By Brian Heiler
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| Above: Vincent Baiera at the Mego offices circa 1976 and today. |
Vincent Baiera is one of the people we have to thank for a happy childhood, as product design manager at Mego toys, he oversaw and helped create many of our favorite playthings
Described by his colleagues as "Someone who lived and breathed the toy industry" his enthusiasm for the subject matter is not hard to spot and the pride in his work evident. Vinny Baiera is one of the reasons the Mego Museum exists the toys were memorable. He sat down with us via email and shared his Mego experiences.
MM: So tell me about your educational background?
I went to Pratt Institute an art college here in Brooklyn. "I majored in Advertising. There were no courses in toy design like there is today. The school's policy dictated I take anatomy, figure drawing, photography and sculpting all of which I drew upon in my 20-plus years in the toy industry."
MM: Was Mego the first toy company you started with? If no who had you worked for before?
Mego was my first full time position I held in a toy company. Before that I was freelancing for Azrak Hamway, which led to my getting hired by Marty Abrams but that's another story.
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| Above: Vincent Baiera's business card from Mego toys. |
MM: When did you start with Mego and what were your duties and responsibilities there?
I believe it was 1974, in the beginning I worked on a bridge table along side Neal Kublan and basically I did anything and everything that had to do with art and product design/creation.
MM: What were your favorite products lines to work on and why?
That's tough but off hand I would have to say Planet of the Apes (which was later on) and Star Trek, mostly because I was a fan of both- pretty well versed on the characters and they had unlimited areas of expansion - anything went
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| Above:Baiera, Marty Harrison and Harold Shull in the Mego R and D department. |
MM: You mentioned you inserted your initials and occasionally your photograph into packages, can you tell us which ones?
I did it a few times, my girl friend at the time was Arlene Farrand who also worked for Mego as Howie [brother of Marty] Abrams secretary, and I recall putting both our initials on the brick wall of the Starsky and Hutch packages worked in to look like graffiti, look for VB & AF it all around the place
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| Above: The initials "VB" can be clearly scene in the background in this page from the 1976 Mego catalog. |
MM: Any other packaging in-jokes?
[On] the Ali package, all the people on the front were Mego employees. We were all given a half day off and were told to report to the conference room. They set up the shot with the ropes and the background was stripped in afterwards. It took real talent to do that then before computer graphics and digital imaging. Those were the days.
Some of the people appearing are myself (behind the camera on the left), Karyn Weiss, Lisa Rapatti, Hal Shull, Orit, Art Tibbbet and Arlene Farrand. My apologies to the rest but I'm lucky I can remember what I had for dinner last night at this stage.
MM: What was Mego like to work at during your tenure?
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| Above: Vincent Baiera and Marty Harrison hard at work on Mego products. |
It was remarkable, I was just out of school, wet behind the ears and I got the best education and a position worthy of someone with years of experience. It was the best.
It was a high-rolling, gambling, seat-of-your-pants whirlwind. There were no focus groups or MBA types submitting demographic reports. If it made Marty smile and Neal get excited we ran with it and we were running in some pretty important circles. Some of the celebrities that I worked with/met were Sonny and Cher, Linda Carter, the entire bridge crew from Star Trek, Adam West and [Burt Ward], the cast from Krull (if any one remembers that movie) Farrah Fawcett & many others.
I was never star struck, in fact they had to order me to stick around for the meetings with these people BUT when Muhammad Ali was coming in, I was right there. I wouldn't leave his side, I was in awe! The power, the size, the look and the charisma I will never forget.
MM: So tell me about the Mego R& D Department
{The] area was limited to creative personnel only. It had a push button combo(combination lock)(high tech for '73) access to highest clearance only.
if you think I'm kidding about the secretiveness of this dept when we were working on the Cher Doll even we were kept in the dark. We had to design all the clothing and play sets to fit a 9", 10" and 12" doll so the competition could not come up with knock off accessories and playsets. We had no idea what the actual size was to be, the doll was eventually made 12".
MM: Neal Kublan credits you with bringing the Planet of the Apes line to his attention, is this your recollection?
Vaguely yes, but you have to realize I brought so many ideas to the table but it was Neas and Marty's instincts that separated the rocks from the jewels.
When I made my presentation for Planet of the Apes, I remember doing a play set (working model) that captured and raised a figure in a net, mimicking the scene in the movie when Heston was captured in the net and uttered the famous words in the movie: Take your hands off me you damn, dirty apes".
MM: Any recollection of Logan's Run?
Very little- you see we needed to work far ahead of the release of the movies so we could be out there when the movies broke and if the movies were a dud then basically the last 6 months worth of work was scrapped and Logan's Run had very limited box office success
MM: You mention in your production notes (See Below) a "Vulcan Explorer Vehicle", did this make it into production? Any idea why this never saw full scale release?
I would get very close to projects and spend lots of time on them through the concept and development stage after that I was on to the next project. So when I mentioned it I thought it came out and was surprised to hear you weren't aware of it.
