Mego Mad Monsters: The Creature (From the Black Lagoon)?

[shellhead]

Thanks for bringing this to light imp,the idea of a mad monster creature is the thing that got me into customizing Megos ! It was the first head I sculpted for a Mego that I made available to Doc Mego for his site," the creature". I combined the looks of Blackie Lagoon, with his cousins from the movie"War Gods of the Deep" . It looks just different enough that it seemed the way Mego would have done it. The head is still available on Docs sight if you want to see it. As for the glowing hands schtick, Mego could easily have cast the Neppy hands in glow plastic! It would of been awesome to see what Mego actually had in mind for this guy!

Best'

Chris

[jwyblejr]

I think what happen was Mego could have realized there was no way to fully round out a second series and dropped the idea all together. Sure they would have these five but then what? Maybe a Phantom of the Opera or a Hunchback of Notre Dame type figure but what would have been the fourth in series two? Or maybe I'm grasping at straws and reading too much into things.

[Action Martin]

I think what happen was Mego could have realized there was no way to fully round out a second series and dropped the idea all together. Sure they would have these five but then what? Maybe a Phantom of the Opera or a Hunchback of Notre Dame type figure but what would have been the fourth in series two? Or maybe I'm grasping at straws and reading too much into things.

A Zombie maybe.

[Wee67]

I think what happen was Mego could have realized there was no way to fully round out a second series and dropped the idea all together. Sure they would have these five but then what? Maybe a Phantom of the Opera or a Hunchback of Notre Dame type figure but what would have been the fourth in series two? Or maybe I'm grasping at straws and reading too much into things.

Actually, this combined with poor sales could explain Mego backing off of a second wave.

More convincing, however, is Mego's m.o. overall. They seem quite loathe to waste anything they created for any reason. This theory would explain Neppy's additon to the Trek line.

HOWEVER- I am not familiar with the animated Trek series. Were there any Neppy like figures that might have inspired this figure?

[Flynne]

I've always thought the Neptunian was a failed or cancelled Creature figure as well, but I have definite questions I cannot answer about it. Thanks Ben for bringing more evidence to light on this. I find these kinds of things fascinating (pun intended).

With regard to the Neptunians in the animated Star Trek series: Not quite - There was an episode, "The Ambergris Element", that featured an aquatic race called the "Aquans". However, they bear absolutely no resemblence to the Neptuinan, so I believe they are generally not considered the source of the figure:


The story features Kirk and Spock being transformed into sea creatures who can breathe underwater and, fascinatingly, growing web hands as well:



The biggest flaw in the argument for the Neptunian as a failed Creature figure in my opinon has been the fact that the prototype Neptunian used in the commercials clearly features fabric hand covers:


If this is a failed Creature figure, and the gloves and feet were ready to go, then why does this prototype feature fabric gloves? It has the head sculpt ready to go, which I would assume would be the last thing created if this is truly a failed Creature figure since as the theory goes the Creature parts were created first and then reused. I've never been able to accurately answer that question. Were they perhaps developed in parallel, and then when the Creature was cancelled they used the parts for the Neptunian figure still on the drawing boards?

I still believe that Neptunian is tied to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I just haven't figured out how yet. One other question occurs to me from Ben's investigating though: Why is "The Horrible Mummy" trademark "cancelled" and not "expired" as the Frankenstein, Dracula, and Wolfman figures are? I find it odd because the trademark for "The Creature" is also cancelled, and in the same year (1981) as the Mummy trademark. "The Horrible Mummy" was obviously used, so why wasn't it "expired" instead of being "cancelled"? Is this a clue as to the hidden story of Mego's proposed Creature figure? I don't know, but I find it all fascinating.

[megoscott]

Flynne, you just blew my mind. When they find a web-handed Kirk the circle will be complete.

[Meule]

The fact that the Neppy prototype has fabric gloves in stead of the "cancelled Creech gloves" doesn't necessary mean anything, cause the suit is also a prototype. The fabric gloves look very cheaply made, as if they were quickly thrown together for the photo shoot because someone forgot to bring the Creech gloves or something

[megoscott]

Wow, I forgot about the fabric gloves. Yikes, that's kind of a big hole in the theory.

[Flynne]

The fact that the Neppy prototype has fabric gloves in stead of the "cancelled Creech gloves" doesn't necessary mean anything, cause the suit is also a prototype. The fabric gloves look very cheaply made, as if they were quickly thrown together for the photo shoot because someone forgot to bring the Creech gloves or something

Don't get me wrong - I still believe that Mego's Creature figure has something to do with this, I just don't know how yet. There are dozens of ways to explain how it could be, but nothing definitive as of yet. Therein lie the problems and frustrations, but also the excitment and intrigue as well.

