Why did Mego make so many bad design decisions?

[enyawd72]

Looking at my growing WGSH collection, I'm amazed at the difference between figures such as Captain America and Thor.

Cap has a very poor headsculpt, inaccurate outfit, no gloves, wrong boots, etc.
Thor gets custom boots exclusive to only him, chrome plated helmet, realistic headsculpt and is just dead-on accurate.

Why did Mego skimp on one figure, yet go all-out on another? They used the correct Cap boots on other figures like the Andorian. Why did the Marvel heroes get molded plastic gloves while DC was stuck with the oven mitts?

Once they started using the molded gloves there's no reason the couldn't make them in blue and green for Batman and Aquaman. They improved bodies across all their lines when they went from type 1 to type 2, but they never improved any figure's outfits even when advances were made.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I've always wondered why they didn't go back and "correct" their early mistakes, but to Mego they were selling like hotcakes, so who cared? Kids bought 'em either way, and no one even thought about collectors (except maybe when the die-cast figures hit).

As for why Cap looks kind of dorky compared to Thor, Mego was still new to action figures, and was learning as they went. Compare the earliest Toy Biz figures to Marvel Legends...now there is an extreme jump in quality!

Chris

[Mikey]

I think they just didn't care.

It's all about making money as cheap as possible.

If Batman sold in 1973, he'll sell in 1978 with or without oven mits.

Don't forget, back in the old days there were no adult collectors scrutinizing their products ...

Everything was - can we sell this to a 9 year old kid

[JediJaida]

Maybe that's why the Supergal's didn't do so well. The enormous heads; lack of accessories; relatively few numbers compared to male figures.

[CrimsonGhost]

I wouldn't call them bad design decisions. They were the only game in town and were feeling their way through. I also don't think they just didn't care or else why bother making a new body and better headsculpts as the line went on? They probably had a ton of Batman and Robin gloves already made and paid for when the new body rolled out and figured they weren't going to go back and rework figures that were already selling.
It's easy to see that colored hands are far superior to oven mits and that the headsculpts improved from Aquaman to Thor and Mr. Fantastic (although it could be argued that they started getting too big).
And I don't think the Captain America head is that bad, but the paint job is terrible.

[Mikey]

From a manufacturer's point of view selling to a child, painting hands to look like gloves might look better but it takes away one option a kid can do with the figure (remove his gloves)

You really can't compare this to making figures today because 99.999% of figures made today are made for adults

[CrimsonGhost]

From a manufacturer's point of view selling to a child, painting hands to look like gloves might look better but it takes away one option a kid can do with the figure (remove his gloves)

You really can't compare this to making figures today because 99.999% of figures made today are made for adults

This is absolutely true.

[JediJaida]

No, kidding.

[palitoy]

They made fun toys for kids. If we went back to 1973 and told people that we review action figures on the internet, they'd beat us up and take our lunch money. We'd deserve it.

[Mikey]

What do you mean went back to 1973 ?

It's still happening now.

Why do you think i've been brown bagging it since 2001

[ctc]

>Why did Mego skimp on one figure, yet go all-out on another?

Hmmmm.... there could be all sorts of behind the scenes reasons: better sculptors for one figure, different designs being offered at different points of the budget allocation.... but I think a big part of it has to do with manufacturing. Most of the really good figures came at the end, when production techniques would have been better developed, and the company would have a better handle on what's what. They wouldn't replace the earlier ones 'cos they were still selling. The T2 body being an exception.... but it's a DEFINITE improvement over the T1, and I suspect making it all plastic saved a lot of manufacturing over having to add metal rivets. (I could see the rivets having a higher production fail rate, resulting in more rejected figures.)

>Maybe that's why the Supergal's didn't do so well.

That's an idea; but I suspect it had more to dop with the 8" style figure being designated as a boy's toy. You can see how Mego (and other companies) went the more action route with their choices as the years went on.

>I don't think the Captain America head is that bad, but the paint job is terrible.

Agree. I repainted mine a bit and it looks a LOT better.

>they'd beat us up and take our lunch money. We'd deserve it.

True. I want to beat us up right now myself.

Don C.

[VintageMike]

It's less a case of bad design decisons, than just not going back and redoing figures that were already selling. There were doing well enough to out more effort and $$ into later releases but weren't going top waste money redoing things already selling well. Batman was their most popular figure "as is". I'm sure a lot kids felt the way about Cap the way a friend and I did: we noticed but being kids he was close enough and had thing we cared about the most: his shield!

[MysteryWho]

I think they got better as the line wore on, just like everything else.

[HardyGirl]

Oh, I don't think they did such a bad job. If they did, would we all be here now?

[Earth 2 Chris]

I work for a manufacturing company, and I know that it takes many hands to implement any kind of change to existing product. From engineers, to graphic designers (like me) to production workers, and all the management for each division, changes go through MANY hands before they are implemented. Mego was probably smarter to just focus on improving new product, and not look back. As others have said, these were disposable playthings.

Chris