An interesting story is developing in the world of online Ebay auctions. Many Mego collectors have been noticing that their auctions have been pulled. The reason? The use of the word Mego. As of this writing, it’s unclear if particular listings are being sought out by a vengeful seller who is reporting the auctions or if it’s an internal change within Ebay’s own policies. Even if it’s the former, it seems to have resulted in some of the latter.
The problem originates as Mego has become a term to describe a specific style of toy. Often here at Infinite Hollywood and other websites, you’ll hear the term “Mego” bandied about to describe the 8 inch style of retro action figures. Even for modern action figures that certainly weren’t made by the long defunct Mego corporation. For a while now Ebay has cracked down on the use of terms such as Mego-Like, but it’s mostly been a non-issue. However in the past week Ebay has taken to removing dozens of auctions as they deem them to be a “search and browse manipulation” issue.
Traditionally a “search and browse manipulation” would be something like me listing a box of Crayola crayons and putting “Lady Gaga Underwear” in the title. Now my auction is getting lots of attention from people who are looking for Lady Gaga stuff, as opposed to crayons. Another popular violation would be for me to put the term iPad on a different tablet listing. Some unsuspecting bidder might buy my auction because they THINK they’re buying an iPad, when it reality they’re buying another tablet. However in the case of toys, you run into a unique set of circumstances where brand names can acutally be used to help describe different types of toys. Mego in particular falls under this umbrella.
Ebay is completely insensible to the reality of the issue. Brands like Cipsa and Lili Ledy worked in conjunction with Mego, using their molds to create toys. Auctions have been pulled using those terms with the word Mego. Even though Mego shared in the creation of them. Ebay’s stance is that you can apparently only use one brand name in the title of these auctions. Of course this doesn’t apply to lots of auctions throughout Ebay’s site, but for some reason Mego has caught the ire of the world’s biggest auction site. Continue reading
Today is a historic day for fans of retro action figures in the “Mego” style format. Figures Toy Company, the parent of the often disregarded Classic TV Toys have unveiled nine new licenses today, including some of the most popular and sought after figure designs in the format’s history. Earlier this week, rumors were leaked that Figures Toy Company was planning a retro Batman line. Almost immediately the reaction from the Mego community was one of interest, but resistance. CTVT has built up a so-so reputation in the community and isn’t generally considered a favorite.
Personally, I’ve always had great experiences with Classic TV Toys and have ordered hundreds of dollars of merchandise from them through the years. Of course, some of the backlash has been warranted as quality was not always at the forefront of their products. For every Will Scarlet, there was a Sandra Benes. However, in recent years CTVT has released a ton of new and drastically improved product. Their Kiss line which was introduced late last year, has been a roaring success for Mego and Kiss fans alike.
But now even the biggest critics of Figures Toy Company have to stand up and take notice, as Figures Toy Company have unveiled some truly impressive licenses covering a wide array of formats. Perhaps the biggest is that not only will they be producing a Mego-ish Batman line, replicating the classic Batman Megos and adding new characters to the mix… But they will also be doing a Adam West, Batman ’66 line as well.
Yes, they’re doing two retro Batman Mego lines. Rather impressive. Some names announced for the 66 line include Batman, Robin, Joker, The Penguin, Catwoman, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, King Tut, Mr. Freeze, Egghead (YES!), Shame, Bookworm and the Mad Hatter. Variants are planned as well.
But the news doesn’t stop there. They’re going to finally officially create Evel Knievel in Mego scale with his own line. They’ve got Conan coming out, including not just a recreation of the hard to find classic Mego Conan figure but also Solomon Kane/Kull The Conqueror and potentially other characters from the books.
They’re also adding Tarzan to the mix! You may recall my loveletter to the classic Mego Tarzan, so this news has me greatly excited. The Dukes ride again, as Figures Toy Company have added the Dukes of Hazard, an often overlooked but very popular Mego line into their portfolio as well. They’re also producing 12 inch exclusive lines, such as Dallas and Gilligan’s Island. It’s truly an amazing rollout of product, unlike any seen before in the format. To say that Figures Toy Company just immediately jumped out to the head of the pack in retro Mego-like licenses, would be an understatement.
I was torn on the title of this article, but I figured this one would be the most eye catching. Other potential titles included, “Toys that would be on clearance in 2 months, now worth $1,000s of dollars”, “The most valuable ReMego toys to date” and my favorite, “Django UnBayed”. The story, if you haven’t been keeping up, is that NECA’s Django Unchained Mego-like figures have stirred up quite a controversy. It’s certainly not the first time a toy has been controversial and it’s hardly the first time in the last few years that protesters have convinced someone that an “adult collectible” is being sold to children in a toy store.
Of course, times change. Matchbox got into quite the controversy in the 80′s when they made Freddy Krueger figures that WERE marketed to kids. But nobody bats an eye at Krueger figures lining the shelves of Toys R Us anymore. We have action figures of everything from fictional murderers to real life serial killers. You’d think we’d be past the days of a plastic toy getting people up in arms, but we’re not.
