Atlas comics figures at Deep Discount

[TRDouble]

I placed an order from Deep Discount on 12/30 for an ATLAS Comics set plus an extra Red Tornado (free shipping), then I had a revelation and needed a second Phoenix and noticed that Deep Discount was selling them as a 3rd Party on Walmart.com for a slightly higher price, but free shipping, so on 1/2, I ordered a second Phoenix and my second Oompa Loompa (because having Willy Wonka with just one Oompa Loompa looked silly!). My Walmart Phoenix arrived on 1/5 (the Oompa Loompa hasn't shipped yet) and my Deep Discount direct order arrived a day later. Both orders were packed very well.

Anyway, the ATLAS figures are very nice looking and nicely done. I always thought they looked good, but for $29.99, it was a bit of a stretch for characters I am unfamiliar with and then they sold out so quick on Walmart.com, it all made it easy to skip them. I'm glad we got a second chance and at a much nicer price too. If only the Big Lots DC Comics figures would show up again somewhere!

They are all still in-stock from Deep Discount, at their website (free shipping at $25.00; best cost for multiples), and as a 3rd party seller on Walmart.com (slightly costlier on some, but free shipping) and Amazon ($3.99 shipping per figure... avoid!). I don't see these selling out anytime soon.

[powersthatbe]

They are up at Amoktime too. I forgot how outrageous.like EE, their shipping is but since these are only 20 bucks and I wasn't expecting to see them offered again I ordered anyway.

[palitoy]

I got my set this week and they were nicely packed. Not an issue, love these figures.

[Dan2Dan]

I'm a multiple repeat Deep Discount customer (maybe a couple of dozen orders over many years), and have never had a problem.

I was also familiar with the short-lived Atlas line of 1970s comic books before these Mego figures were released about a year ago.

So, combined with my deep affection for Mego, this is, for me, a fantastic development. I was lucky enough to buy a Grim Ghost on the Walmart website a year ago. But I passed on the others at the time because of the $30 price. But now on Deep Discount, I bought all four. I am not an 'in-box' collector. But I do make exceptions and I wanted to keep these in their packaging. But I also wanted a 2nd Grim Ghost to actually pull out of the packaging.

My only 'issue' with Deep Discount is of my own making. Over time, I have become reluctant to buy before they issue one of their (regular) 15% off promo codes, or one of their $5 off promo codes. As a result, I have, over time, missed out on a few figures I wanted to buy, because they sold out before I got that extra discount. My loss and my own fault for holding out to save an extra, like, $5-$8.

Even after many years as a totally satisfied repeat customer, I don't feel like I can accurately predict how long any figure I want on their site will be available before it sells out.

In conclusion, because I was familiar with the Atlas line in advance, I do feel like the Devilina character was a highly imperfect choice. I totally understand that these figures were made primarily to promote the four Atlas properties that the current owners of the IP thought had the most potential for multimedia licensing/adaptation in the current day, 50 years after the comic books were originally published. But taking one of the most obscure characters in the line, Devilinia, a Vampirella knock-off, and evolving her into a 'girl boss' type character and then taking that re-imagined character and turning her into a Mego figure was, I think, from my personal perspective, a wasted opportunity. Alas, if that figure could have instead been Steve Ditko's Destructor, or Tiger-Man, or Demon-Hunter, or Howard Chaykin's Scorpion. That minor critique aside, having been able to buy all four of these Mego Atlas figures for less than $20 each (after the promo code discounts), I am very happy to have purchased these four figures that did successfully make the unlikely journey to Mego figure in modern times.

[warlock664]

Mine arrived yesterday, in perfect condition.
Glad to finally add Grim Ghost to my collection, after having my pre-order cancelled last year.
Walmart really bungled their handling of these; there were obviously enough made that they could have fulfilled all the orders from late 2024, but I guess they couldn’t be bothered with something that probably didn’t move the needle in the slightest for them retail-wise.
Once their exclusivity window (a year?) expired, the remaining stock was thankfully made available. They really are well done, Grim Ghost in particular is a striking figure. Like others, I do question the character selection; as someone who actually picked up several Atlas comics from the newsstand during their brief heyday in the mid-70s, I would’ve loved a Tiger-Man, Destructor, and Scorpion.
While on vacation in the early 90s, I picked up a near-complete run of the entire Atlas Comics output for next to nothing. I only lack a couple issues of Vicky (their teen humor/Archie clone), and the rare and expensive Gothic Romances magazine.

[Dan2Dan]

Having now bought these Atlas Comics figures on Deep Discount and read this thread, I was spurred to do a Google search, which revealed to me:

1. Grim Ghost and Phoenix seem to have been long-time 'consensus' picks for most marketable Atlas characters in the modern era. Not only were they two of the four characters chosen to be made into Mego figures in 2024, but they were also the two characters chosen to be rebooted in 2010 when a short-lived Atlas revival was apparently attempted.

