Mego New Avengers John Steed Discovery in South Africa

[PNGwynne]

That's terrific, I like the sculpt.

[cjefferys]

Holy crap, one has finally surfaced, that's fantastic!

[LonnieFisher]

He needs to get together with that bowler hat.

[sprytel]

This is such a cool discovery! I have so many questions...

1. This is 12 inch, I assume?

2. I am not really familiar with Mego figures outside of their 8 inch lines... is this a standard body style for Mego? The neck and the metal knee pins give it a different kind of look.

3. Do we know the story behind how Marc came into possession of the figure?

I know its not a competition... but I sure hope this thread has a lot more participation than the latest FTC "variant of the week" announcement.

[skid14]

i love this kind of discovery.

[MIB41]

What an incredible find!!! The likeness is amazing.

[daz71]

i remember seeing a purdy here in the u.k. but not a steed or gambit.

[Wee67]

What makes this figure a Mego? I know Mego had a relationship with Denys Fisher, but I assume all Denys Fisher figures were not necessarily Mego. The fact this is a Fun World removes it from Mego that much further. Did Mego have this license? Would that make this some sort of sub-licensing like Palitoy or Lily Ledy?

[LonnieFisher]

Fun World is still around, as far as I can tell. This is almost the exact same logo, so it must be the same company.

http://www.fun-world.net/

[LonnieFisher]

Somebody (Palitoy) should contact them about the figures. Get an interview and do some deep investigation.

[LonnieFisher]

"In April, 1963, Stanley Geller after working for four years bought from his father-in-law a small seasonal import business with sales of about $500,000 per year. That was the beginning. It was a little business of Easter baskets and toys. Stanley was Mr. Everything. He was the buyer, the designer, the marketer, and the salesman; His wife, Eve, typed the invoices. He bought by traveling to Japan in propeller driven planes, and sold by traveling the roads in the United States in a station wagon filled with samples, going from Minneapolis to Miami, Boston to Bentonville, New York to New Orleans and everywhere in between.

Life was tough but good and business grew and grew and grew with the help of many, many people.

In 1981 the third generation joined and Stanley's son Alan Geller gave Fun World a real jump start in Halloween. He directed designers, bought unique items and sold. Honestly, he became the “Halloween Guru”. We are now one of the three largest Halloween creators and suppliers in the world, selling in every continent except the Antarctic.

Fun World started out working with factories in Japan and then we moved to Korea and Taiwan and Hong Kong. President Nixon opened China and we went in. Now our factories are in China, Viet Nam and India and who knows where else it will go.

In 2011 we became the only supplier with three generations working when Alan’s daughter Samantha joined the family of about 250 employees and a 30 person salesforce. The extended family includes a 400,000 square foot warehouse on the West Coast. It includes our own Hong Kong office that started in 1968 and now has a staff of over 20 very diligent workers who control our Chinese production and the orders of our FOB China customers through our affiliate Holiday Times Unlimited. Our factory in Pennsylvania, is possibly the only remaining American factory manufacturing Easter grass, Halloween spider web, and decorative gift wrapping.

Progress and growth goes on and on. Next year in April 2013 we will celebrate our 50th Anniversary. And with our great staff we see no end in sight. One of our credos is “We are doing things the second best way.” There’s always room to improve. We will continue to strive to improve."

[LonnieFisher]

I sent this email to them. Maybe they will respond, maybe not.

Hi there,

I was wondering if anybody at Fun World could give me any information on the "The New Avengers" doll line from your company. I think it was released in the 1970's, maybe in South Africa. I've attached a picture of a boxed example of Purdy, which is the only one known to exist. There was also a carded version discovered. There have been separate findings of a nude Steed doll, and his bowler hat. I'm attaching pictures of those also. I am a member of an elite toy collecting group, (read as: geeks and nerds) who are very interested in any information about these dolls. We hang out online at Megomuseum.com and you are welcome to come hang out with us and discuss these toys.

Thank you,

Lonnie Fisher

[palitoy]

What makes this figure a Mego? I know Mego had a relationship with Denys Fisher, but I assume all Denys Fisher figures were not necessarily Mego. The fact this is a Fun World removes it from Mego that much further. Did Mego have this license? Would that make this some sort of sub-licensing like Palitoy or Lily Ledy?

To be honest, it's never been totally proven even the New Avengers line was a Mego product. That came from John Bonavita's book and it was a good guess considering that Mego/Lion Rock produced the bulk of their action figure product over the years. John only had the Purdey to judge by and she was not dissimilar to Maddie Mod. I kept that running because we didn't even know if they existed.

It's quite possibly not a Mego produced figure but it's Megolike and well, pretty damned interesting regardless IMO.

I'm not even positive Fun World is the South African distributor or merely the factory who put it together. One person tells me they were also the people behind the WGSH and Jet Jungle, so I'm piecing it together.

[Neutron X]

Lovin' it! Another cool and mysterious figure comes out into the light!

[Fener]

I sent this email to them. Maybe they will respond, maybe not.

Hi there,

I was wondering if anybody at Fun World could give me any information on the "The New Avengers" doll line from your company. I think it was released in the 1970's, maybe in South Africa. I've attached a picture of a boxed example of Purdy, which is the only one known to exist. There was also a carded version...r

Well done!