The Original 1974 Mego Zira Prototype

[Wee67]

One other question- Will this page be attached to the Zira entry at the Museum? I usually have trouble hunting these pages down later.

[jasonmego1277]

Awesome , Love to see those old ad's and Photo's. I agree $ 4.75 was pretty pricey in '74 especially for Mego's.

[megoscott]

One other question- Will this page be attached to the Zira entry at the Museum? I usually have trouble hunting these pages down later.

yes, we'll try to do that. Zira already has a prototype section on her page, we'll add to that.

[jwyblejr]

Way different than the prototype that showed up on the boards awhile back. I didn't think that one could be topped. Guess I was wrong.

[palitoy]

The owner of these items is rather elusive I'm afraid, while they allowed the figures to be photographed, I can't say we'll be getting an interview anytime soon. Hopefully that'll change but for now I can't really delve into it.

Neil told me about these and was about to put me in contact with the person right before he passed away sadly. I was really pleased that it finally happened.

[ScottA]

Well, at least we know who has them, what happened to them, where they are and that they will be preserved as Mego history. Kudos to them for letting the museum add them to the galleries.

[hobub]

This is great. I'm glad to hear they survived. Anthony has the Soldier ape with the light face. I wonder where that fits in the timeline.

I hope someday to see the Square Suit Spiderman (SSS) pictured in an early ad.

[kryptosmaster]

Never expected the reveal to be Apes. I guess I just assumed it was something that was never produced. Pretty cool though, since the Apes are my favorites!!

Rich

[mego73]

So that's why you wanted my scan of the Famous Monsters ad, man what a find!

[cjefferys]

What a great surprise, it is so cool seeing that this survived. I greatly appreciate the owner allowing these to be photographed, and while I certainly respect their request for privacy, I hope they someday have a change of mind. Even an anonymous interview would be ok.

[dmo]

I was hoping it was going to be apes but I was thinking....'No chance'. That's awesome.

[Godzilla]

Simply amazing. This has really made my week and I can't wait for the others.

[Dave Mc]

Beyond cool to see this. Kind of like an early custom.

[megozilla13]

For me this is the coolest museum find of all time. I'm so glad they survived and that the pictures will be here.

Something interesting to note. If you look closely, the leather chest patch isn't hand painted, the red color is offset by quite a bit unlike the other colors indicating it was painted by machine with a mask. My guess is that this design wasn't done for the apes but was part of something else (maybe a purse or a belt) and was cut out and put on the figure.

mikej

[kryptosmaster]

Did anyone notice the chest emblem is upside-down in the black & white pic??
Does this indicate there was more than one of these at some point??

compare: