them but didnt even know they were being made. he wanted to get some others but didnt want to pay the high cost of having them shipped to Canada (which nearly doubles the cost). it's just my opinion, but to really dent this industry the distributions going to have to get these to stores where somebody like me can find them and not just specialty comic book shops in urban areas. I've had a real hard time getting excited about anything because I know I'm just not going to see them around.

Oh I think you're definitely right. The Mego-style format is not a national craze again by brick and mortar standards. But by online commerce, it's quickly becoming a much sought after product by so many different companies. And if these continue to prosper and grow, I think the next step is the traditional walk-in stores. You get that many companies behind a format of figures, big chains like Walmart, Target, and even Meijers will sit up and take notice. TRU is already on board with FTC to bring the 18" and classic 8 inch back to shelves. If those move, I fully expect other retailers to take notice and throw their hat back into the ring. That's why I said it will be interesting to see what store shelves look like in five years. The advantage these new lines have that past offerings like Famous Covers, Signature Series, and Mattel Retros never had was Industry momentum. That tide has shifted.

[Captain]

FTC is coming to Toys R Us?
That could prove interesting

[thunderbolt]

TRU has carried the format already from EMCE and Mattel, so its no surprise to me that they are in again. I wonder if they are leery of the 8 inch superhero tho after all the problems with Mattel.

[Gorn Captain]

NECA is doing what Mego did in its glory days: hitting all the big franchises and getting us Apes, Monsters, movie heroes, you name it.
I also love their attention to detail.
And who ever thought we'd get a "Mego" Snake Plissken?

[melkorjunior]

My biggest issue with the Re-Mego movement currently upon us didn't occur to me until yesterday when I was posing my figures on the shelves: some of the newer figures are too detailed for my liking.

Now, I collect Hot Toys, so I'm a fan of intricate detail in general. But it just doesn't look right to me on Mego-scale figures. I was looking at the EMCE Phantom of the Opera figure and the thing is a little work of art, but it just looks kind of wrong when posed with my Megos. It's too detailed to fit with them, from the headsculpt all the way through the excellently tailored outfit, and the scale is too small to really work as a Hot Toys style super-detailed figure. It's somewhere in the middle. Megos should have a certain element of caricature to them rather than perfect realism. Look at the smiling heroes from the WGSH line, or even Captain Kirk from the Trek line: all of these figures bear a distinctive, playful style. Some of the newer figures are such perfectly realistic representations that they just leave me cold.

This has me rethinking my commitment to EMCE's Marvel Mego sets too. Do the modern Cap and Spider-Man figures look great? Sure. But will they really look right on the shelf with my Megos? I'm starting to think they won't. Maybe if Mego had lasted another ten years their style would have shifted to suit the times and we would've started getting the kind of realistic, highly detailed figures like the Re-Mego movement is giving us. But the Mego we all know and love is the company that gave us a smiling Bruce Wayne with a badly fitting suit, a smirking Captain Kirk with a little blue phaser, a goofy Dracula with a screen-printed outfit, and a Wolfman who wore tights and combat boots and a fur shirt.

The new stuff...just doesn't fit in so well.

[Wee67]

The new stuff...just doesn't fit in so well.

That's why I give them their own shelf

Well, sometimes. Some of the newer figures (the Treks that were not released for example). I also display them separately because they're not vintage Mego.

Well, again sometimes. I have given a couple some lesser prominent spots in the background with vintage Megos.

I guess that's the fun of it for me. I can pass on some lines, I can get some characters that weren't Mego-made, and I can get an entire line I love in the Mego style.

I think this is a similar line of discussion we had as more and more people got into customs- Some people really like customs that have that great Mego-y feel and others love the incredible detail of more realistic stuff.

And I think that's the great thing about reMegos (AND customs)- There's room for both in our in 8" world.




Unless, of course, you prefer 3 & 3/4" and then I say "Good day to you sir!!!"

[MIB41]

I think recapturing the "look" of a product from a different era is always going to be very subjective (as well as a trap). That's why I like the FTC product lines, because they're making molds of those exact heads (not interpretations) and essentially deliver that same product on improved manufacturing and materials available today (IMO). Sales speak for themselves. I think Mattel was a perfect example of what a couple of people thought a Mego head sculpt should look like at the design stage and it became a very divisive issue.

You also have to keep in mind that Megos were children's toys designed by a group of people who grew up in a different era from ours. Most of them likely grew up in the 40's and 50's, so they carried a different mentality about the qualities that would appeal to a child. No one was looking 40 years ahead to a market that was not yet in existence. These days the figure market is massive and it encompasses so many age groups. They're also not dollar store price anymore. So to skew new figures down to a over simplified head sculpt but ask a collector price is really taking you out of the market. Those figures from yesterday ARE getting made again, but there has to be room for a new grade of figure that agrees with today's standards. I think that's what EMCE was thinking with this recent line of monsters.

[Gorn Captain]

You make some great points.
True, the new ones lack that "playfulness" and innocence of Mego. That "toy-like" quality instead of "realism".
But to me, these new figures are basically what Mego would have been doing, had they still been around.
And I still feel that EMCE Monsters captured both styles at the same time...

And yes, if someone were to make these in a lighter, 70s Mego mood, I'd buy them in a heartbeat...

My biggest issue with the Re-Mego movement currently upon us didn't occur to me until yesterday when I was posing my figures on the shelves: some of the newer figures are too detailed for my liking.

Now, I collect Hot Toys, so I'm a fan of intricate detail in general. But it just doesn't look right to me on Mego-scale figures. I was looking at the EMCE Phantom of the Opera figure and the thing is a little work of art, but it just looks kind of wrong when posed with my Megos. It's too detailed to fit with them, from the headsculpt all the way through the excellently tailored outfit, and the scale is too small to really work as a Hot Toys style super-detailed figure. It's somewhere in the middle. Megos should have a certain element of caricature to them rather than perfect realism. Look at the smiling heroes from the WGSH line, or even Captain Kirk from the Trek line: all of these figures bear a distinctive, playful style. Some of the newer figures are such perfectly realistic representations that they just leave me cold.

This has me rethinking my commitment to EMCE's Marvel Mego sets too. Do the modern Cap and Spider-Man figures look great? Sure. But will they really look right on the shelf with my Megos? I'm starting to think they won't. Maybe if Mego had lasted another ten years their style would have shifted to suit the times and we would've started getting the kind of realistic, highly detailed figures like the Re-Mego movement is giving us. But the Mego we all know and love is the company that gave us a smiling Bruce Wayne with a badly fitting suit, a smirking Captain Kirk with a little blue phaser, a goofy Dracula with a screen-printed outfit, and a Wolfman who wore tights and combat boots and a fur shirt.

The new stuff...just doesn't fit in so well.