Name your top five greatest action figures of all time, and why...

[HardyGirl]

I have to laugh at some of these reactions. I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings or anything. But c'mon guys, this is a Mego forum, and let's face it, Mego was in it's heyday in the 70s. It's only natural that at least some of us are gonna play favorites w/ the decade in which we were kids. I was born in 1966, so I was a 70s kid. By the time the 80s rolled around, the toy market had changed, cartoons had changed, heck almost everything changed. I just wasn't into it. But please don't make me out to be a bad person 'cos the 80s weren't my thing.

(and for the record Spacecaps, I like the Beach Boys better than the Beatles. )

GASP! Sacrilege!!This is seriously the worst thing I've heard all day..all week actually. Nay! All month. Yup. The worst thing I've heard all month. Wait you know what, all year. Definitely the worst thing I've heard all year. It's like someone saying they don't like The Beatles, or Summer vacations, or Christmas....

[kingdom warrior]

Gotta start from the 60's on....

1960's-Gi Joe what's not to like.....

1970's Mego- Why i love toys to this day....

1980's-TMNT so good i bought the whole first line in one shot

1990's Spawn-first time I was excited about toys since TMNT

2000's Takara Cool Girl/Cy girls figures

2010's-EMCE Modern day Mego

[piecemaker]

I'm stuck in the seventies for my greatest/favorite action figures.My favorite was the Adventure Team GI Joes.They were the first action figures i had followed very closely by Megos.The 80s and 90s,i was too "old" to play with toys.I did have some of the 3" 3/4" Star Wars figures but was very disapointed in them because they were not made like the Megos were and never really got into them.The 2000s,i found my 70s favorites again and more plus many Retro 70s style lines i like.

[spacecaps]

Ok as for the list, I can only play along up to a point because what I played with as a kid and what I collect as an adult are two totally different animals. As far as my toy collecting goes, I don't really collect anything modern, nothing after mid 90's, and some of my favorite toys are actually from the 60's.....

Top 5 as a kid:

5. Remco's Creature From The Black Lagoon: I won this at a carnival when I was a child. I played this figure into the ground. When I wasn't playing with the figure, I wore the ring he came with till he broke. He was my first collectible before I even knew what a collectible was and one of the only and certainly the most valuable toy my mother ever threw away. Also, I thought he was a Space Alien.

4. Kenner Mask: The best vehicle driven toy line ever. The figures took a back seat to the cars. Which were awesome. Flying cars, motorcycles that turned into boats and helicopters, a robot that turned into...a scooter!? Ok so maybe that last one was lame but for the most part, the toy line rocked and there really hasn't been a successful one like it since.

3. He-Man: A. Every kid in the neighborhood had at least one of these guys to bring to the table. B. Half of the toy lines in the 80's were knock-offs of this line so they were compatible with most toy lines to come out that decade (unlike those MASK figures which were too darn small to fit in with anything else) C. Best part was, when you played with them you could just pretend they were monsters.

2. 3 3/4 Gi Joes Truth be told, I probably played with these guys longer than I should have been playing with toys but they made so many for so long, it was hard not to get the cool ones from the "next wave"

1. Kenner Star Wars: The toyline that shaped my childhood. Nuff said.

As for what I collect, it's a much different list:

5. Robo-Force: The last robot line to come out before Transformers changed what robots are. As an adult, I bought the entire line for my son to play with because they just don't make robots like that anymore. As a collector, I own a one of a kind 2nd series figure that has never turned up anywhere ever. It's literally a 1 of 1 and the only one known to exist IN THE WORLD and therefor has a special place in my collection as being one the rarest toys anyone could ever hope to own. (Until someone finds a warehouse full of them in Italy or something....)

4. Remco Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea Submarine: It's a big yellow submarine straight out of the 60's !

3. Colorform Aliens/Mattel Sea Devils: Generic bendable aliens that look like something out of a 1950's Sci-Fi movie.

2. Ideal Zeroids: Boxy monochromatic robots that light up, have no back story and predate Star Wars.

1. Mattel's Scorpio: A one-off 9" tall pink and purple alien with a light up head made out of bendable rubber. This is by far my most favorite action figure of all time.


I'd also like to give an honorable mention to the Star Wars Droids/Ewoks line because as a kid, I looked at them like almost baby toys. As an adult, after having seen the market get flooded with everything and anything Star Wars, the original movies tainted by the touch-ups, and the prequels being the most disappointing thing in my entire life, I now see the simplicity in the Droids line. No matter how many times Star Wars gets reincarnated, the Droids/Ewoks series will probably never be re-explored making it one of the few things in the Star Wars world that will be left alone just as it was originally (along with the two Ewok movies and little else) which I find pretty cool and reminiscent of a simpler time.

[enyawd72]

GASP! Sacrilege!!This is seriously the worst thing I've heard all day..all week actually. Nay! All month. Yup. The worst thing I've heard all month. Wait you know what, all year. Definitely the worst thing I've heard all year. It's like someone saying they don't like The Beatles, or Summer vacations, or Christmas....

Okay...I thought it was just me. I feel waaay better now.
I love the diversity of everyone's picks though...shows we all have our favorites for different reasons.
I actually had a really hard time with the 80's and 90's picks. Aside from He-Man, Secret Wars and Super Powers could have easily made it a three way tie for the 80's. The larger size and removable armor made the difference for me.
As for the 90's...I think Sideshow's 8"inch Universal monsters were just incredible, but again, I have to credit Spawn with pushing action figures in that direction to begin with.

