Mego Exhibit at the Denver Museum of Minatures, Dolls and Toys

[vulcan2074]

I wish I lived closer. That would make a great day seeing this exhibition.
Sammy

[Mikey]

Very neat

[drmego]

I remember Marty saying somewhere that his niece had kept
everything. Of course that isn't a literal "everything".

Yes, I believe it is Marty's niece. I think it was Roberto who aske Marty about her collection at Megocon but didn't get a reply.

[galaxyexplorer42]

OK... Just got back from Denver to see the collection. I must admit that it was pretty cool. The owner of the collection has lots of neat stuff. The photos at the beginning of this post are from the actual exhibit. I was hoping to see all the boxed Mad Monsters, carded Star Trek aliens, boxed Planet of the Apes Treehouse, bunches of Action Jackson stuff, pirates, knights, etc....
This stuff I'll never tire of gazing google-y-eyed over! No luck for that stuff.

I DID see a Starsky & Hutch Grand Torino, a batmobile I had never seen, the magnetic "fly-away-action" superheros, the oil refinery, a hand held electronic baseball game, Star Trek phaser target game, the WWII Battle of Navarone and a POTA catapult and wagon. All were boxed, which, of course, was an absolute treat and a feast for the eyes. I saw the boxed Star Trek bridge playset, (there was a loose one too, in a different case, with all the crew), and some great Black Hole and Buck Rogers toys.

The best thing about the experience for me was to see all the stuff I didn't know that Mego made. My personal interests here are collecting monsters, creatures, aliens, etc, and Mego made some of my all time favorites. It was really neat to learn that Mego was NOT simply an action figure company, but a very well rounded toy company that catered to many different tastes. This collection contained as many girl toys as boy toys, as well as non gender-specific games. Sonny and Cher dolls, Coppertone Candi dolls, and a Farrah Faucett Dressing room playset took up a lot of space in the collection, and the 2-XL robot and its game cartridges took up an entire case.

Anyway, there was a sign that said no pictures, but I assume they meant no cameras using a flash. I got a few photos using my I-Phone, and they're not too different than the photos at the beginning of this thread. I'll put up some here hopefully by tomorrow.
-Will

[galaxyexplorer42]

Here's some pics hopefully

I'm attempting to put up some pics I got from the Denver Museum. Hopefully itll work. If it does, enjoy.....



Mego POTA Catapult picture by galaxyexplorer42 - Photobucket

http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/...goSHTorino.jpg

[galaxyexplorer42]

Here's two more:



Farrah was easy on the eyes, wasn't she?

[starsky]

i wonder if she has more stuff not displayed? hmmm...

[vintage spideyfan]

Certainly a diverse representation. PH Batmobile is my fave, with Dyna Mite's Oil Refinery coming in a close second...

[galaxyexplorer42]

A diverse representation for sure. The Denver Museum of Toys, Dolls and Miniatures is a pretty neat place. It is located in a house in a historic neighborhood of Denver. The Mego exhibt is actually a very small exhibt in relation to the rest of the Museum. Its mostly home made dolls and doll houses. There was a massive circus miniature that took up a whole room! There were only a few cases of Mego stuff. I talked to one of the gallery workers, and she said that this collection belonged to the niece of the company founder, and that the nephew also has a pretty good sized collection, and probably got more of the male related stuff. She didn't know if the nephew was interested in letting his collection see gallery time, though. I've got some more photos, so i'll keep posting a few of them in this thread every day or so. Here's a couple more.

[z3zep]

Cool thanks for sharing!

[EmergencyIan]

Awesome collection! It really makes one wonder what and how much more Mego greatness she has. Prototypes too?


- Ian

[cjefferys]

Cool, I wish I didn't live so far away, I'd love to check out the exhibit. Thanks for the pics. I'd be very interested to know the extent of her total collection.

[Matt A]

Hi. My name is Matthew Allison and my sister is one of the administrators at the Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys. I was fortunate enough to be able to go through this collection, helping to choose which toys were to be included in the exhibit.

Knowing that I am a toy collector (I must admit that my Mego figures are few and far between these days, although they were a huge part of my childhood collection) my sister emailed me to let me know that Ms. Abrams had contacted her saying that these toys from her youth had come back into her possession after years in her grandmother's basement. Basically, she and her brother were given at least one of every toy that Mego had produced since their births in the mid-70's. Needless to say I was extremely excited to see what she had and quickly jumped at the chance to peruse these toys.

When we arrived at the home of Ms. Abrams we were shown to the dining room where there were about a half dozen large cardboard boxes. We soon discovered that most if not all of the toys had been water damaged. Despite this fact it was still a thrill to pull unopened Mego figures out of these boxes. It was very hard to remain calm seeing 3 Green Arrow cars in their original boxes, as well as Micronauts and various Marvel and DC figures. There were quite a few doubles, and boxes of clothes for many of the girls toys that we felt would be a little bit of overkill to include in the exhibit.

Unfortunately, for me anyway, her brother had long ago cherry-picked many of the cooler boys toys. I was especially disappointed to find that there were no KISS 12" figures and none of the earlier, more desirable World's Greatest Super-Heroes line. However, it was interesting to hear what it was like to be a kid in the Mego family, getting to go to toy manufacturer conventions and meeting some of the stars who had toys made by the company. She even got on the phone with her father, Howie, to ask questions about the toys. He told her that Membros (my personal favorite) from the Micronauts was one of their least successful figures.

Regardless I had a blast spending time with these toys, and the exhibit was a success.

Here are some pictures at took at the house...

[ScottA]

Wecolme Matt. Sweet pics. I so need that GA Car and those Mego Games.

[vulcan2074]

Welcome to The Museum Matt. Great story and pictures. Thank you for sharing.
Sammy