Apes Week: Action Apemen

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What better way to kick off Apes week than talking about one of the more interesting toy legal battles of 1974? The AHI Action Apemen (that's the trading card I made for them above) are interesting tail of a knock off that went to far. More after the jump:



You see, according to interviews with Mego execs, AHI got to the Planet of the Apes license first and Mego at the last hour, outbid them on the action figure part of the business. AHI managed to secure the rights to many other officially licensed products and honestly, we're all better off Mego got the figure license because, well, those toys rocked.

However, AHI was still in the action figure business, they had the monsters and generic "Adventure Men" characters that sold rather briskly, so why not add a few Apes with rifles to the mix? The result:

The Action Apemen even came on cards that mimicked the Mego "Kresge" card used in stores (most notably K Mart stores)






Well, Mego saw red (it should be mentioned that in the very same year, Mego produced generic Monsters to mimick AHI's officially licensed versions) and teamed with 20th Century Fox to smack AHI down good and publicly.



With the lawsuit settled amicably, the Action Apeman vanished quicker than the Ape Mania and lucky for us kids, AHI continued to pump out mad fun items with the Apes logo on them. There are more pics and info at the AHI Planet of the Apes gallery.

Many thanks to Mike Jimenez for these wonderfully cool peaks at his collection.
For more Fashion Mockery and 70's toy love visit us at Plaid Stallions.com


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[babycyclops]

I had a couple of those back in the day. I certainly would like to get my hands on one today, but as a kid, man did those apes fall apart quickly!
If I remember correcty, the arms and legs sort of just plugged into the body.
I kept one of the loose heads for years, though I must have thrown that out eventually.

Those photos are excellent, and it's only since joining this site, and seeing stuff like this, that my memory has been jogged about forgotten toys that did not survive the rigors of childhood play.

Very cool, and Long Live Apes Week!

[HardyGirl]

Well, if they fell apart that easily, I'm glad Mego won the suit. I've been toying w/ the idea of making an imitation AHI ape w/ one of Doc's heads. I may do that one of these days.

[piecemaker]

Awesome pictures,i have two of these and want some more.I learned a few more things about them now too.

[jwyblejr]

So Mego pretty much went ape when these came out. I just couldn't resist the joke.

[Bionic Joe]

I remember seeing these in the checkout line at K-MART in Blackwood NJ back in the day don't remember who hit the shelves first these apes or the MEGO apes

[MicromanZone]

“Place in any position!” Love that!

[AcroRay]

Didn't I give you a loose, nekkid Action Apeman at MegoCon, Brian?

Now I'm kinda wishing I'd have hung onto it.... They're too cool!

[Nostalgiabuff]

never had any of those but I do have one of those rifles i picked up somewhere as a kid