[The Toyroom]

I wasn't buying toys too much in the 80s but c'mon it was an exciting time for those who were. The lines had such depth to them...Transformers, GI Joe, He-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Fun stuff! And Super Powers too!

[BlackKnight]

............ The 80's is why I am Even an Adult Toy Collector. Thats Almost Blasphamey. lol.

[toys2cool]

GASP! Sacrilege!!This is seriously the worst thing I've heard all day..all week actually. Nay! All month. Yup. The worst thing I've heard all month. Wait you know what, all year. Definitely the worst thing I've heard all year. It's like someone saying they don't like The Beatles, or Summer vacations, or Christmas....

for real the 80's are arguably the best decade ever for toys...while other decades have great lines...the 80's had so many that it's hard to compare...Star wars, He-man, Gi joe, Thundercats, transformers , super powers...etc.. those are some of the best ever!!

[spacecaps]

80s-The WORST action figure decade IMO. Sorry folks, but I don't like small, molded plastic guys that didn't pose well, and the clothes were painted on, or the accessories could be eaten up by mom's vacuum. And I just didn't like the new concept for GIJoe, or He-man, Transformers, Star Wars figures (except the big ones), She-Ra...yadda yadda....I'm a 70s kid and proud of it!

GASP! Sacrilege!!This is seriously the worst thing I've heard all day..all week actually. Nay! All month. Yup. The worst thing I've heard all month. Wait you know what, all year. Definitely the worst thing I've heard all year. It's like someone saying they don't like The Beatles, or Summer vacations, or Christmas....

[RickD]

1960's - Gilbert James Bond 007 and Odd Job

1970s - Great Year for toys- too many to list

1980's - Super Powers Mr. Freeze and Kenner Indiana Jones 3 3/4 inch

1990's- Kenner Dark Knight collection Bruce Wayne

2000's- SDCC Indiana Jones Toht figure.

[VintageMike]

Pretty tough but as always all nostalgia with me.

1-Star Wars I was just the right age to see SW explode and Megos start to go by the wayside. Even during my darkest financial days I refused to sell any of my first series childhood figures. First wave of ESB is also tops my list.

2-Mego While WGSH was on teh wane (unbeknownst to us kids) great fun with still to be had bu mixing the remaining WGSH with Star Trek and even the Dukes of Hazzard.

3-G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero The transition toy from childhood to my teens. Have some great vacation memories from early teens but due to becoming a tten Joe didn;t have the long run of Mego & SW

4-Stretch Monster: This guy was used and abused, and we had nothing but fun doing it!

5-WWF Superstars by LJN My love of wrestling kept these toys in my life longer than they would have been otherwise. Side note: The mold for the ring for this line would be reised for years even when the figures no longer scaled to it!

[HardyGirl]

Hmmm...

60s-Toss up between GIJoe and Captain Action. GIJoe was the first "action figure" beyond the molded plastic soldier or cowboy, but Cap was the first interchangable Superhero

70s- This is really tough b/c the 70s were just chock full of great action figures, but I'm gonna have to go w/ Mego. What other company could take the same body mold and turn it into so many cool figures from all kinds of franchises? There was something for everyone, even girls! Sci-fi, superheroes, buddy cops, the whlolesome family, even boxing! you can't get much groovier than that.

80s-The WORST action figure decade IMO. Sorry folks, but I don't like small, molded plastic guys that didn't pose well, and the clothes were painted on, or the accessories could be eaten up by mom's vacuum. And I just didn't like the new concept for GIJoe, or He-man, Transformers, Star Wars figures (except the big ones), She-Ra...yadda yadda....I'm a 70s kid and proud of it!

90s- The return of the 12" GIJoe! Ok, so it didn't start out as my beloved Adventure Team, but they got there eventually. And there were different sets for the Hall Of Fame guys and Classic Collection so there were opportunities for classic play. And I really loved the New Adventures of GIJoe series w/ sharks and rafts and mummies and treasure!

2000-present- The return of "Megos"! Re-Megos, if you like! one of my happy moments was not only discovering this site, but Doc Mego, CTVT, EMCE, CAW, ZICA and BBP! Reliving the magic was possible again, and there are different franchises for Superheroes and Sci-fi and now CUSTOMIZING! (or in my case kitbashing!)

[madmarva]

1. Mego Superman and all his mego buddies
2. Star Wars vehicles
3. 3 3/4 GI Joes and vehicles
4 Super Powers Green Lantern and all his buddies
5. Marvel Legends and DC Universe Classics collect and connect figures

[VinMan]

You always have good ideas Dwayne. I thought about this for the past hour...

70's - Mego WGSH Shazam. Loved him then. Love him now. Maybe thats why I have 5 today.
80's - this is a 3 way tie between Super Powers Hawkman, Transformers G1 BlueStreak (my first Transformer ever) and Tri-Clops from MOTU.
90's - I cheated above.... I picked 3 that I was still messing with even in college in the 90's.
2000's - DC Universe Classics Flash. Or maybe Black Manta... Oh no. Deathstroke??
2010's - Young Justice Robin. I know he is cheesy in some ways, but I am always grabbing him to mess with while I watch TV. I liked that 6 inch line. SHould have continued!!

[BlackKnight]

2000s-DC Universe Classics Dick Grayson Robin. This figure is my personal favorite of the whole line, and I think he really nails down what this line did so well: present the true classic version of these characters better than any line before.

Chris

lol ...
I just play'ed with him last night ..., Batman , Riddler and Samurai Guest Stared.