So what makes this controversy different? Slavery, I suppose. You see, at the heart of the issue is the concept that kids will buy these toys and play “slavery” with the dolls. As someone who played with toys far longer than he had any right to, I’m sure certain aspects of slavery already creeped into my toy playing. Weren’t Rocksteady and Bebop basically slaves to Shredder? But I digress… Even though these toys are aimed at adult collectors, it was first that we had to “think of the kids” and how they might be exposed to such horrors.
Even though none of these figures had made their way to Toys R Us yet (one assumes they would have eventually), they were pulled from the virtual shelves. Now we couldn’t just protect the children, we all needed to be protected. You see, we live in a strange world. You can own an AK-46 assault rifle, but you can’t own a toy from a movie where someone was a slave in it. In America, as long as it’s not hurting anyone, you can complain and get rid of it. Just try and find a t-shirt with the Kentucky Wildcat penis tongue on it anymore. But guns, those are okay. You can buy a rebel flag, dynamite, beer and a katana at the local flea market on Sunday, but not toys about a slave hero from a movie.
Perhaps what makes this so interesting is that the brouhaha went national. It garnered the attention of the Weinstein Company, producers of the film, who then forced NECA to stop making the figures. They even made NECA go so far as to call for the toys sold to retailers to be returned. Since the toys had just barely hit and not yet made it to larger retail chains, it’s pretty easy to stop these toys cold.
The figures are so rare that protesters can only carry pictures of the figures to complain about.
That more or less negates the need for a protest, no?
Apparently, the National Action Network and Project Islamic Hope, two civil rights groups at the center of the storm, felt the figures were commercializing the slave experience. Of course, one could easily argue that the movie itself does the same thing. And we know there will be other Django merchandise, t-shirts, hats, Slurpee cups. It’ll happen and that’s just as much commercialization as anything else. So why are toys persecuted? Because nobody stands up for toys. Toys are still considered “children’s playthings” in the minds of the masses.
Yet, despite all that, the figures have been selling for hundreds and thousands of dollars on Ebay. The highest auction I could find was over $5,000 for a set of figures. At least until today, as Ebay wants nothing more to do with Django. Ebay has removed all of the auctions, at the behest of complaints, because it violates their “racially or ethnically offensive” policy. Even though Ebay pulled the items down, several have popped back up, all at inflated prices. Ebay’s jump into this mix will likely briefly increase the figure’s worth but I suspect over time, if Ebay continues to pull auctions, the price will plummet. Nobody really wants these figures, they only want them because they’re rare and controversial.
September is Mego Month here at InfiniteHollywood.com! Be on the lookout all through the month of September for special posts about Mego figures, modern Mego-like remakes and plenty of toys in the retro cloth 8 inch style! Don’t worry, we’ll have our share of regular reviews and news as well, but all September long we’re keeping a special focus on the classic concepts of Mego!
Doctor Who
Sontaran Styre
8 Inch Scale
By: BifBangPow
$20.00
Field Major Styre of the Sontaran G3 Military Assessment Survey is a character in the infamous 4th Doctor adventure, The Sontaran Experiment. It was a rather unique story for Doctor Who at the time, as it was shot entirely on location and mostly featured Styre and his little “Epcot Center” spaceship. In the serial, Styre is experimenting on astronauts, at least until he runs into the Doctor.
BifBangPow presented this figure as one of the first villians in their “Re-Mego” 8 inch line. Often this figure is sold in a “2 pack” with the 4th Doctor. Both figures come single carded and aren’t a real 2 pack, they’re just simply bundled together for sales. Apparently ol’ Styre isn’t as hot of a seller, despite more or less being an army builder since most Sontarans look the same anyway.
So is this figure worth picking up in bulk? He has some awesome pros and a few disappointing elements as well. We break down the whole Sontaran, after the cut.
Packaging:
BifBangPow have done a nice job on the packaging, with a certain brightness that makes it stand out on the shelf. At the same time, there’s a very retro Doctor Who feel to this package and it certainly isn’t out of the realm in general for Mego packages either.
This card is pretty much my favorite of the modern “Mego” cards from the various companies producing them. I would have liked a little art, but I understand why they went with pictures of the figures themselves. All of Wave 1 is pictured here.
Sculpt:
The likeness of Styre is pretty good. It doesn’t scream Styre to me necessarily, but it does scream Sontaran and that’s good enough. I mean, these guys are all supposed to more or less look the same anyway, right? But Styre’s face was a bit dirtier than this figure’s.
He also looks a tad too happy. The Sontaran mask did sort of make the actors look like they were smiling, but it’s just too apparent on this figure. It makes him look like a friendly Uncle Fester with pockmarks. Space Humpty Dumpty or something…
The head sculpt is still one of the best to come down the pike in a long time in this format, though. Even with the minor issues, the amount of sculpting here and the general size and such, just feel right. It’s a really nicely done head sculpt.
“Pay no attention to the hole in the back of my costume! It’s totally not my weak spot!”
