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I totally forgot I did this, I'm in this month's issue of
L'Écran Fantastique :: LE magazine du cinéma fantastique et de science-fiction which is all about "Rise of the Apes" I didn't know I spoke such nice French!
Many thanks to Thomas at L'Ecran for the great scan
Here is the piece in English:
In France, Mego is unknown. Could you sum up the history of the company ?
Mego was formed in the 1950s, it’s products were lower cost toys supported by newspaper advertising. In the early 1970s, the owners son Marty became president, he was 28 at the time and he dramatically changed the company into one that utilized licenses and TV advertising.
The company went from obscurity to becoming a household name with toys like the Superheroes, Micronauts, Star Trek and Magna Doodle. However, due to a number of factors the company faltered by the early 1980s shutting down in 1983.
What was the position of Mego in the US market before buying "Planet of the apes" license ?
Mego had just had just launched it’s first licensing hit “The World’s Greatest Superheroes” in 1973 and were fast becoming known in the toy world. Apes was their second licensing hit.
Was the merchandising on "Planet of the apes" between 1974 and 1975 a revolution in the industry ?
Absolutely, merchandising a movie was something of a dirty word in the toy industry since the 1960s with flops like “Doctor Doolittle”.
At the time, were there an "ape-mania" concerning the toys ?
If you look at newspaper advertising for Christmas of 1974, there are whole pages devoted to Apes merchandise, it was the hot item that year.
Do you have any figures that could give an idea about the "ape-mania"?
Mego celebrated selling one million ape figures by creating a solid gold Ape head from the mold of one of their figures. The toy industry charts the top selling toys during a season and Mego’s Planet of the Apes line hit the top ten that year.
Is it true that Charlton Heston refused to be a toy?
I don’t think it was refused as his likeness simply was not included in the licensing package. I am sure a licensor could have paid extra to negotiate those but that kind of detail really wasn’t necessary as the apes were the real stars.
How do you explain that a lot of people think that movie merchandising in toys began with "Star Wars"?
I honestly believe that Lucas became so savvy at merchandising rights because of the Planet of the Apes licensing explosion of the mid 1970s. When he was signing the deal for Star Wars, it would have been hard to ignore Apemania.
Today, do "Planet of the apes" toys become collector toys, with unbelievible prices ?
Yes, Planet of the Apes was very popular with children, so it’s not hard to believe that many of these children grew up to be adult collectors. A lot of Planet of the apes collectibles can be had for under $50 which makes it very attractive to collect but as a collection grows, many of the more rare pieces start to become pricier.
Did Fox try to release toys for the Tim Burton version ?
Yes, like all summer movies, a toy line followed. However, the movie failed to register with children like the previous entries had and the merchandise which wasn’t well thought out, sold poorly.
Do you know if they will release toys from the prequel at the end of the year ?
I have seen no evidence of “Rise of the Apes” merchandise, with the studio moving up its release date I doubt any will appear. It is possible that we might see something targeted at the adult collector market in the near future.
- When did you discover the "Planet of the apes" toys ?
I was born in 1970, the Apes movies were kind of always there for me. My father was a toy distributor at the time and he picked up a great deal of Ape items for resale.
How would you define your passion for the toys ?
I would say that toys and more importantly toy history are my main obsessions these days; I enjoy unearthing the history of the companies behind them, even interviewing some of these special people some 30 years after the fact.
Is there a piece from your collection that you are especially proud of ?
I have the original action figures Mego produced for Logan’s Run (L'âge de crystal) but never released. They took me 20 years to track down and I will never part with them.
L'Écran Fantastique :: LE magazine du cinéma fantastique et de science-fiction which is all about "Rise of the Apes" I didn't know I spoke such nice French!
Many thanks to Thomas at L'Ecran for the great scan
Here is the piece in English:
In France, Mego is unknown. Could you sum up the history of the company ?
Mego was formed in the 1950s, it’s products were lower cost toys supported by newspaper advertising. In the early 1970s, the owners son Marty became president, he was 28 at the time and he dramatically changed the company into one that utilized licenses and TV advertising.
The company went from obscurity to becoming a household name with toys like the Superheroes, Micronauts, Star Trek and Magna Doodle. However, due to a number of factors the company faltered by the early 1980s shutting down in 1983.
What was the position of Mego in the US market before buying "Planet of the apes" license ?
Mego had just had just launched it’s first licensing hit “The World’s Greatest Superheroes” in 1973 and were fast becoming known in the toy world. Apes was their second licensing hit.
Was the merchandising on "Planet of the apes" between 1974 and 1975 a revolution in the industry ?
Absolutely, merchandising a movie was something of a dirty word in the toy industry since the 1960s with flops like “Doctor Doolittle”.
At the time, were there an "ape-mania" concerning the toys ?
If you look at newspaper advertising for Christmas of 1974, there are whole pages devoted to Apes merchandise, it was the hot item that year.
Do you have any figures that could give an idea about the "ape-mania"?
Mego celebrated selling one million ape figures by creating a solid gold Ape head from the mold of one of their figures. The toy industry charts the top selling toys during a season and Mego’s Planet of the Apes line hit the top ten that year.
Is it true that Charlton Heston refused to be a toy?
I don’t think it was refused as his likeness simply was not included in the licensing package. I am sure a licensor could have paid extra to negotiate those but that kind of detail really wasn’t necessary as the apes were the real stars.
How do you explain that a lot of people think that movie merchandising in toys began with "Star Wars"?
I honestly believe that Lucas became so savvy at merchandising rights because of the Planet of the Apes licensing explosion of the mid 1970s. When he was signing the deal for Star Wars, it would have been hard to ignore Apemania.
Today, do "Planet of the apes" toys become collector toys, with unbelievible prices ?
Yes, Planet of the Apes was very popular with children, so it’s not hard to believe that many of these children grew up to be adult collectors. A lot of Planet of the apes collectibles can be had for under $50 which makes it very attractive to collect but as a collection grows, many of the more rare pieces start to become pricier.
Did Fox try to release toys for the Tim Burton version ?
Yes, like all summer movies, a toy line followed. However, the movie failed to register with children like the previous entries had and the merchandise which wasn’t well thought out, sold poorly.
Do you know if they will release toys from the prequel at the end of the year ?
I have seen no evidence of “Rise of the Apes” merchandise, with the studio moving up its release date I doubt any will appear. It is possible that we might see something targeted at the adult collector market in the near future.
- When did you discover the "Planet of the apes" toys ?
I was born in 1970, the Apes movies were kind of always there for me. My father was a toy distributor at the time and he picked up a great deal of Ape items for resale.
How would you define your passion for the toys ?
I would say that toys and more importantly toy history are my main obsessions these days; I enjoy unearthing the history of the companies behind them, even interviewing some of these special people some 30 years after the fact.
Is there a piece from your collection that you are especially proud of ?
I have the original action figures Mego produced for Logan’s Run (L'âge de crystal) but never released. They took me 20 years to track down and I will never part with them.
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