Action Jackson Goes Vroom Vroom

Cool update to the Mego Action Jackson Galleries today, thanks to the help of Scott Arendsen, Rob Chatlin and Tom Ligotti. It's the ever elusive Formula Racer and it's mysterious Australian counter part, the Green BP Racer. Be sure to check out the rest of the AJ gallery, it's some of the coolest stuff Mego made...

Il Mondo Avventuroso at Megolike.com

Lou put up these great shots of outfits for the Ceppi Ratti 8" line " Il Mondo Avventuroso di: Black Jack, Jimmy Brown and Tommy Bright".

It's not known if these outfits ever made it into production but one can only hope as they're really neat and would look extra great on Action Jackson:

Check them all out at Megolike!

Lainie goes to the Lost Continent!

Aw yeah! I know one Museum member is happy today...

Meet Spider-Man and Action Jackson!

While I am elated and excited to discover that Mego hired an actor to play Action Jackson and do store appearances, I am a little confused at how Spider-man could be in Chicago and California at the same time.

These are the coolest things I have ever seen. One has to wonder what the AJ costume looked like, here is a recreation of that event:

That's James aka Garagesale on the Museum message boards as Action Jackson in our reenactment.

Action Jackson is only $0.99 at Two Guys

And to think I almost spent an extra $0.29 yesterday, I'm glad I waited.....

Coming this Monday: The birth of the World's Greatest Superheroes!

Action Jackson $1.28 at Toys R US

How can you go wrong?

Action Jackson and his Sno-Mobile are at Kids Town

Wow a free AJ with vehicle, very cool Kids Town of Syracuse!

Enter Action Jackson

1972 saw Action Jackson begin his full scale attack on the Media .

Black or White, He's Dynamite!

Well technically, he's not Dynamite, he's Mego's original 8 inch adventurer Action Jackson. The 1973 JC Penney Catalog doesn't have any Superhero content but it does have this swell offering AJ's world.

Megomuseum Action Jackson Gallery

Megomuseum Department Store Catalog Archive

Who is the Adventurer?

He's the latest update at Megolike, other than that, I'm not sure. What is interesting about him though is that he appears to have raided Action Jackson's wardrobe. Check out his new gallery by clicking the pictures.

More Mego Spotting on the Venture Brothers

Bill McFarland mentioned this on the boards the other day, in a recent episode of the Venture Brothers one can see a vintage bit of Team Venture merchandising in the"Action Man Dune Buggy" which looks vaguely familiar.

Great eye Bill! and thanks to the good people at Astro Base Go for this fun item.

Concentration Strategy Scores Gains for Mego

(February 1974) NEW YORK-A switch to a "concentration" television advertising strategy scored gains for Mego Corp. and its customers in 1973.

The change involved Mego's spending less for TV than the year before, but-achieving greater in-depth impact in selected key markets. As a result Mego returned to the black, three of its products appeared on the Toy Hit Parade during the year, and its customers are said to have had a highly successful year with the line.
The concentration strategy was developed with the aid of Ed Libov Associates, New York, a full service broadcast advertising agency that specializes in spot TV for consumer products and retail chains.

It involved cutting the number of markets on Mego's media schedule from 69 to the 23 that account for the "lion's share" of sales; shortening the campaign from 24 weeks to 16, and positioning each spot on the schedule in order to better reach the key target audience.

'You Can Control Position'

"There's a myth among spot TV advertisers that you can't control position if you get a bargain on the air time," says Libov. "The fact is, you can. And if your resources are limited, you must."

The key to positioning the Mego spots, he says, was to combine "early fringe" and "prime-access" time with children's A.M. time, heavily weighted toward "early fringe," when most school-age children are watching.

The target audience for Mego mer chandise, Libov notes, is the "plus five to nine-year-old, who's in school during most of the children's time. 'Early fringe' and 'prime-access' may appear to cost more, but the impression on the target audience actually is more effective. "

The schedule also used network TV time to reach those markets not covered by spots.

Sales-to-Ad Ratio Doubles The new approach led to increases in Mego's sales and profits, and its sales-to-advertising ratio nearly doubled, according to Neil B. Saul, vice president of marketing. Three Mego products, Dinah Mite, Lainie and World's Greatest Super Heroes, became best sellers.

Until 1971 Mego had largely been known as a supplier of imported toys and dolls in the 88 cents class, and its promotional strategy had been built around that fact. That year the company introduced Action Jackson, an action doll in the $2 to $3 class, and backed it-with a $2 million "shotgun" TV campaign. The following year Mego added many Action Jackson tie-in items, and planned to repeat the same kind of TV approach.