It's kind of like being a toy company archaelogist, which is really what Benjamin is (in addition to being a talented photographer). You might not think so but being a trained Historian in the Ancient and Medieval fields has a lot of parellels in investigating a defunct toy company, even though the elapsed time between then and now if greatly less. You find tantalizing bits and pieces of a world lost to time and ignorance, but almost never the whole story that ties things together. You find a shard of pottery, sections of fossilis, scraps of writing in the center of papyrus rolls, but almost never the whole item intact. Because of this explaining things that were commonplace then become a mystery to you hundreds or thousands of years later. Rarely, if ever, do you find the Rosetta Stone to put them all together and thus you must make conjecture based on what you find. Often the information is contradictory, and we just never know why. It's frustrating, but days like this when you find new information that changes how you've looked at something for years, decades, or centuries really makes the constant pain of searching worth it.

It's really the same thing on a smaller scale with Mego - thirty years ago they were a Top 10 manufacturer in the toy business, yet we have literally dozens of mysteries like this that we cannot fully answer. Somewhere out there scraps of information have survived, but we don't know where they are yet. Some of them reside in people who, I am sad to say, are beginning to die off and that information, unless it is recorded first, may die with them. Because of this we may never know all of the facts, but with people like Benjamin on the case I have faith that one day we will know.

[megoscott]

That's exactly right, Flynne. Toys nowadays are exhaustively covered, their anomalies cataloged while they are still on the pegs.

[Meule]

It's kind of like being a toy company archaelogist, which is really what Benjamin is (in addition to being a talented photographer). You might not think so but being a trained Historian in the Ancient and Medieval fields has a lot of parellels in investigating a defunct toy company, even though the elapsed time between then and now if greatly less. You find tantalizing bits and pieces of a world lost to time and ignorance, but almost never the whole story that ties things together. You find a shard of pottery, sections of fossilis, scraps of writing in the center of papyrus rolls, but almost never the whole item intact. Because of this explaining things that were commonplace then become a mystery to you hundreds or thousands of years later. Rarely, if ever, do you find the Rosetta Stone to put them all together and thus you must make conjecture based on what you find. Often the information is contradictory, and we just never know why. It's frustrating, but days like this when you find new information that changes how you've looked at something for years, decades, or centuries really makes the constant pain of searching worth it.

I guess we do then what they did back then (and still now to some degree). You take the most plausible answer, the answer that comes closest to what the evidence suggests and go with that. Until maybe one day you find proof that suggests quite the opposite. Or proves without a doubt that the most plausible answer is indeed the correct one.
And in this case it seems that Mego was planning on creating a Creech. But in stead we get this weird Star Trek alien with Creechlike parts that nobody knows the origin of. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, ...

[cjefferys]

Dracula, Frankenstein, Mummy and Wolfman (along with the Hunchback and Phantom of the Opera) already existed as characters in literature or legend before Universal did their classic movies based on them, so Mego was free to do their own versions of what were basically public domain characters (they just couldn't do anything that looked too close to the Universal versions of the characters, eg. Frankie's "flat head" makeup was out).

AHI actually took the "high road" for once and obtained a licence from Universal for their toys' likenesses (except for Dracula, due to issues with the Bela Lugosi estate. This problem prevented toy companies from doing an accurate Lugosi Drac for years until Flatt and later Sideshow finally negotiated the rights to do the likeness). This meant that AHI could also do an actual "Creature from the Black Lagoon" figure, a Universal monster that was more of an original Universal creation (especially the name) than the other monsters. Perhaps this is why Mego couldn't do a Creature? They certainly wouldn't be allowed to make something that looked close to the Universal Creature, they definitely couldn't use "Black Lagoon" in the name, and maybe even just "Creature" was pushing it, so they were met with resistance. Just a theory.

[shellhead]

Dracula, Frankenstein, Mummy and Wolfman (along with the Hunchback and Phantom of the Opera) already existed as characters in literature or legend before Universal did their classic movies based on them, so Mego was free to do their own versions of what were basically public domain characters (they just couldn't do anything that looked too close to the Universal versions of the characters, eg. Frankie's "flat head" makeup was out).

an actual "Creature from the Black Lagoon" figure, a Universal monster that was more of an original Universal creation (especially the name) than the other monsters. Perhaps this is why Mego couldn't do a Creature? They certainly wouldn't be allowed to make something that looked close to the Universal Creature, they definitely couldn't use "Black Lagoon" in the name, and maybe even just "Creature" was pushing it, so they were met with resistance. Just a theory.

I can't help but think that H.P. Lovecraft's story,"A Shadow Over Insmouth" would have pre- established the concept of a reptillian fish man long before Universal filmed Creature. This would put the concept firmly in the literary inspired monsters of the first series. I kinda like the idea that maybe Creech was supposed to replace the Mummy because I think AHI did the same thing in reverse, replacing Creech with Drac.

[gort]

I don't think there would have been a problem with the concept of a generic reptillian fish man, or even a likeness of one of the many b-movie knock-offs. But with AHI already having THE Creature name and likeness wrapped up any Mego figure would have looked like it was a cheap rip-off next to the official AHI version.

Because they could still use the names for the Wolfman, Frankie, etc. they could compete on a fairly even footing. Most kids and parents wouldn't even realise one was an officially licensed product and one wasn't. A Mego 'reptillian fish man' would have highlighted the lack of license and could have damaged the playground credibility of the whole Mad Monsters line.