Superman, Batman (Spiderman, Hulk)

[zeedox]

Well putting aside the Marvel gang obviously, I seem to recall buying more than my share of Superman and Batman in the 70's. Not that they were peg warmers, it was as easy as buying a flashlight or something. Is it different now because of the way things are shipped? Let's say we are one year into getting new EMCE heroes, can anybody clearly state how the cardboard boxes got to the toy shops and what was in them by comparison?

Bascially I really would like a revised Superman and Batman. Masters of the Universe already had a He-Man and Skeletor reboot revise...

[LOU]

Yeah I remember many peg warmers in Child World as a kid, if you can call them that back then. Everytime I went to Child World it was a given that you could easily pick up any of these Megos carded because they were never sold out:

-Superman
-Batman
-Robin
-Hulk
-Spider-Man
-Shazam
-Captain America
-Isis

(plentiful for only a few months then they vanished. They were in the Barbie/girls aisle too for some reason)
-Kid Flash
-Aqualad
-Wonder Girl
-Speedy

Plentiful boxed figures in the store at the same time (stored on the spill shelf below the pegged carded figures) were:

-Catwoman
-Green Goblin
-Mr. Mxyzptlk
-Lizard
-Joker
-Penguin
-Falcon
-and all the above carded heroes except Isis were available in boxes as I remember

Hard-to-find in any packaging back in the 70's (at least here in Western MA) were:
-Thor
-Conan
-Invisible Girl
-Mr. Fantasic
-Thing
-Supergirl
-Batgirl
-Wonder Woman (never even laid eyes on one until I was an adult collector)
-Riddler
-Tarzan

So I would imagine that stocking and shipping tendencies were much, much different back then. As I said, I ALWAYS knew if I broke Superman, Batman, Shazam, Spidey, etc. that I would easily be able to get a replacement the next day. Then there were some I was just lucky to find at all like a boxed Batgirl in a Caldor store (missing her helmet in the box though which is probably why she was still there) or a Aquaman VS. The Great White Shark in Zayre's store (which was also the very first time I ever even saw a Mego Aquaman at retail as a kid.)

Interesting to think about how different today is...sad really.

[zeedox]

Thanks great post

Wow that really was a great response thanks. All i really recall as a kid was not having trouble getting seconds thirds etc.

I do recall Leonard Nimoy visiting the mall as a kid to promote the Star Trek megos tho! Cool eh? How come there is no spirit like that anymore i can only wonder...

[jasonmego1277]

I remember Child World was always packed to the ceilings with everything. I don't remember the WGSH linehaving peg warmers, but other toy lines do stand out in my memory.

[LOU]

No problem zeedox, glad you enjoyed it. Megos were a HUGE part of my childhood and everything about them has always remained fresh in my head. That toy store aisle, to me, is as vivid a memory as is last night's dinner. I'll probably never forget it. Star Wars figures were directly across from the Megos and next to the Star Wars figures was the Star Trek Megos that I didn't really care about because I wasn't much of a "space" fan as kid, at least not until I actually saw Star Wars.
I also remember calling Child World every day looking for Magnetic Robin to go with my Batman. The ads for the Magnetic Dynamic Duo in my comic books showed Batman holding Robin's hands in trapeze postion and I SO wanted to try that with Robin! One day I did eventually find him but I don't remember the specific day when.
So, my childhood is almost synonomous with Megos, they will always be important to me for that reason, as are Super Heroes in general. That's why I remember everything so vividly. I wish I was an artist because I would seriously paint the vision in my head of that Child World aisle. There's no doubt the impact that Mego had on my life...no kidding.

[GoldBlade6]

I too love the stories in this thread. I was born in '85, only a few years before Child World bit the bullet. I got my SNES Zelda: Link to the Past there. My mom grabbed the piece of paper you had to use from the video game aisle, and I was like, "Huh? What are you getting? What is that?" And then she handed me the game and I was like, "!!!!!!!!! WHAT?! :D" Child World is also where I got all my Police Academy figures, Ghostbusters (though they never seemed to have enough), Darkwing Duck, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Captain Planet...

I think Megos were all gone by 1985. :( Why do I love them so much then? Toyfare sucked me in back in the 90's.

[LOU]

Yeah, Megos were gone by '85 for the most part around here. I do remember the very last Mego I ever saw at retail. It was a carded Captain America at a different Child World than the one I used to frequent. There was only one peg of Megos by this time though. Maybe around 1983 I saw an obviously old boxed Thing in my usual Child World long after Megos were gone, it was in a clearance aisle and it was the first Mego Thing I'd ever seen up until that point. Why I didn't buy these things is beyond me but "collecting" them as an early-teen wasn't really a priority because I remembered there were still Megos I'd never found as kid, nevermind now in 1983...so I left them there.
This is why I'm so intrigued with the fact that today Captain America and Shazam Megos on the card are considered somewhat on the higher-end side of carded collecting in spite of the fact that those two characters were just as common around here back in the day as was Supes, Spidey, Hulk, and Bats, etc.

