The Mego Work of Ken Sheller I Mego Museum

Photos of Ken Sheller's work with his thoughts

A few photos from the extensive work of Ken Sheller plus his thoughts.

On the Superman: The Movie line "when I delivered the six wax heads (I did only the heads) I recall that Marty (Abrams) was so happy to have them that he held up the Chris Reeve head, looked at it,said "he looks great Ken!" and then gave it a big kiss. He did this probably for two reasons. One, he liked the head alot and two, he had to get on a plane to Hong Kong right away with them, and I'm sure that he was very happy that I made the deadline."

On Ark 2 "It didn't go very far, just a bunch of clays. I got some pictures from their licensor [filmation] and I did clays and then it stopped at the clays."

"[Mego] just said "stop", a lot of times projects would just get started and a number were going at once."

"So it was like a triage system really, you would start on maybe 4 projects and some would be pulled and put to the side and some would be finished sooner. I put in a lot of hours, I used to work very hard over a period of time. "

Wonder Woman and her friends were all sculpted by Ken

On the 12" Wonder Woman line "She wasn't allowed to look like Linda Carter, so they basically said make up a pretty girl. That was one of my first jobs for [Mego], I had been doing fashion illustration among other things so I was good at doing the pretty girls. So I made up that head, they came out pretty good I thought."

"I remember I had sent [the 12" Wonder Woman] to [one of the heads of sculpture] at Mattel a year or two later. He gave me back a letter saying he thought I had accomplished a lot in the little head and he thought it was very nice. I was happy to hear that kind of praise because I thought they were far and away the best portraits in the business."

On Chopper from the Starsky and Hutch Line "Chopper was just a little guy I made up; he wasn't really much of anything. [Mego] said to me "Make a bad guy" So I just made this little guy with a punched in face and then they put a beard on him, I didn't originally have the idea for a beard."

"[Chopper's beard is] pasted on and it didn't look like anything . I didn't really like the head actually, at all. "

"I thought I did a pretty neat Captain Dobey and Huggy Bear, they get melted down a little bit but at a quick glance you say "there they are" that was the idea really."

On CHiPs "I did two versions of Ponch and on the first one, I might have made his head a little squat or something, it wasn't right. I remember I got feedback from the designers I worked with that Marty [Abrams] had seen it and had just hated it. "

"It was good to have a chain of people looking at these things, you only have one pair of eyes. The more eyes that look at it are really helpful especially when you have a lot of work to do at one time. "

On Mego CEO Martin Abrams "As much as he's considered the businessman and salesman, he has a very, very keen eye and good design and artistic judgment on things. I always listened to what he had to say. "

Ken Sheller Body of Work Listing

Bubble Yum Baby- head
Million $ Baby - Head
Baby Needs You- head
Baby feels So Real - Head
Heaven Scent - small doll - head
Sweet Innocence - small doll - head
Tickle Toes Baby - head -not produced
Teany Beany - small doll -head -not produced
Alien Baby- head -not produced

Barbie Benton

12" Head Not Produced : Barbie Benton
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

12" Heads: Buck, Dr Huer, Tiger Man, Draconian Guard, Kane, Draco

12" Heads Not Produced : Wilma Deering, Ardala
Candy

Make up Head
Captain and Tennille

12" Heads: Captain Dragon, Tony Tennille

Not Produced: Bulldog
Cher

12" Head: Sonny

12" Head Not Produced : Chastity

Cher Make Up Head
Cheryl Ladd

12" Head Not Produced
CHiPs

8" Heads: Jon, Ponch
Diana Ross

12" Head: Diana Ross
Dracula

12" Heads for figure who face spun around when a button in the chest was pushed (not produced)
Dukes of Hazzard

8" Head : Daisy Duke (Resculpted from Mego 12" Wonder Woman Nubia head)
Farrah Fawcett

12" Head

Make Up Head
Flash Gordon

10" Head: Dale Arden
Flinstones

Jointed Fred Flintstone Figure (unknown)
Grease

8" Heads: Danny (John Travolta) , Rizzo, Sandy (Olivia Newton John), Kanicky (Not Produced)
Happy Days

8" head Richie, Potsie, Ralph

8" Head : Fonzie (not used) Pinky Tuscadero, Joanie (both not produced)

12" Heads: Fonzie (not produced)

"Hobbits" (working title)

