MegoCon 1997

[rchatlin]

I dug out some pics of my display at the first Mego con ever, Toledo, OH, in 1997.

At this point, I had every Mego shown, except one - Jean Lafitte.

I scoured the Dealer's room on set up day, hoping to find one, but to no avail.
Fortunately, there were a few empty table - Mark Huckabone hadn't shown up yet.

He arrived early the first day, and as he was unpacking I spied a boxed Jean Lafitte.
Moments later, I removed him from his cardboard coffin, and added him to my display.

I don't remember much of the Con after that, other than having a nice talk with sculptor Ken Sheller and his wife,
and more briefly, Marty Abrams.

I know Len was there, anyone else in attendance?

r
o
b

[samurainoir]

wow! that is amazing.

who organized this convention? Am I remembering correctly that there were ads in Toy magazines at the time?

How many of them were there prior to Mego Meet?

[palitoy]

Thanks for sharing this Rob!

Wasn't the original Mego Con was a subset of another con which I believe revolved around Micronauts?

I know Ray Miller was in attendance.

It was put on by a pair of toy dealers called Men In Black. I met them in Chicago prior to it and they gave me a flyer. I was too dumb to realize that it was a shorter drive from my house than the one I was currently involved in. I truly wish I had gone.....

[Earth 2 Chris]

I was there. I didn't make the most of it, though, because this place wasn't quite here yet. Well, I think it was at RTM, but I wasn't on the forum. I wasn't as "connected" into the hobby as I am now, so it didn't give me the warm and fuzzies, although there was some cool swag there. I bought a few things, including a Batgirl cowl off of Mark Huckabone, a beater Batlab and a nice black Batcycle.

Yes, it was basically a Micronauts/Mego convention. I think the MIB guys had done the first Transformers BotCon shows, before another group took over. I guess the Takara connection is where the Micronauts come in, which in turn led to general Mego stuff.

Chris

[palitoy]

I was there. I didn't make the most of it, though, because this place wasn't quite here yet. Well, I think it was at RTM, but I wasn't on the forum.

We were still in our mailing list cocoon at that point. I think there was a mego message board set up back then but it was unmoderated and terrible.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Ah, well that explains it. I didn't know of any community. I did see the ads in Lee's and Tomart's, I believe.

Chris

[almitysufx]

I live in toledo, I remember hearing radio adds and seeing signs but I hadn't started buying back my childhood yet. Years later I was kicking myself for not going when it was 5 minutes from my front door.

[rchatlin]

Ah, the mailing list/RTM days. Flame on!

Ray had an amazing display, and if I recall, the show was more Micronauts than 8" figures.

r
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[palitoy]

Ah, the mailing list/RTM days. Flame on!

We lost so many good collectors in the Mego Vs Famous Covers war......

[rchatlin]

True enough, but there are still a lot of us who go back to the Levy list still involved in one way or another.

That's a pretty good lineage from the days of dial up.

r
o
b

[EMCE Hammer]

Levy list represent. Somehow I didn't find out about Toledo until after the fact. I wanted to cry. At the time I thought there would never be anything like it again. Thank goodness I was wrong as usual.

[Werewolf]

Wow, way cool!

[johnmiic]

At the time I would never had attended this event. I was out of a job and had no way to get to Ohio. I think I had met Dr. Mego at a regular NY Con but we were still strangers and I would not have been able to hitch a ride.

[hobub]

Wow, how I remember that display. Yes the RTM days, I was there and that display motivated me to collect them all and in multiples. I nearly collected the ones I really like about trifold then sold some just to collect more tougher ones. Those were the days! Thanks Rob. My only regret was passing on the Silver Soldier Ape for $75. And yes Marty was there unveiling his new Micronaut. MIB productions.

[jwyblejr]

wow! that is amazing.

who organized this convention? Am I remembering correctly that there were ads in Toy magazines at the time?

How many of them were there prior to Mego Meet?

I remember the ads. They were on the back cover of either Lee's or Tomart's.