Mego Museum Podcast: Mark Huckabone Interview Part 1

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Mego Museum Podcast: Brian and Scott sit down for a chat with one of the legendary Mego collectors and dealers, Mark Huckabone of Heroes West Coast and Heroes in Action Toys.

In part one we talk about how he got started at an early age buying and selling Megos. The next segment will delve into Mark’s current endeavour “Heroes in Action” and we’ll even get an exclusive about the next waves of characters. Stay tuned! (Seems odd to be still saying that considering most computers don’t have dials….) Listen here or download on iTunes….

Show Recap: Scott and Brian brought up the need for submissions to*many Mego galleries and the new Contact us page

Interview: Mark made mention of his love for this now defunct toy store chain The Kane County Toy Show is still going strong but is now called The Chicago Toy Show Mark mentioned finding close outs of these rare Ben Cooper Jigglers This Mego**Green Goblin is listed among Mark’s favourite pieces. Heroes in Action will be setting up next in Toronto at the 80s toy expo * *

More...

[Brown Bear]

Looking forward to another listen to you gents.

[imp]

This podcast is a blast. Listening now… Mark goes 100 miles a minute. He's so much fun to listen to.

Great job, guys!

-b

[megoscott]

Thanks, Ben, glad you are listening. It took many months of wrangling to get us all on the phone at the same time, but it was worth it. I love listening to Mark tell toy stories.

[Tothiro]

I really appreciate the Pinpin stories...
Racks of Pinpin Fantastic Four in the local Lionel Playworld were my only actual in-the-store-on-the-peg Mego experiences growing up. Ironically I'd always wanted to pick them up, and they were stupid cheap, but all the knees were broken.
As the front page says... If only I knew then how many headless T2's would be walking around.

Also - being that my mother had an antique store and we did the summer tour of shows across the US I was doing the same thing at 11 and 12... I'm right in the middle of it listening to the talk. I recall that show culture and definitely dealt with those personalities... When you know customers as "Lenny & Squiggy" (Mother and Son team, and Son was not young) or you're saving stuff for "Mikey Hot-Pants" ... well it's a slice of slightly unsavory old home.

Brimfield Mass used to have some great toy scores in the pre-bay days when we headed up there. I did exactly what Mark is talking about, gathering up the vintage stuff I didn't collect and flipping it for stuff I did, and then sometimes taking the cash over to the brick and mortar toy store to pick up the clearance lines from years past still lingering (or newly dumped) on the shelf. I picked up all the Hour Toys Micros and Magnos that way.

[alex]

Great listen as always. Crazy with all the prices they couldve of been picked up by, just wondering when did the prices soar?

[MIB41]

If I had a question for Mark it would be when did Megos really start taking off in price? Clearly he was spending very little over retail for most of these items in the early 80s. I wonder if there was a point where demand kicked in and the prices started taking off. Was there something unique that caused that? Did the internet cause that? Ebay? There had to be a moment when Megos ceased being a disposable toy and became a collectible. I would be curious to know that.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^I'd say it was at least the mid to late 80s. I remember getting Toy Shop, and thinking most Megos were way out of my price range. Of course I was a teenager working menial part-time jobs. But the prices were nothing to what they would one day become. I wish I HAD bit on them back then, instead of new Batman junk.

Chris

[palitoy]

I think what Mark is referring to is the cost of carded Mego WGSH, I'd say since the late 1990s, that game has gotten more and more expensive.

In 1999, I remember a guy begging me to take his Kresge carded Superman for $200, two years later I was high bidder on a Spidey Kresge for $250. I remember being kind of bummed because i felt i overpaid.

Now I could easily sell both for 800+ now. I've had offers on them.

That ad I posted has a red carded Aquaman for $75, Ha!

[samurainoir]

Okay... if Parkdale Novelty does pick up the Presidential Monsters, that would be so awesome!

[palitoy]

Tell me about it, total full circle.

[MegoSteve]

I think this was my favorite of the podcasts so far. Great job, guys.

[pmwasson]

Awesome as usual. Can't wait for part 2.

[Jason73]

Looking forward to listening to this!

[cjefferys]

Thanks guys, that was an extremely entertaining interview. It's always great hearing about the "old days" of collecting. I loved hearing the Parkdale stories, the origin of the Pin Pin figures appearance in the US, and the Child's World closeout sales (I remember the goldmine of stuff available at Buffalo Childs Worlds back then, but being a poor university student who could only afford to buy a fraction of the great deals available). As you guys stated, Mark really was "ahead of the curve" and it's even more amazing that he was as young as he was when all this was happening. I first met Mark at the FX show in Florida back in 1991 and I remember being so stoked to finally meet someone who was as crazy about Megos as I was. His passion was as clearly visible back then as it still is in this interview.

I had to smile though when he was talking about vinyl caped Jawas. I'm a few years older than he, and thus I was buying Star Wars figures when they first came out, so I was always aware of that version of the Jawa, I bought and owned one myself back then, there was absolutely no doubt to me that it existed. But a couple years later they were long gone from stores and already relegated to the status of "legend", especially in those pre-internet days. And with Star Wars figure capes being notoriously easy to get lost or broken, by 1980 you had to take the word of slightly older kids that such a figure ever existed, so I could see how it would be easy to be skeptical. Times sure have changed.