What to buy first? Or too many toys at once!

[invisiblelad]

invisiblelad I think you and I would get along fine. I built a pretty sick jlu set until Matty collector ****ed me off then I dumped almost all of it to kids at a few toy shows. I sold them above retail but below the going rate at the time....****ed off some other toy sellers but made a lot of kids happy....I have a few still kicking around if you need more...lol.
on the Trek stuff I had a few extras and sold some off,then my stickers fell off on a few too. If you really need a few more romulans I have a few extras that are open, no cards or bubbles ,I bought a large lot and that is how I got them. I had them on display,but with all the new stuff coming out I dont have the space right now til I get rid of some 12in dolls. I told the wife I would go to just mego scale. She is glad I did,because I just discovered Kaustic plastik. I bought the Conan.
I was smart enough to tell her upfront that all RE Howard stuff was fair game. Also dont feel bad about the toy OCD, I owned a toy store for many years and most of the people I now in the hobby have it. Transformer guys are the worst ones...then some SW guys. Then some of us collect every thing.....I am healing because I no longer need every cool toy that comes out.

I WILL BUY WHATEVER ROMULANS you want to sell. Let me know ASAP buddy! PM me what you want for each one & how many you have! I need them + a Khan if you have an extra! I don't mind that they are open. In fact I want these Romulans because I have set up a formula to make customs (I never make customs, just redress other megos in the extra Lt. Uhura & Scotty EMCE figures I bought for their costumes to make RED Shirts & RED DRESSES, But I need more ROMLANS because I have now made a formula to make a generic female alien for each race EMCE released, the female MUGATO & KEEPER will be hysterical looking when I finally put them together! I'm also looking for a spare EMCE GORN, Mego Gorn or MEGO LIZARD HEAD (or figure) to make the custome female GORN I have in mind. I actually would have made these as planned years ago BUT they are costly when you add all the parts & sewing I need to make the female Aliens. If FTC/CTVT or Dr. Mego would give me a great bulk deal in exchange for me posting pics & videos of the finished products w/ links to their sites & full recipes on how to build them, I'd be set. I have thought about emailing both companies I need the parts from to see if they would work out a deal for me for years, just didn't have the b***s to ask for cheap/discounted/free stuff from them....even with their potential to gain orders due to me posting the finished products w/ links/recipes. PM me bro!

[huedell]

Here's how I'm looking at it:

It's cool that others are enjoying FTC's slant on selling Mego-style and reproesque-Megos of DC characters. I enjoy the pictures, but not much else.

I'd like to possibly eventually get all of FTC's DC offerings. I'm a huge DC fan... and Mego has always held a special place in my heart. That said, FTC's strategy on reuse of figures/clothes/accessories/packaging has been too intense to get me excited enough to cave with their DC-related lines---as you've stated, there's alotta other great stuff out there with more variation in their line offerings and a lot less repetition (reuse).

The B66 Egghead is a promising move to get me interested, as is the Scarecrow, Jayna and other brand-new WGSH-extension offerings. It's just not enough for me for now to pull any kind of trigger.

If I can't buy the FTC DC stuff in bulk at a later date at a reasonable price, I'll be content with other action figures from other companies, most notably Mattel's DCUC and B66 figs which cover all characters that FTC made, if not more---except for a few gaps that DC Direct has covered over the years.

Good luck comprising your collection!

[MIB41]

Here's my take... I was part of that generation that knew what the world felt like before Megos. By the time the first Mego Superheroes were hitting the shelves I was already 9 years old, so I have strong memories of those moments and how the world for a kid changed when this new style of figure hit. Suddenly you could have custom adventures. Shazam could be Peter Parker unmasked in his Spider-man suit. Superman could wear Batman's removable mask. I could make my own Robin Teen Wonder by changing out with other figures. It's as if the whole world of my imagination opened up and found a vehicle to have all of these amazing adventures. And the box artwork was wonderful too. Such great images pulled from the comics. It's as if Megos embodied everything I loved as a kid. And other companies followed - AHI, Lincoln, Remco, etc.

So when I reflect back on that, I frame those memories according to how those figures made me feel as a kid. But as an adult, I can look at all of those figures today and see their imperfections as the charm of my childhood. So when companies came along and tried to duplicate those figures, they went about trying to "improve" the idea by giving those lines a new look. So from Famous Covers up to Mattel, I never felt like I was getting the figures from my childhood because the people making them couldn't get out of the way of that basic design and let them breath as just those figures. New body designs, odd cloth choices, and a kind of misguided artistic tinkering that served the people making them more than the market they were intended for. So while the spirit was there, the final product was not the end result of what many wanted or remembered. FTC wisely took the lessons from that history and went back to formula - JUST MAKE THAT ORIGINAL FIGURE. And that's what they're doing.

