Mego scale question???

[JMC]

Hi,

I am working on a torso and was wondering what the actual height of a mego figure should be? Anyone know what the official height is?

[BlackKnight]

WHAT ..., You don't own a ruler ?

[JMC]

Well I do but...I keep getting 7 3/4 but on a blog, I seem to recall 71/2 and 8" not that it's a huge deal but keeping characters in scale such as thor to say night crawler etc. I was trying to figure out an appropriate scale.

[JMC]

Thanks.

[darklord1967]

Sigh... The answer to this question is always a slippery slope.

Here's my take:

8 inch MEGOs are NOT 1:9 scale. They are exactly 1:9.5 scale... kinda. That means that an 8 inch tall MEGO male hero is meant to represent a real-life (dressed) hero standing approximately 6 feet four inches tall (76 inches).

This works out perfectly because SUPERMAN is 6 feet 4 inches tall. And THE BATMAN is about that same height after his boots and cowl.

Now, I stressed the "dressed" part because MEGOs only stand a full 8 inches when they are dressed and wearing footwear.

Nude 8 inch MEGO heroes stand at 7.75 inches.

At 1:9.5 scale, that translates to a real-life man of just a shade under 6 feet 2 inches.



If you were to try to apply a 1:9 scale to the main adult 8 inch male MEGO heroes, the math falls short of a 6' 2" real-life height.

And don't get me started on the women characters. MEGOs women are 8 inches tall (when dressed) just like the men. At either 1/9 OR 1/9.5 scale, that translates to some freakishly tall women!


Now I admit, that some of this stuff is a bit subjective. After all, who's to say the 1:9 inch scale isn't correct if MEGO wasn't scaling for slightly shorter chacarters than Superman or Batman... someone like, say, Spiderman (who stands under 6 feet in height)?

Well, my answer to that is that I'm basing my assertion of a 1:9.5 scale on the fact that MEGO made Superman and Batman FIRST as part of their World's Greatest Super Heroes line. Therefore, those character's real-life heights determine the scale of MEGO 8 inch tall figures.

It is for this reason that SO many of the other MEGO Super Hero characters are wildly out of scale when compared to Superman and/or The Batman:

Robin, Spiderman, The Penguin, The Green Goblin, The Lizard, The Human Torch, Aquaman, Mr. Myxzlptlk, The Riddler... NONE of these characters stand at 6 feet 4 inches tall.

As 8 inch tall action figures of a 1:9.5 scale, they are all far too tall.

The same could be said of other characters in the line:

The Hulk and The Thing are both far too SHORT as 8 inch tall action figures of a 1:9.5 scale. The Hulk supposedly stands a little over 7 feet tall. That means that as a "properly" scaled MEGO action figure, he should have been made to stand at about 8.85 inches.

Anyway, so there you have it. 8 inch MEGOS = 1:9.5 scale... kinda.

[sprytel]

I always thought that Mego figures were designed so that, when clothed, they would come out 8" tall. Because of the thickness of the boots, etc. this makes them closer to 7.75" when nude.

8" at 1:9 scale would make for 6 ft. tall... just like 12" figures at 1:6 scale. That may not be the correct height for the characters, but Mego never seemed to be sticklers for detail.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

Properly they're pretty much 1/9 scale; BUT your best bet is eyeballing whatever you're making or looking to use for customs. While MATHEMATICALLY 1/9 scale is a difinitive statement, when it comes to actual production there's a lot more subjectivity. I've found stuff listed as 1/6 scale (12" figure) that's a better fit for the 8" Mego.

Don C.

[darklord1967]

I always thought that Mego figures were designed so that, when clothed, they would come out 8" tall. Because of the thickness of the boots, etc. this makes them closer to 7.75" when nude.

8" at 1:9 scale would make for 6 ft. tall... just like 12" figures at 1:6 scale. That may not be the correct height for the characters, but Mego never seemed to be sticklers for detail.

Yup. My thoughts exactly. So if one tries to come up with a single mathematical "scale" for 8 inch MEGO action figures, then one must concede that this is an impossibility when examining character by character.

Scale is a matter of precise mathematics.


The Batman, Superman, Captain America, Shazam (who are all listed as 6' 2" - 6'4" tall) come in at 1:9.5 scale as 8 inch action figures.

Spiderman or Aquaman (who both stand at approximately 5' 8" - 5' 10" tall) come in at 1:8.75 scale as 8 inch action figures.

Robin The BOY Wonder (as he is referred to AND illustrated on the box) stands roughly 5 feet tall. That means that as an 8 inch MEGO action figure, he translates to 1:7.5 scale.

And the supposedly 7 foot tall Incredible Hulk would maintain a scale of 1:10.5... IF MEGO had produced him as an 8 inch tall action figure... which they did NOT. They actually made him shorter than "standard" heroic body heroes. So figure that one out!

Because of all this inconsistent craziness, action figures of this size have routinely been referred to as "8 inch scale" when speaking in short-hand. But "8 inches" is NOT their "scale"... it is their final size, which is different.

[toiletmonkey]

my brain just imploded!

[darklord1967]

As an interesting side note:

Back in 1999, when MEGO customizer extraordinaire Charlee Flatt released his Bela Lugosi as DRACULA 8 inch figure (through his Flattworld Company) he independently came to the same conclusion as I did regarding scale for these 8 inch tall characters.

On the package for this figure, it reads "1:9.5 scale action figure"

[JMC]

Wow, that's a lot to take in In any event, since I usually don't use plastic boots but cloth i need to (for the sake of accuracy) compensate with a ever so slightly longer torso. But I do want to play around with shorter legs and torsos for the not so tall character. I believe I need to learn to sculpt a bit (lol)

[hawkmike]

mine too but in a good way got some answers thanks

[ddgaff1132]

And this may cloud the issue even more... Has anyone considered this arguement from the artistic point of view? Since we are talking about Illustrated charactors. When drawing Super hero charactors as per the Marvel way. Artistically body hieght is determined by "Heads". The average Super Hero is drawn 8 heads tall while us lesser mortals are proportioned 6 or 6.5 heads tall.
Noting the vast head sizes and shapes produced by Mego. Could this variable also play into the finished scale issue?

[ctc]

>Could this variable also play into the finished scale issue?

It gets messier when you consider the classical art figure is 8.5 heads tall (counting the head) and none of that takes into account cartoonier or more stylized designs.... hence why I say you really have to eyeball things to get what you want. And sometimes if you're making a custom character that's been drawn by a lot of different folks you gotta average out the aesthetic to decide on a size. A Buschema Captain America might be 8 heads tall, a Liefield one seven heads tall, six heads wide....

Don C.