8" Heads: Old Man, Young Man

Incredible Hulk (TV Series)

12" Heads : Lou Ferrigno (Not Produced)
Isis (TV Series)

8" Head of lead Joanna Cameron (unused)
King Kong

Board Game Figure (Not Produced)
KISS

12" Heads: Gene, Paul, Ace, Peter

(NOTE: Paul and Peter were reworked Captain and Lex Luthor, both Sheller Sculpts)

Boots were also sculpted by Ken
Kristy McNicol

9" Head
Laverne and Shirley

Laverne, Shirley, Lenny, Squiggy ( originally sculpted as 8" figures and later adapted to 12" size in Hong Kong)
Logan's Run (Movie)

8" Heads: Logan (micheal York), Francis (Richard Jordan) , Jessica (Jenny Agutter) (not produced)
Logan's Run (Television Series)

10" Heads: Logan (Gregory Harrison), Jessica (Heather Menzies),

Francis (Randolph Powell), REM (Donald Moffet)(Not Produced)
Lee Majors

12" Head: Lee Majors (Not Produced)
Moonraker

12" Heads: James Bond, Holly, Jaws and Drax
Plastic Man

12" Heads: Plastic Man (Not Produced)
Starsky and Hutch

8" Heads: Captain Dobey, Huggy Bear, Chopper
Star Trek the Motion Picture

12" Heads: Klingon, Arcturian

12" Heads Not Produced : Rigellian, Zaranite
Superhero

8" Head: Generic Superhero (not produced)
Superman the Movie

12" Heads: Superman, Jor El, Lex Luthor, General Zod

12" Heads Not Produced : Ursa, Non
Suzanne Sommers

12" Head
Lindsey Wagner

12" Head (Not Produced)
Raquel Welch

12" Head (Not Produced)
Wonder Woman (TV Series)

12" Heads: Wonder Woman, Nubia, Hippolyte
Worlds Greatest Superheroes

Hands for 12" Magnetic Superheroes

After Mego
Danbury Mint
Grace Kelly in High Noon film - Head, hands and boots for 18" doll -porcelain
DSI

12" Figures: James Dean, Marylin Monroe
Ertl
Wrangler Line -Mr. Wrangler, Lady Wrangler, 12 " full doll, four 4" figs of the characters, Horse for 12" fig, three horses and a bull for 4" fig, all accesories for both sizes and all clothing for 12" figs.
Equity Marketing
Tinkerbelle premium
Fisher Price
four action figures 5" size for Construx - not produced
Gabriel Toy

Legend of the Lone Ranger Movie : 9" dolls of Lone Ranger, Tonto and Butch Cavendish (Christopher Lloyd) based on movie Actors (Not produced)
Hasbro
Glofriends- first ten characters 3 " height
Irwin Toy

Reboot

6" Figures of the series 6 principle characters
Kenner
All Stars- Dave Righetti, Clyde Drexler, Orlando Blackburn, Chuck Norris Line-Ninja Warrior body 6" fig

DC heroes- Brainiac 2 1/2" full figure

MASK-Jacques LaFleur and Floyd Malloy bodies for 4" figures

Police academy - Capt Hightower 5" fig

Robocop-Buster Bolton and Sheriff Roadblock 5' figs
LJN
Brooke Shields- Makeukp head, smiling head and non smiling heads for 12" doll
Matchbox

Baby Baby- head and hands

Max Fx- 10" Freddy mask, hands

Max Fx- 10" Jason mask, hands (unproduced)

Pee Wee Herman- Cowboy Curtis, Ms Yvonne, Ricardo

Big Top Pee Wee- Bendy characters (unproduced including Chris Kristopherson)
Pressman
Mister Creepy head and accessories for Mr. Creepy magic line
REMCO

Universal Monsters

10" Figures: Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, The Phantom of the Opera, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy

Remco- Giggly-Jiggly Babies- two doll heads and hands
Tonka
Evil Changeling 7" figure (holographic)
ToyBiz
Toy Biz- X-Men - first Series 1990 - Wolverine, Magneto, Storm,

Apocylapse -full figures for 5" size -sculpted twice up at 10"
ToyMax
Creepy Crawler action figures 7" figs. - Volt, Prime Slime, Sting Ring, Hocus Locust
Worlds of Wonder
Rockstars- four female heads for 12" dolls

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