I don't think if Mego had survived through the decades, it could do a better job today if they revisited their nostalgic 70's product lines. I would dare say the QC would likely fall below what FTC is currently doing. Mego was very much a company that used every available means to keep production costs low and many figures showed that. And in-scale heads was absolutely a hit and miss concept. And look at the classic AHI monsters. When did their heads EVER hit proper scale? So, for me I don't look at these production miscues as anything more than part of the heritage that is Mego figures. And the fact they're making them as I remember them works plenty for me. They fit in perfectly with my vintage collections and in some cases register better to my eyes. Can they make improvements in some areas? Absolutely. Are those issues worthy of discussion? Of course. But I always have to remind myself this is my hobby. I do this because of the positive vibes it invites into my world. I'm not trading stocks here. Future values are for another generation. I'm here to enjoy this hobby and for me these figures are fun and the closest I'll probably ever see in my lifetime to those originals.

I think opinions are valid in one form or another, but I'm absolutely focused on making sure this hobby remains a positive thing for me and not something that becomes a burden of over-analysis. I'm sitting in my office this morning flanked by my Hot Toys Batman and Robin on one side and a BBP Apollo and Starbuck on the other. FTC RC Batman and Superman are looking over my shoulder in the cabinet and my Mego Teen Titans are on proud display with just one turn of my chair. Today is a good day.

[invisiblelad]

^^^ Great message there! With the market size & some people ONLY collecting the re-issues of Mego's figures from FTC, I just worry that they might stray to far from what a Mego Bizarro or Ras Al Ghul (Alfred, Commiss. Gordon..ect.) would look like! I'm hoping the Super Friends line w/ look more Mego & less detailed, & everyone will be happy! Still wish the comic FTC DC line was NEW DC characters w/ Mego's later advancements in costu,es & head sculpts, people might jump ship because the Newer figures might not fit in well w/ their Megos or FTC's megos.

[ThePlayerOnTheOtherSide]

I think opinions are valid in one form or another, but I'm absolutely focused on making sure this hobby remains a positive thing for me and not something that becomes a burden of over-analysis. I'm sitting in my office this morning flanked by my Hot Toys Batman and Robin on one side and a BBP Apollo and Starbuck on the other. FTC RC Batman and Superman are looking over my shoulder in the cabinet and my Mego Teen Titans are on proud display with just one turn of my chair. Today is a good day.

Word. I've said all along that FTC isn't selling us figures, they are selling us our childhood memories. That's a gift and if you over-analyze it you can miss the enjoyment of being a kid again. "Just enjoy the show".

[TRDouble]

That is well said, MIB41.

[jayraytee]

I don't think if Mego had survived through the decades, it could do a better job today if they revisited their nostalgic 70's product lines. I would dare say the QC would likely fall below what FTC is currently doing. Mego was very much a company that used every available means to keep production costs low and many figures showed that. And in-scale heads was absolutely a hit and miss concept. And look at the classic AHI monsters. When did their heads EVER hit proper scale? So, for me I don't look at these production miscues as anything more than part of the heritage that is Mego figures.

I agree with the main focus of what you said, but disagree that if Mego had survived that their quality would be less than that of FTCs. Quite the contrary, I think it says something that a company that tried to keep costs down in the 70s actually has higher quality on the whole than a company of 2014. Compare an original mego Superman cape to an FTC superman cape. Compare the construction of the Mego female heroes vs the ones FTC puts out. Compare how Mego strung their figures vs how FTC does it. Compare an original Mego type 2 body to an FTC one, Mego is constructed much better. A company in 2014 should have higher quality control than one that exited 40 years ago.

FTC has improved up on the packaging for the most part, resealable clamshells with the twist ties is better than what Mego had but I would take the original Mego packaging over the FTC packaging if they could get the quality control on the figures straightened out. The head size issue I can overlook to a degree, Mego themselves had some out of proportion heads, although again that was 40 years ago.

I believe your main point is that at last someone understands what we want and is producing it. Famous Covers and Retro-Action had the quality part down but lost it in concept. FTC has the concept we just don't want them to squander the opportunity by producing a low quality product, we all want them done right. This (time period) may be the last opportunity we have to have conceptually accurate new Megos, we have to give these companies both negative and positive feedback. Let them know what they are doing right and that we appreciate that, but also let them know what is going wrong so that they realize that improvements are needed.

