Tweet
When I was a kid I didn’t know that Megos had existed. I had never seen one of the 8-inch figures. I’d never even seen a picture of one. Mego was already gone when I came on the toy buying scene.
Now I’m a toy aficionado. I love toys. I collect toys. I have obsessed over toys my whole life. Recently, I’ve become fascinated with “the classics.” Like a film student who wants to round out his knowledge by watching Casablanca, I want to learn about, and collect the classics of toys. Those superior toys that define their times and influence future toys. The toys I’m most interested in are tin space toys of the atomic age, Major Matt Mason and the Outer Space Men, and, the reason we’re here, Mego.
“General Hawk meets Retro-Action Green Lantern.”
As I learned about Mego I realized something. In my childhood I had encountered near-Megos, figures similar to the classic 8-inch Mego format. I decided that it would be fun to write about those figures from the perspective of someone who had not grown up with Mego. And, in future articles, I’ll also talk about my halting, faltering steps into the reMego movement.
So, while thinking about which of my figures were Mego-like, I had this choppy feeling that I had missed something. Had I bought something made by Mego? Through the mist of my memory, to my earliest years, I searched. Suddenly, I spotted it. My one, true Mego purchase. The Eagle Force Playset, Eagle Island.
“Eagle Island”
I was very little when I got my Eagle Island. South of Atlanta there was a JC Penny Outlet store. My Dad is a cheapskate so my family visited the outlet a few times (until my Mom got sick of traveling all that way for closeout undershorts and sent him by himself). I think the only toy in the outlet may have been Eagle Island, unwanted and orphaned until I found it. I still remember finding the box mixed in with boring house-wares type stuff.
Eagle Island is made of two main pieces that connect together. There’s an eagle shaped mountain and a plateau shaped island. Both pieces are a single sheet of plastic. Think of the general shape of a fiber glass boat hull, except formed to look like rock. Rocks shaped like an eagle’s head. Rocks shaped like stairs. Rocks shaped like, uh, rocks.
“Rock-Viper. Available for all your rock climbing needs.”
Both pieces have cave-like openings. The one in the mountain is the entrance into the fortress. Two openings on the front and back of the island make a cave where a small vehicle and several figures can hide.
The hollow back of the mountain has slots to slide floors into. This makes a three-story fortress for action figures. I think they were going for a vibe like the earlier Guns of Navarone playset by Marx (man, I’d love to have one of those).
“Real estate tour.”
Later playsets would take the sculpted rocks idea further. For example, my Masters of the Universe Eternia playset is also mostly sculpted to look like rock. The designers of Eternia added fun touches like a lizard sculpted on to one of the rocks and other critters hiding in various nooks around the playset. Eterina also has different sculpted textures like wood, water, and metal. It would be cool if Eagle Island had some metal reinforcing and tech details sculpted onto it.
My Eagle Island was the version that didn’t include figures. This was years after it was released. The Eagle Force figures and accessories had long since exfiltrated from the toy battlescape. I didn’t learn what the Eagle Force figures looked like until years later. I looked at some packaged sets of the 2 3/4-inch figures at a convention and had an “Ah ha! I know what those are!” moment.
Since I didn’t have Eagle Force figures I used the playset, usually as the bad guy’s cave hideout, with my other toys like M.A.S.K., Dino Riders, and 3 3/4-inch G.I. Joes. The Joes definitely took up residence in Eagle Island. I remember this because the Joes had to sit down to fit in the room in the eagle’s head at the top of the mountain.
“Hawk keeps an ‘eye’ out in the ‘head’-quarters”
The Joes could climb to the top room of the mountain with blue plastic ladders that were among the many accessories included with Eagle Island. I’ve seen the ladders in some of my miscellaneous toy parts boxes through the years. I had forgotten that they went with Eagle Island until I got it out of storage to write this article.
None of the parts had been with Eagle Island for years before it went into storage. I can’t remember what other accessories came with the playset. The pictures I’ve found online weren’t clear enough for me to identify them. Even the Eagle Island page on Mego Museum has small, blurry pictures.
“M.A.S.K. and Dino-Riders figures debate accessories.”
Being one of my earliest toys, my Eagle Island had a rough, yet full life. All of the little posts that hold the mountain to the base are broken. One of the floors is missing, though now that I know what to look for I may find it some day. During childhood, I spray painted the playset to give the sculpt more interest. I think I did a pretty good painting job don’t you?
My awesome playsets from the mid 80s to the early 90s offered stiff competition. Yet, Eagle Island stayed with me throughout my childhood. It must have had something going for it. I think it is that Mego “charm.” Eagle Island has that simple quality that appeals to the kid in us all, just like the Mego 8-inch figures.
I thought I had never seen a Mego as a child, It turns out I had seen one, just not the 8-inch figure synonymous with the name. I found my Mego island.
Next time—Entering the Zone.
Comment