AFA Grading.

[Toy Timelord]

All figures are made of biodegradable material.

Unless your figure is made entirely of metal, or glass, there's no way that grade will hold indefinitely.

I do have a die cast Burt Reynolds, but that's beside the point.

[ScottA]

Yeah, I don't think AFA carries much weight in the Mego world. Any piece is only worth what someone will pay.

[Hedji]

Thanks for posting the video, that was great to see. All those wonderful toys in those clinical cases... Impressive, yes, but somehow they look sad.

[Mr.Marion]

All figures are made of biodegradable material.

Well that's depressing. But then again toy manufacturers and comic publishers only intended for their product to be consumed and thrown away within a few years. Hopefully our megos stay in tack for another lifetime.

[MIB41]

I've never been a fan of this grading system. Too many flawed applications and the storing method, from my perspective, degrades it even more. I agree with allot of the comments here. These were widely produced, perishable toys, intended to be consumed at a low-end cost to the consumer. Even more so, companies like Mego were known for utilizing every resource available to finalize these figures, even if it meant piecing them together with mismatching accessories and packaging. Some we know about, but I suspect most will never be identified. Add in the updates to materials and manufacturing and it becomes dicey at best to lay any definitive mark on the history of toys made by the likes of Mego.

So turning these into a commodity with a stated value based on preconceived notions of what a unknown collective body of folks thinks, makes for a shadowy gauging system. Add in personal incentives to run a business like this and that colors judgment as well. So in my final assessment, I have to remember all of this is about money. People want to make money. However they can justify it, they will. So, at the end of the day, I have to trust my own assessment of value and leave the self-proclaimed "experts" to the wayside. After all it's my money I'm spending. I best have my own reasons for giving it, before I open my wallet.

[MegoMark71]

Great video, thanks for posting that.

[Mikey]

Rik, imo action figure grading is the biggest rip-off in our hobby.

If the dude is a real bud I say steer him clear.........

If he's a fair-weather friend let him jump through the grading hoops

[Hedji]

Not only is it a ripoff, grading is about as far removed from what attracts us to toys in the first place. It's easy to forget that buried beneath the layers of acrylic is a plaything intended for a child. I think it has inflated market prices to an obnoxious level, and I'm glad it's not really a thing for Mego.

[Mikey]

Rikkie.

Letting you in on a lil secret buddy .........

Getting anything graded is a scam created by unscrupulous entrepreneurs.

[Gorn Captain]

Rik, imo action figure grading is the biggest rip-off in our hobby.

If the dude is a real bud I say steer him clear.........

If he's a fair-weather friend let him jump through the grading hoops

He's the kind of guy that wants to hold the figures, check them out, and has a genuine love for the toy.
That is my kind of people.
Last night, I spent over two hours getting one action figure out of the packaging, trying out all the different hands, getting the cape just right. That was a fun night, and it "totally destroyed the value"...

[RickD]

this is a perfect example of why Grading is terrible.. U Grading.. Taking a perfectly good figure off the card and sending it in to get graded.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-Monsters-The-Phantom-of-the-Opera-Glow-Figure-AFA-U-85-NM-Remco-1980-/231485275510?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35e598fd76