I mean if they put out figures that had proportion issues, fell apart, were pakaged poorly, were incorrectly constructed, had missing parts, wouldn't stand up because they were strung too tight, their heads were loose and spun around..... and we all jumped for joy saying at least they are being made. Yayy! They're great!!! give us more!! ....do you think they would feel the pressure to improve or just keep going as they were?

[TRDouble]

I would argue against Mattel having the quality part down. My Batman was in bad shape and eventually fell apart, literally, and I am still waiting for my wife to sew up the leg of my GA costume that came loose. I did not bother to open any more Retro Action Heroes after that.

I agree this may be it for these though. If Mego fans are indeed getting what they have truly wanted all these years and they fail, that says the market for these currently does not exist, whether it is true or not.

Do people consider Famous Cover a success? Mattel fizzled and Hasbro put a decent amount out for both DC and Marvel, but both offerings for Hasbro were incomplete.

[ThePlayerOnTheOtherSide]

I mean if they put out figures that had proportion issues, fell apart, were pakaged poorly, were incorrectly constructed, had missing parts, wouldn't stand up because they were strung too tight, their heads were loose and spun around..... and we all jumped for joy saying at least they are being made. Yayy! They're great!!! give us more!! ....do you think they would feel the pressure to improve or just keep going as they were?

If the WWW and Mego Museum were around in the 1970s I'm sure we would have had terrabytes of threads devoted to how Mego was going bankrupt if they didn't stop making ovenmitts, how the cartoony look of figures like Batman was terribly out of touch with the Neal Adams comics of the day, how they needed to stop making so many accessories that kids lose immediately, how they better fix those knee pins that snap after a few weeks of play, etc etc etc.

[PNGwynne]

But they weren't, apples & oranges. Mego worked to continuously improve its offerings--witness the progression from Batman to Green Arrow to Thor, the soft-goods of the Pirates, the detailed accessories of the Knights.

Many Mego fans have bemoaned oven mitts, head sculpts, pajama suits. But to a certain extent, vintage Mego gets a pass due to childhood nostalgia.

I think it's quite different with FTC, because FTC has the advantage of both hindsight & foresight today. In fact, regardless of complaints & concerns here and elsewhere, IMO FTC has been given a substantial benefit of the doubt. That's a testament to how badly fans want reMego.

[invisiblelad]

Jayraytee & PNGwynne..........ONCE AGAIN, PERFECTLY put the bottom line for FTC in BLACK & WHITE! I think IF the people who do not want complaints & just want everyone to just be happy w/ what we are getting, because well at least we are getting them, would end up w/ a WAY smaller FTC re-Mego collection when the nostalgic buyers STOP because of NOT being excited from the departure from MEGO's aesthetic & 70's simplicity that FTC seems to be taking. There is SO so many other avenues to get quality dtailed figures of DC's & Marvel's characters. We are all here because we love Megos right? *** I also agree that I have picked up 4 used Waltons Megos (probably hasn't had much play wear) & there bodies pose better, are twice the weight at least, have better sewn/fitting clothes, better paint apps, & are WAY more durable than any of the dozens & dozens of FTC NEW China made bodied FTC DC figures. I don't get that everone says they fixed the tightness of the bodies since Batman Wave 1, that's not true, they used HARDER/less malable pastic on the arms/legs therefore making it way harder for the tension of the too-tight bands to pull the hook through the arm's connector hole. That is a VAST improvement, BUT they are still too tight, many of my non-Wave 1 FTC figures twist at the waist &/or legs due to the extreme overly toght banding. I also took pics of naked Batman 66 Joker (to show the slightly off center twisted torso) next to various figures trying to do the Superman Flying pose.......the EMCE Trek, Megos, & even the way loose Mattel Retro Action figures can do the Supes Flying pose no prob! Unfortunately, 66 Joker is one of almost all my FTC whose arms start to cross as they are raised & only their heads keep the arms from crossing like an "X". I tried it on so many male FTC New figures & they all look like they are doing the "A" pose from the YMCA Village People dance!

But, I'm holding out hope that the next waves have sturdier bodies (they are really cheap feather light bodies on these FTC figures so far) that can come near or close to Megos from 40 years ago!