[puckace]

LOU I was stuck overseas as a kid when many of the Superhero Megos were at their heyday. Was Ironman as hard to find as some of the others? I remember coming back and seeing the Star Trek Aliens at a store called Gemco but don't remember seeing many of the harder to find superheroes on the shelf in 1977.

[LOU]

LOU I was stuck overseas as a kid when many of the Superhero Megos were at their heyday. Was Ironman as hard to find as some of the others? I remember coming back and seeing the Star Trek Aliens at a store called Gemco but don't remember seeing many of the harder to find superheroes on the shelf in 1977.

Oh yeah puck, I forgot to list Iron Man. Yes, he was rather difficult to find too but I did find one as a kid and saw him maybe a couple times more at retail back then...of course he was one of the boxed figures...never saw the super duper rare carded version though.

[jasonmego1277]

Yeah I don't remember these too much at retail. I do remember periodically seeing these at random places. But usually odd places with the boxed figures sitting in the display. For some reason Mxyzptlk and batgirl stand out in my memory.

[HardyGirl]

I know seeing RAH in the wild is pretty cool, And even though I saw Mego at toy store when I was a kid, the only experience I had purchasing one at a store was my first AJ at age 5. And it wasn't in a big toy store or department store, it was in a little toy store called Stationery's in NYC. 2 blocks from my building, and w/ a BIG picture window display. I would walk past that window many days from day camp, church, girls club and just drool. I really can't remember seeing rows and rows of Megos, and which ones were on the pegs and which ones sold out. Only that in my neighborhood where most families didn't have a lot of money, the most popular Megos were Batman and Spider-Man , since both were on in syndication. If you saw any boys w/ Megos on my block, it was most likely one of those.

[zeedox]

I remember buying Action Jackson in a similar way...

And I was five too!
The store was in brooklyn, near a carvel. I actually recall the woman at the counter asking my mother if she was "Sure I wanted this one", referring the the black action jackson. Actually that was the first time that I was ever exposed to the notion of prejudice and actually what my brain goes back too.

Anyhow yes that was the one I wanted! hehe Seemed a little cooler for some reason. Hindsight makes me a double take when the Action Jackson movie was Carl Weathers.

But almost every mego became a purchase for me at that point. I admit tho the ones for some of the odd sitcoms confused me tho I did think the fonz was cool.

[HardyGirl]

And I was five too!
The store was in brooklyn, near a carvel. I actually recall the woman at the counter asking my mother if she was "Sure I wanted this one", referring the the black action jackson. Actually that was the first time that I was ever exposed to the notion of prejudice and actually what my brain goes back too.

Anyhow yes that was the one I wanted! hehe Seemed a little cooler for some reason. Hindsight makes me a double take when the Action Jackson movie was Carl Weathers.

But almost every mego became a purchase for me at that point. I admit tho the ones for some of the odd sitcoms confused me tho I did think the fonz was cool.

Well, since I'm a girl, my parents had to discuss me getting AJ, since I'd never had an action figure. My dad was cool w/ it, but it had to be a black one. I didn't mind that. But the first one I got looked kinda "milatto", lighter than the other black ones. My second one was darker. And when the Carl Weathers film came out, I was kinda mad they used that name. I knew the only reason they could use it was b/c Mego was defunct by that time.

[Audiorij]

I was born in early 1969, so I guess I was probably just the right age for the Mego wave;
I remember purchasing Action Jacksons when they first came out. My brothers and I would get $5.00 from relatives around certain holidays or birthdays and thats what they would go towards. I know that I had at least 2 of the removable cowl batmans and one of the removable mask spiderman Megos. And probably Robin with the removable mask. Had all the planet of Apes, and a good selection of the heroes, Thor, IronMan, Superman, Captian America, Penguin, Conan, Hulk, Green Arrow, etc. And then I bought at least 3 or 4 of the Knights and I know I had the Mad Monsters Dracula. Also had the Ronald McDonald set of Grimmace, Hamburglar, and the old scientist guy.
Almost all, except the knights I bought in the carded format, I remember seeing the Fantastic Four boxed at a sports store near here, and wanted them bad, but never got them.
I know I bought multiple Batman and Robins, occasionally they would break and I would replace them, and Spiderman. They did seem like the ones to get at the time and were easy to find.
At one point we moved and we used trash bags to gather up things in our rooms and my bag of Megos got accidentally thrown out with the trash and didn't make it to the new house. I searched the basement for months and never found them. They were my favorite toy and I was pretty sick about it for a long time.

[LOU]

Yeah, for whatever reason it's just so darn important to me; I've always cherished my Mego retail memories (with the fulfilled obligatory quota of "if I knew then..." regret.) I wish Mom took a picture of that Child World aisle but...who does that??! LOL!