2. For all my personal ambivalence about Devilina, according to an August 2024 press release, that character has been the one chosen to be developed first by Paramount as part of a broader development deal with the current owner of the Atlas Comics IP. That said, this co-production/financing deal with Paramount was originally announced publicly in May 2019, nearly 7 years ago, and I don't think anything Atlas-related has yet come of it. (Presumably these Mego figures were made as part of a marketing push to jumpstart this?) I see that SP Media, which owns the Atlas Comics IP now, has completed other projects for Paramount, including a movie about aging firefighters that just completed filming in LA a few months ago. So that broader relationship seems to be active. I wonder whether the recent sale of Paramount to the Ellisons, and Paramount's ongoing hostile bid for Warner Bros./Discovery, will impact any of this?

[puckace]

I only picked up Devilina because I thought she'd make a great Star Trek alien. I know nothing about the character, but she'll work just fine as something else.

[Dan2Dan]

I had no interest in the Atlas figures.

I totally get this view. I suspect there are very few of 'us' who remember the 1975 Atlas comic books fondly 50 years later AND who are also still current buyers for action figures in 2024-2026. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if that group numbered fewer than 500 people worldwide. Might be <200.

If I remember correctly, the Brick Mantooth video about the Phoenix and Hands of the Dragon figures, I think the focus was not on nostalgia for the Atlas Comics characters but rather the 'toyetic' and 'general vintage' qualities of those figures. (The adjective I remember is "charming.") For almost all potential action figure buyers today, I suspect those are the qualities that would drive a buying decision for those modern MEGO figures. In my mind, for the IP owner, SP Media, the driver for funding the production of these figures was to be able to go to pitch meetings with studio execs, potential licensees, and other investors, and, because they would have no prior familiarity with any of those Atlas characters, hand them one of those figures MIB, with the reprint comic book inside, to give them something tangible to consider/review, and to tell them he had a merchandising deal with Walmart.

[toothaction]

...Alas, if that figure could have instead been Steve Ditko's Destructor, or Tiger-Man, or Demon-Hunter, or Howard Chaykin's Scorpion.

EXACTLY the characters I logged in to pine for.

[palitoy]

In my mind, for the IP owner, SP Media, the driver for funding the production of these figures was to be able to go to pitch meetings with studio execs, potential licensees, and other investors, and, because they would have no prior familiarity with any of those Atlas characters, hand them one of those figures MIB, with the reprint comic book inside, to give them something tangible to consider/review, and to tell them he had a merchandising deal with Walmart.

Yeah, the Promo T-Shirts and Free figures at NYCC cemented that notion to me. This is proof of concept, and it's actually super smart if handled correctly.

[palitoy]

EXACTLY the characters I logged in to pine for.

Destructor is SUCH a missed opportunity, it bothers me.

[warlock664]

Destructor is SUCH a missed opportunity, it bothers me.

Agreed!
And Tiger-Man !
Tiger print and blue costume, tiger face mask with long flowing black locks! How could it miss ?!!

[Dan2Dan]

Duplicate post to the one below.

[Dan2Dan]

Tiger-Man

[Dan2Dan]

My Grim Ghost figure arrived a couple of days ago. So I decided to display it on my living room bookshelf for a couple of days this weekend. (The horse was once my daughter's toy, long ago.)

Of all the modern Mego figures I've bought, I think I would declare this one "best dressed." His period clothes are amazing. The cape is even more 'deluxe' than the rest of his fantastic costume. That said, the figure does suffer from two issues that I've experienced recurrently with modern Mego figures: (1) he doesn't stand easily on his own (perhaps because of the weight of that high quality cape), so I had to pose him with a stand, (2) he doesn't hold his pistol well/easily, in part because his 'trigger finger' is too small to extend into its trigger guard.

Those quibbles aside, I really think this is a really excellent figure that also feels 'in hand' a lot more expensive than the $20 price on Deep Discount.

As a bonus, I thought the reprint of the vintage Grim Ghost #1 comic book was great. I really liked that they included the vintage house advertisements, as well as an editorial page detailing Atlas Comics' entire nascent line of comics. (That said, I did note that every such house ad featured Devilina prominently, so this was probably marketing-driven. But I don't mind that. If I had any quibble, it's that the reproduction quality of the interior pages was a little lackluster. Nothing had been 'remastered,' and the colors were very muted - much like the original copies I have from 50 years ago. I just happened to toss this issue on top of a reprint of an issue of 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths that was included with a recent DC McFarlane figure I'd bought (Crisis Joker, I think). And that comic book had been entirely remastered and recolored. But that work had probably been done by DC years ago for another purpose. So it's not really a fair comparison. But the juxtaposition was striking nonetheless.)

Lastly, because I know there are a few baseball fans here, I will also add that the black square the Grim Ghost is posed on in the photo below is normally a clear display cube holding a baseball from a San Diego Padres game 25 years ago.