Mego Superhero Prototypes discovered (and for sale!)

[monitor_ep]

Sorry guys the lot with the Shazam Family went for $2,270

Robin set went for $5,975

Superman/Aquaman went for $3,107

[LonnieFisher]

Holy crap!

[darkmonkeygod]

Sorry guys the lot with the Shazam Family went for $2,270

Robin set went for $5,975

Superman/Aquaman went for $3,107

Less than I expected, tbh.

[Marvelmania]

^^^ That's what I was thinking.

[SWBL5252]

Wonder if the individual pieces will end up on eBay?

[imp]

Lou Schemier and Norm Prescott were the exec producers of live-action Shazam! and the founders of Filmation in '62. It's their names rotating in a circle at end credits of their 70's productions as a way to say equal credit is due.

According to Schemier...

Filmation had lost their original DC rights to Hanna-Barbera for Superfriends, which premiered Sept '73. They opted for Captain Marvel because he was the closest to Superman. Schemier implies Captain Marvel became Shazam! becuase of Gomer Pyle.

Captain Marvel was pitched as animated, but a CBS exec wanted live-action. CBS picked it up in March '74 and by June '74, Filmation started prepping studio space. Shazam! premiered in Sept '74.


1973
February - DC publishes Shazam!
Oct-Dec - WGSH Wave 2 is released

Sept 1973 - January 1974: Superfriends premieres. At some point, Filmation options Shazam! for animated and creates a test reel.

1974
February - WGSH Shazam! is advertised
March - Shazam! is greenlit by CBS
June - Filmation preps Shazam! for shooting
August - WGSH Shazam! is released
Sept - Shazam! premieres on CBS

It appears DC informed Mego of animated Filmation Shazam in '73. Mego kept a Wave 2 slot open for the character and put Fawcett head sculpts, designs in the works. When it changed to live-action, Mego froze until someone was cast. Once they had promo picks of Bostwick, a resculpt was done and released solo, right before the TV premiere.

Junior then would have been in development due to the original animated cartoon concept, which was to feature the Marvel Family. When CBS asked for live-action, Filmation stripped everything possible to meet budget costs.

So...Superfriends creates a sales eruption. Mego tries to capitalize with TV tie-ins using Spidey and Shazam! Spidey does huge business, turning WGSH Wave 3 into Spidey/Marvel-centric. Secret Identities follows along, dropping Batson for Parker.

Junior and other DC characters get swarmed by Spideymania. Arrow's one-off Superfriends S1 appearance, (and possibly tooling costs), gets him released. By the time Flash, Lantern, etc...were cartoon popular in '78, Mego and 8-inch were on the ropes thanks to Star Wars.

Fascinating read, but what are your source materials for all of this information? With all due respect, you've been tossing around a lot of erroneous statements as fact in this thread, including misrepresenting me and my book. I can't tell where your "facts" end and your opinion starts. Can you please cite your reference material? Titles, links, scans, etc. I'd love to read those passages, too. Thanks.

- Benjamin

[monitor_ep]

Well I bid up to $1000 on the Shazam family and it went above that. I really hope they show up on ebay. I would love to get the Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr. and Alfred to turn into real megos.

[hedrap]

Fascinating read, but what are your source materials for all of this information? With all due respect, you've been tossing around a lot of erroneous statements as fact in this thread, including misrepresenting me and my book. I can't tell where your "facts" end and your opinion starts. Can you please cite your reference material? Titles, links, scans, etc. I'd love to read those passages, too. Thanks.

- Benjamin

After a passive-aggressive swipe like that? I'm good.

[imp]

After a passive-aggressive swipe like that? I'm good.

Oh I'm sorry, was I not being clear enough? I was trying to be firm yet polite. Let me try again:

"I THINK YOU'RE FULL OF CRAP."

…Better?



- Benjamin

[dr_cyclops]

Lou Schemier and Norm Prescott were the exec producers of live-action Shazam! and the founders of Filmation in '62. It's their names rotating in a circle at end credits of their 70's productions as a way to say equal credit is due.

According to Schemier...

Filmation had lost their original DC rights to Hanna-Barbera for Superfriends, which premiered Sept '73. They opted for Captain Marvel because he was the closest to Superman. Schemier implies Captain Marvel became Shazam! becuase of Gomer Pyle.

Captain Marvel was pitched as animated, but a CBS exec wanted live-action. CBS picked it up in March '74 and by June '74, Filmation started prepping studio space. Shazam! premiered in Sept '74.


1973
February - DC publishes Shazam!
Oct-Dec - WGSH Wave 2 is released

Sept 1973 - January 1974: Superfriends premieres. At some point, Filmation options Shazam! for animated and creates a test reel.

1974
February - WGSH Shazam! is advertised
March - Shazam! is greenlit by CBS
June - Filmation preps Shazam! for shooting
August - WGSH Shazam! is released
Sept - Shazam! premieres on CBS

It appears DC informed Mego of animated Filmation Shazam in '73. Mego kept a Wave 2 slot open for the character and put Fawcett head sculpts, designs in the works. When it changed to live-action, Mego froze until someone was cast. Once they had promo picks of Bostwick, a resculpt was done and released solo, right before the TV premiere.

Junior then would have been in development due to the original animated cartoon concept, which was to feature the Marvel Family. When CBS asked for live-action, Filmation stripped everything possible to meet budget costs.

So...Superfriends creates a sales eruption. Mego tries to capitalize with TV tie-ins using Spidey and Shazam! Spidey does huge business, turning WGSH Wave 3 into Spidey/Marvel-centric. Secret Identities follows along, dropping Batson for Parker.

Junior and other DC characters get swarmed by Spideymania. Arrow's one-off Superfriends S1 appearance, (and possibly tooling costs), gets him released. By the time Flash, Lantern, etc...were cartoon popular in '78, Mego and 8-inch were on the ropes thanks to Star Wars.