I want FTC to succeed & gives us at least a DECADE of future Mego-like DC figures & more! I want this so very badly, but I NEED to be able to play with these toys w/ my nephews & in 2 years my Grandson & Granddaughter (he's 1 1/2 now so they'll never survive him & she's a few months old!)
*****40 years ago my brother, cousins & I played super hard & constantly w/ our Megos. Sure sometimes we needed a New Batman, WW, Superman sometimes, but the took A LOT of abuse. Tons. I just want to spread the Mego LOVE w/ my nephews & Grandchildren, I hope they'll last.

[hedrap]

The debate means nothing's without context. What Mego did was a first and had nothing to compare it to. That's a main reason Star Wars did so well; it was a unique design.

When we criticize Mego output, we're doing it with the benefit of retrospect since we've seen what's also possible do to other companies building off of their original design.

That's why current ReMego's got so heavily criticized. We know the possible improvements, so to not equal or improve on the original design is asking for a verbal beating.

[invisiblelad]

^^^ hedrap's full comment above is 100% TRUTH distilled to it's PUREST form. Darn, I wish my A.D.D. didn't make it so hard for me to make an amazingly quick & super accurate post like that! I'm going to work on that more guys I promise!

[megomania]

I agree with the main focus of what you said, but disagree that if Mego had survived that their quality would be less than that of FTCs. Quite the contrary, I think it says something that a company that tried to keep costs down in the 70s actually has higher quality on the whole than a company of 2014. Compare an original mego Superman cape to an FTC superman cape. Compare the construction of the Mego female heroes vs the ones FTC puts out. Compare how Mego strung their figures vs how FTC does it. Compare an original Mego type 2 body to an FTC one, Mego is constructed much better. A company in 2014 should have higher quality control than one that exited 40 years ago.

FTC has improved up on the packaging for the most part, resealable clamshells with the twist ties is better than what Mego had but I would take the original Mego packaging over the FTC packaging if they could get the quality control on the figures straightened out. The head size issue I can overlook to a degree, Mego themselves had some out of proportion heads, although again that was 40 years ago.

I believe your main point is that at last someone understands what we want and is producing it. Famous Covers and Retro-Action had the quality part down but lost it in concept. FTC has the concept we just don't want them to squander the opportunity by producing a low quality product, we all want them done right. This (time period) may be the last opportunity we have to have conceptually accurate new Megos, we have to give these companies both negative and positive feedback. Let them know what they are doing right and that we appreciate that, but also let them know what is going wrong so that they realize that improvements are needed.

I mean if they put out figures that had proportion issues, fell apart, were pakaged poorly, were incorrectly constructed, had missing parts, wouldn't stand up because they were strung too tight, their heads were loose and spun around..... and we all jumped for joy saying at least they are being made. Yayy! They're great!!! give us more!! ....do you think they would feel the pressure to improve or just keep going as they were?

Personally I think their packaging is horrible - I'd much prefer a window box over their oversize clam shell.

[MIB41]

Like anything, there will always be a degree of difference when it comes to opinions in this hobby. Anyone who has read my posts through the years on FTC, know my opinions have at times been quite critical as to how they've conducted business. I call it as I see it. But I also don't make it my goal in life to lean one way or the other. Companies are like people. They make mistakes. Some learn from them and move on, while others are doomed to repeat. In my opinion, FTC has done a very good job of turning the ship around. Does it mean it's all roses and sunshine now? No. Of course not. But they're trending in the right direction. What I've gotten from these current lines, I've enjoyed. And I haven't suffered through some of the QC issues others have experienced. I've had one figure that developed a broken arm and I fixed it even though FTC wanted to replace him entirely. And I've bought a crap load of product too. So my experience has been good. I'm not looking the other way or have some kind of indifference to issues because someone is making a second generation figure of the original I already have. The grateful theory is a sad label applied to anyone who doesn't join the lynch mob and quite frankly a cop out. I'm not grateful to anyone. I buy product I like. If FTC suddenly reverted back to what they were doing six or seven years ago, I wouldn't be buying these licensed goods.

But I DO understand some of the issues people are having and wouldn't deny them that right to voice it and address it with the company. Been there, done that. But in acknowledging that, I'm not necessarily having the same experience or feel it's anything I need to add to the discussion. If I did, I would be right there. So please folks, if some of us want to offer positive input, lets not take that to task as if it's been offered as a challenge to someone's criticism. Mine is not. I recognize and respect others who are not satisfied with what they're getting. All I ask is that same consideration be given to those of us who may not be experiencing those issues right now (and vice-verse). I think there's plenty of room for everyone to voice their perspective and live in harmony. That's the spice of collecting. All my best.