I remember the Spock figure lying down in it ( something like a mini sub) and it running along the floor in the R&D dept. The feature was that it had treads like a tank and if it climbed up a wall and flipped over it would right itself and continue running as if the character were in control.
I imagine it was a cost issue. Making accessories for a 8" figure was challenging (cost wise) due to the size. This was the main reason I pushed for the Comic Action Heroes. There is quite a bit of difference between a 5" batmobile and a 18" batmobile.
What was the motivation behind The Comic Activator (the big plunger) in those great playsets?
That gimmick (the plunger) was the "action" in Comic ACTION Heroes. We tried to work it into most of the playsets and accessories It gave the child an accessory to create imaginary play scenarios around, and that added motion to the static figures and play sets.
MM: Thank you for sharing so much, it's really appreciated.
Mego was the best six years of my working life, and I thank you for making me relive some of it.
After Mego, Vincent left his mark with many other toy companies, starting with Aurora where he worked on their race car lines and then moving to Knicker Bocker, which was later sold to Mattel. At Atari, Vincent worked on robotic and computer game items, and at Hasbro on the popular "Inhumanoids" and "Quints" line of toys. He sums up his experiences in the toy industry as "A fun ride and I loved every minute of it". We think it showed!
Vincent Baiera on the Mego Offices :"The shot with the plant in it is outside the R&D area and is general office space. Remember this is Mego's second office. The other was about a block away in some run down walk-up on Broadway with fire escapes and dusty wire mesh on the windows. It could be clearly seen from Marty Abrams new, penthouse-like, ultra modern office and people say his office was chosen so he could always see it and remember where we started"
Vincent
Baiera on this photo with him and Marty Harrison :"The only photo
on the walls in these pictures that I could identify is in [this picture]
and it is a proof of the first Micronaut
blister card"
Vinny Baiera's Mego Production Notes
Vinny was gracious enough not only to share photographs but some of his original Production Meeting notes. Vinny described them to me as "The Dead Sea Scrolls". They give us an incredible look into the genesis of Mego products never before seen.
Two days after Christmas 1976 and things are all about the 1977 offerings. Here Vinny has compiled a check list of production samples he has received from Hong Kong including King Kong, CB McHaul and Comic Action Hero items. Of these items, many would never see production such as the Climbing King Kong figure and the Spider-Man and collapsing Tower for the Comic Action Line. No doubt the same items that appeared in the 1977 Mego Catalog.
New Production meeting for '78 is self explainatory. Vinny himself elaborates on his "World of Batman" concept at the top. "This is when we brought up doing action figures in a smaller size, it was brought out as [Pocket Heroes]" Of the many licenses in Vinny's suggestions are Baretta and Scooby Doo. Vinny notes that he "suggested Scooby Doo as a license with figure villains and vehicles"
In terms of line extensions for the Worlds Greatest Superheroes Vinny had proposed a Superheroes Child Sized Gym as he explains "I wanted to do child sized accesories that let the child imagine he had super strength".
The real kicker is the proposed "Superman with launching phone booth" proposal, Vinny eloborates "This was a take off of the transporter on the enterprise play set but instead of making the figures disappear, Clark Kent would enter and Superman would emerge and "fly" out the other side". A brilliant and very Mego like item, a shame it was never produced.
This note from the early seventies, answers my question "was Mego considering other Superhero characters". Vinny had pitched Bizarro as the arch enemy of Superman
The Superhero talking adventure pack would have been a backpack of sorts as Vincent explains: "We were going to add a talking mechanism to the standard figures."
Also of great interest is the description of "Batman's Radioactive Adventure" featuring a radition suit, tongs, a container and a geiger counter. What that might have looked like....
Of this page Vinny recollects that this is more character concepts, I'm not sure what Superman "ball, disk" is but from this piece it's obvious that Mego was considering Doc Ock for something
This page seems to be about licensing opportunities for a line called "Screechers" which may have become "Speed Burners". Of the concepts thrown around are a series of vehicles based on "Man from Atlantis", "Star Trek", "Starsky and Hutch" and "Ark 2".
The interesting items on this page relate to Vincent's notes regarding Superman the Movie toys, while the twelve inch line is already being planned, notes also refer to an "Ali size" (Ten Inch) Christopher Reeve figure.
Playsets of Krypton and Superman's Spaceship were also noted. On the bottom of the pages are mentions of Submariner and Aquaman along with the Man From Atlantis televsion series which Mego was obviously looking at.
These 1977 notes touch upon the Star Trek science kits Mego offered that year. Vincent explains the concept " Star Trek science kits were a series of science based learning toys
that were designed to look as if they were used by the crew of the Enterprise. Such as a micro scope,telescope, solar powered motor etc"
What's most interest in this page is mention of the Vulcan Explorer vehicle, Vincent describes the concept "The Vulcan explorer was a battery powered vehicle which would always right itself on to its treads. It could not be flipped over I think it held a figure in a prone position"
Other notes mention the Micronauts carrying case and Durona, which was the agency that produced Mego's commercials.