My bad. I did not misquote you. I misunderstood you. I thought it was a question about an animated Shazam cartoon with the Marvel Family.

I have nothing to back this up except the 'What I heards':
When DC acquired Capt. Marvel and the Marvel Family, the contract asked that DC not use any of the titles of the original Fawcette comics to market said properties. Since Fawcette published many comics down to the character names, this left DC with few options of calling the books Anything. "Shazam" was well know to Capt. Marvel fans and about the only thing left. So now we have for marketing titles Capt. Shazam, Capt. Shazam Jr., the Shazam Family, and Mary Shazam, or maybe Shazam Girl (take your pick). So we could still have an Uncle Marvel and some Lt. Marvels. Yet at this point, we might as well call them Uncle Shazam and the Lt. Shazams. In context of story, these characters are allowed to be refered to by their character names. They just can't call a product by these names. Well that's what I heard, anyway.

[hedrap]

My bad. I did not misquote you. I misunderstood you. I thought it was a question about an animated Shazam cartoon with the Marvel Family.

I have nothing to back this up except the 'What I heards':
When DC acquired Capt. Marvel and the Marvel Family, the contract asked that DC not use any of the titles of the original Fawcette comics to market said properties. Since Fawcette published many comics down to the character names, this left DC with few options of calling the books Anything. "Shazam" was well know to Capt. Marvel fans and about the only thing left. So now we have for marketing titles Capt. Shazam, Capt. Shazam Jr., the Shazam Family, and Mary Shazam, or maybe Shazam Girl (take your pick). So we could still have an Uncle Marvel and some Lt. Marvels. Yet at this point, we might as well call them Uncle Shazam and the Lt. Shazams. In context of story, these characters are allowed to be refered to by their character names. They just can't call a product by these names. Well that's what I heard, anyway.

No problem. You made me rethink the IP, which cleared up how live-action started with Filmation.

RE: Captain Marvel That makes perfect sense and ties into what Schemier said; they settled on Shazam! because of Gomer Pyle.

Pyle was the 2nd most-watched show four out of five years. Even when it ended, it was second. A third of all TVs, 20+ million, were watching Pyle. It wasn't canceled, Nabors had enough so he didn't renew. It ended in 1969 but as Desilu production, would go straight into syndication through today.

Nabors was so associated with the word Shazam!...he cut a record with that as the title track?!

Consider DC could have picked up Captain Marvel at any point from 1953 onward, so why wait twenty years and until after Marvel secured the copyright? If he was truly a Superman knock-off, then why risk diluting their main guy? Gomer freakin Pyle made Shazam! a relevant catchphrase from the late 60's into the syndication boom of the early 70's.

[hedrap]

Oh I'm sorry, was I not being clear enough? I was trying to be firm yet polite. Let me try again:

"I THINK YOU'RE FULL OF CRAP."

…Better?



- Benjamin

Oh noes. The glorious expert finally lost his kewl. He could see that coming? I know. Anyone who has been around you in some capacity.

I'm not answering your questions, because I don't need your seal of approval. You were irrelevant to me a long, long time ago. And I didn't "misrepresent" you or your book...which I bought off Ebay, from Overstock, for 20 shipped, by the way. They had like fifty copies.

I do like the irony of how Palitoy was really happy to see a thread like this after the crapfest he's been through. Then you come along and **** all over it. That takes talent.

[ODBJBG]

Head still looks like Superman to me and very little like Cap Jr. I wonder if it wasn't an attempt at doing a Reeve Superman? I can't recall if we got concrete dates on when these sculpts were made.

As for Shazam stuff, I don't really buy into the whole Gomer Pyle story. Shazam was chosen because it was the only thing that makes sense for the character and honestly, all things considered, it makes very little sense to begin with that the guy is called Captain Marvel, when Shazam is the key to everything in the books. I think DC knew that but I'm honestly a bit surprised they didn't just see fit to change his name and correct what was, IMO, largely a Fawcett error in what they called their character. But I suppose that is a debate for another day.

I cast doubt on the Pyle stuff because while Schemier was a great storyteller and often fun to hear some of his versions of "how things came to be", many of those stories through the years have been conflated, misremembered and more bluntly just flat out wrong at times.

[dr_cyclops]

More of the way I heard it; NPP sued Fawcette more than once. Fawcette won and NPP took it back to court. Capt. Marvel was out selling Superman and NPP was not happy. Fawcette continued the battle until they decided that comics were too small an interest to their book publishing. After winning a few lawsuits they decided to discontinue their comics line, and end the court battles. Year/decades later, NPP, now DC wanted to buy the rights to the characters. Shazam appear for the fist time in close to 20 years with some of the original artist doing the stories. Doesn't seem to matter, because the company that killed Capt. Marvel should not be the company to bring him back. Old fans wouldn't touch this "Shazam" property with a ten foot pole. Despite a very heartfelt attempt by DC, Shazam only does moderately well. Much better because of the live-action series. Problem is that the original fans are much older and not into TV shows and toys. While the 70s kids know him from the TV show, characters like Capt. Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel will have to wait until the early 80s to see screen time.
I think it is very possible that DC Thought they were getting the rights to the Marvel Family only to find out that they couldn't call any products by the character names.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I believe the reason the book as called Shazam was all due to Marvel. While the Captain and company were in limbo, Roy Thomas (of all people!) encouraged Stan Lee to create a version of Captain Marvel so the now popular company could stake their claim on that name. When DC (who drove the Caption INTO limbo) acquired the rights to the Marvel Family, Marvel Comics had a lock on comic titles using that name, hence the use of Shazam! on titles AND merchandise.

Chris