"We tried too many things at once," Saul concedes. "Too drastic a change in company identity, too many new products at once, and too much of the wrong kind of TV." Bearing him out was the company's track record for the year-a loss, a poor sales-to-advertising ratio and spotty retailer success.

Late in 1972, with Ed Libov's aid, Mego adopted a new strategy of extreme selectivity in marketing and new product introductions and concentration in its advertising. While the planning was begun in '72, it bore fruit in 1973.

"We began with the conclusion that Mego is Mego and not Mattel," Saul states. "The line, however good, was small, distribution was limited, and obviously so were the funds available for advertising."

"Rather than try to outgun the big names in the TV toy business," he continues, "we instead settled on the more modest, but more realistic, goal of supporting the customers we had with TV advertising, and making sure the line was profitable for us and our retailers. "

"We'll be advertising more in '74," Saul says, "but we'll retain the concentration strategy and possibly refine it still further.

Neal Saul left Mego for Azrak-Hamway/Remco in 1975. For more vintage mego articles please visit the MegoMuseum Ad Archive.

Action Jackson Appreciation Day

We pay a little homage to the original Mego 8" Man of Action Today with some much needed updates to the Mego Action Jackson gallery. Included are new photos to the boxed figure page, new entries in the foreign outfit section, more catalog gift sets and a page devoted to the long lost Adventure Set. There are literally dozens of new additions and changes to these pages so take your time and explore. If you have anything we don't and would like to add it, drop us a line!

Discuss, buy or sell Action Jackson at the Mego Forum!

Mego Action Figures In Full Force in 1976 Sears Catalog

This interesting catalog spread from the 1976 Sears (Canada) Catalog prominently features the Mego World's Greatest Superheroes being sold with their "official outfits" (which are of course, closed out Action Jackson uniforms. Star Trek was still riding high while Planet of the Apes were going into deep discount, they would appear in Sears Canada catalogs until 1978, note the exclusive Horse, Wagon and Catapult set pictured.

For More Retro Christmas Catalogs check out the Mego Museum Catalog Archive

Discuss your favourite Mego figures or do some buying and selling at the Mego Forum.

The Mego Uncle Miltie Connection

This newly discovered item in the Megomuseum ad archive explains how the 1972 Mego line up which saw the debut of Action Jackson was presented by none other than Comedy legend Milton Berle. If only they had camcorders back in the day.

December will be a month you will not want to miss if you're a mego fan, new articles, three new interviews with former Mego employees including never before seen prototypes. Stay Tuned.

Only one more day to enter in our "Win a copy of World's Greatest Toys" contest. All you have to do is tell us your favourite Mego Superhero in this thread and you're in!

Customizer of the month for December is the talented Joe Hanus, come check out his detailed creations here.

Action Jackson is always Well Dressed!

Our Mego Advertising Archive gets a new addition today in the form of this 1972 article about the upcoming Action Jackson Scramble cycle. This is an early piece of Mego history and shows the growing company's expanding creativity.

Jason submitted this wicked Jason Todd Robin and it is this week's custom spotlight. Customs are an integral part of the upcoming 1978 Re:Imagine project from the Megomuseum, if you missed the announcement click here.

Oh Happy day: World's Greatest Toys is now available at your local comic store, hurry and grab it today!

Mego Action Jackson Ad from 1972

Our Mego Advertising Archive gets a new addition today in the form of this 1972 article about the upcoming Action Jackson Scramble cycle. This is an early piece of Mego history and shows the growing company's expanding creativity.

Please check out the Mego Museum Action Jackson Galleries for more information on Mego's first 8" Action Figure.

New Action Jackson Commercial

Another from 70's Toy Explosion is this newly transferred commercial for the figure that started it all Mego Action Jackson.

Custom Spotlight this week goes to Black Knights neato Yondo from the Guardians of the Galaxy, dig that expression!

This year's Megomeet convention is three days away, we'll be giving live updates all weekend at the new Mego Message Boards, of course it would be awesome to see some new faces as well.

Action Jackson goes Camping

Cool addition to the Department store Catalog section today, it's Action Jackson and his funky cool campmobile. Look for more updates this week.

Mego Meet is now two weeks away, have you registered for the only Mego Convention and Toy Show this year? We've been featured in Toy Shop, Lee's and Toyfare so this year is bound to be our biggest!

This year, two new MegoMuseum Trading Cards will be unveiled at Megomeet as well as the biggest Raffle (although you don't have to attend to join in the rafrfle) we've ever done.