Another interesting idea

[TheVintageToyKid]

Even a generic Mego of Vincent Price (not from any particular movie) would be cool. He could fit in with the horror line nicely.

[PNGwynne]

The 50s version of The Fly would be a fantastic figure to have.

Absolutely!! With flocking!!!

[TheVintageToyKid]

The 50s version of The Fly would be a fantastic figure to have. It would also be neat if they did a generic line of military figures... have different army, navy and air force figures from different eras... early days all the way up to now. Proceeds could go toward helping veterans and those living with PTSD, etc.

[thunderbolt]

So it looks like the Fly is happening from Mego. The movie was 20th Century Fox, if it is the 58 version.

[PNGwynne]

I really want a Mego Medusa as part of their monsters line-up.

Nabbing King Features & Conde Nast licenses would be heavenly.

And Dark Shadows!!!!!

[phil]

I know it's been mentioned before but Lost In Space MEGO figures would be great.

[TheVintageToyKid]

The John Carter of Mars characters would be cool because I believe they are currently in the public domain. Other public domain characters I would like to see Mego consider include Sherlock Holmes, Greek Mythology characters and creatures, a reissue of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe and King Arthur/Knights figures and a reissue of western/historic people like Wyatt Earp, etc.

[TheVintageToyKid]

Here are a few ideas I came up with for potential figures.

I'm not saying they should make these, could make these or would make these any time soon because of rights issues, costs involved marketability etc., but I believe they would be cool Mego or Mego-style figures to have.. at least I know I would add them to my collection if they were ever made available.

- Michael Knight (but sadly we probably wouldn't get KITT)
- Archie Bunker
- Cosmo Kramer
- Dr. Johnny Fever
- Venus Flytrap
- Herb Tarlek
- Rodney Dangerfield
- The Cartwright family from Bonanza
- Charlton Heston as Moses and/or Ben-Hur
- Kirk Douglas as Spartacus, Einar from The Vikings and Ned Land from 20,000 Leagues
- The Beastmaster and related characters
- Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey (Death Wish)
- Kevin Costner as Robin Hood
- Michael Gross from the Tremors movies
- Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (as various Hammer Horror characters)
- Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry
- Jack Torrance from The Shining
- Michael Myers from Halloween
- John Cleese from Fawlty Towers
- Rambo
- WolfCop
- Krampus
- Hulk Hogan from Suburban Commando
- Clash of the Titans characters
- Various versions of Sinbad the sailor from the old Ray Harryhausen films
- Mad Max
- Jason Voorhees
- Steve Reeves as Hercules
- Blacula
- characters from The Godfather films
- Frank Drebin from The Naked Gun
- The Lone Ranger and Tonto
- Steve Martin and John Candy from Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- Ed and Lorraine Warren
- Norman Bates
- Gabe Kotter and the Sweathogs from Welcome Back, Kotter
- Mel Gibson as William Wallace
- John Carter of Mars figures
- Allan Quatermain
- Shaft (Richard Roundtree version)
- John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever
- Kenny Rogers as The Gambler
- Princess Bride figures (they could reuse Andre the Giant and give him new clothes)
- Jim Morrison
- Creature From the Black Lagoon
- The masked killer from the movie Savage Weekend
- B.A. from The A-Team
- Filmmaker Michael Moore
- Jonah Hex
- Black Belt Jones
- Chuck Norris
- Jack Tripper

[phil]

My suggestions of Classic TV show figures was just that. Just ideas of what such a line could involve. I am aware of potential problems with liscensing and likeness rights. If you can't make the figures look like the actors there would absolutely be no point in making them. It would make sense to use characters owned by one studio or production company.

[TheVintageToyKid]

We could always buy our own Star Trek II Capt. Kirk figures and use them to customize our own TJ Hooker figures or Rack Hansen figures. That would be pretty cool.

[MRP]

I wonder if a famous TV show characters line would work. One or two characters from classic tv shows. Characters like Archie Bunker, Fred Sanford, Andy Taylor and Barney Fife, Beaver and Wally Cleaver and maybe Eddie Haskell, Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton. Those are just some that come immediately to mind. A MEGO Sergeant Ernie Bilko would be cool but I doubt he'd sell very well.

That's a lot of licences and likeness rights to acquire for not a lot of return though. I wonder if the return of investment would be worth it to a small company like Mego even if the figures they chose sold decently. Without breadth of sellable figures in a line, would the fees to license a property pass the cost/benefit analysis threshold in the long run?

The Trek license offers a wide range of possible figures over an extended period of time thus offers good return on investment on the license. With something like Jimi Hendrix, they expanded the potential by doing alternate versions of Jimi from different seminal shows Jimi is known for, but would say just Archie Bunker sell enough to make licensing all of All in the Family plus getting the Caroll O'Connor likeness rights worthwhile (and without likeness rights we have seen how poor sales were, so not having likeness rights should be a non-starter). You can get a classic TV line sure, but each property is separate license unless you can cut a deal like Target did for a library of licenses, but would Mego have the leverage to pull such a deal without a powerhouse retailer like Target being behind the deal, as Target was responsible for most of the licenses at the launch because of the exclusivity deal).

We all look at it from a fan/collector POV, but Marty, Joel and company have to look at it from a business pov and do the numbers crunch well enough to make it worthwhile, and that's nut just how much will it sell, but how much revenue will it generate in relation to all production costs-sculpting, tooling, licenses, likeness rights, costume design, etc. etc.

Economy of scale and multiple figures form a license can help reduce those production costs, but I doubt a single figure from a license will have a big enough margin unless it is in itself a huge seller with other factors reducing production costs (able to reuse other tooling, reuse accessories already molded, etc.

It's never as simple as, this is cool and popular do they should make this when you are on the other side of the curtain.

-M

[Gramercyplace]

The Fonze from Happy Days is a good example of a single character from a TV show, Mr. T from the A-Team being another. Maybe Herman and Grandpa from the Munsters. Gomez and Morticia from the Adams Family. Flash and Ming from Flash Gordon.

[TheVintageToyKid]

If they were to make a Classic TV line that featured only characters who are perceived would be top sellers, which characters would you suggest and from which shows?

[CrimsonGhost]

I do kind of feel that the idea of a line of figures is passé for a lot of the licenses. This is something I’ve noticed Neca embracing. For example: Snake Plisken is the only figure they made, and apparently are going to make, from Escape From New York because they know the numbers aren’t there for Cabbie, The Brain, The Duke of New York, etc. I feel in a lot of licensing situations, there are only one or two characters that would sell strong.

That’s not the case with everything of course. I think it’s wise to make all 4 KISS members for example, but even with KISS, Ace and Gene outsell Paul and Peter.

[TheVintageToyKid]

Exactly! Also, I know kids don't watch Saturday morning cartoons so much anymore with every form of entertainment now available at the push of a button, but wouldn't it be cool to see new Mego products advertised like they were back in the day? I love those old classic Mego TV commercials.