The neck collar is equally well done. It doesn’t ride up on the costume and it even has the little Achilles’ Heel on the back. BBP did a tremendous job in that respect.
The costume is quite nice with a metallic look to it. He also has a tad bit of padding, to make him have a bit of a pot belly, as Sontarans tend to be a bit pudgy. The hands and head are both painted in a sort of cream-yellow color, which is accurate enough.
The whole thing looks nice enough… At least from the front. The back is fastened with velcro, but the big issue is the pants of the jumpsuit. They just aren’t long enough and it ends up looking like Styre is wearing Capri pants. It’s just odd.
Further complicating things, the Doc Mego/EMCE body underneath isn’t painted to match the skin. Which means those legs look really off since they’re a different color than the head and hands. The pants can be pulled down, but they tend to ride back up rather easily. I have no idea why they cut the material so short.
Thankfully he looks great from the front because of the boots. As best I can tell, these are reused (at least in terms of sculpt, not mold) from the Mego Knights line, but they work perfectly for the Sontaran.
Articulation:
Mego and Mego clones tend to have a decent amount of articulation. The one area that they’re really lacking is a swivel joint for the arm. Of course, ball joined heads and thigh swivels would help as well. What you’re left with is a cut neck, some rubber band ball joint shoulders and legs, as well as swivel hinge wrists, hinge knees, elbows and ankles.
No complaints from me in general, but he does seem strung a little tight. I’ve noticed that in a lot of EMCE figures lately. I didn’t seem to have the issue with the older Star Trek lines, but maybe there’s some major differences with the runs being put together by the BBP crew.
Accessories:
These “Retro cloth” figures need accessories to help justify their price point, in my view. Styre does quite well in that regard.
Most importantly, he comes with his helmet. Not only is it removable, but it also snaps on and off without any issue. That’s certainly an improvement over the old Modern 5 Inch Sontaran figure from Character Options.
You also get his gun deal, which is nicely painted and colorful.
Styre also gets some sort of communication device… Or something. I can’t recall if this was spelled out in the show or not. Maybe it was part of the stuff he was using to do hallucinogenic studies. Whatever the case, it’s a neat accessory that unplugs from his belt and has really nicely painted details.
Value:
$20 for a single figure in today’s toy market used to seem like insanity, but now it’s practically the going rate. I generally think these figures aren’t always the greatest value, but Styre is one of the better values I’ve found in the Re-Mego scene.
Score Recap:
Packaging – 9
Sculpting – 8
Paint – 8
Articulation – 9
Accessories – Helmet, Space Gun, Transmat Device
Value – 8
Overall – 9 out of 10
I actually think Styre’s just as good, if not better than the BBP 4th Doctor. My only real complaint is that the painted elements on the hands do chip some and the pants just aren’t proper length. It’s not big enough of an issue to be a deal breaker, but it’s a tad frustrating.
Still, this is arguably the best Mego inspired line on the mass market today. BifBangPow have done a really nice job with these figures. They feel like they’re right out of the 70′s, but also can stand toe to toe with a lot of the modern toys of today.
Doctor Who
4th Doctor
8 Inch Scale
By: BifBangPow
$20.00
It’s a great time to be a Doctor Who fan, as the show seems to be reaching a high point in terms of popularity and that’s translating into a lot of product on the shelves. For decades fans of Who were left with rather subpar toys and now not only do we have great import toys from Character Options, we also have for likely the first time ever, American companies making Doctor Who toys!
BifBangPow is a little company that has been making niche toys for several years now. BifBangPow teamed up with EMCE toys about a year or so ago to form a relationship where BBP would use the designs made famous by Doc Mego, but crank out a variety of new licensed product. The toys have had mixed success within many collectors circles and some of the license choices have frustrated certain sects of toy collectors.
However, BifBangPow has provided some incredible product and have slowly built up a catalogue of products and licenses leading to what ultimately has become a surge in the new Mego-like toys market. This has led BBP to arguably their biggest license to date, Doctor Who! This brand is not foreign to having Mego style figures as in the 1980′s Deny’s Fisher, a UK branch off of Mego made a short lived Mego Doctor Who line. However those figures were not in the classic Mego scale and were not readily available here in the United States.
Now twenty plus years later BifBangPow has given Doctor Who the classic Mego treatment and have brought Who to our shores in a way never thought possible before. I’ve fallen behind on Doctor Who figure reviews this year but it’s where we’ve often specialized here at Infinite Hollywood, so let’s close out the year with some more Who-goodness. Can this Who compare to the classic brands and is it worth your time and money? Read on to find out!
Packaging:
Mego often had charming packaging with neat art on simple bubble cards. BifBangPow and several of the other companies making these style of figures have often replicated those types of packages with varying success. However, with Doctor Who, BBP has sort of done their own thing and while it definitely has a classic Mego feel to it, it also feels very Doctor Who-ey as well.
The result is a fantastic card that is far and away my favorite modern Mego type of card to date. It’s simple, but sleek and appropriate. I could totally see this on the shelves in the 1970′s or 80′s and yet ti looks perfect on the shelves today! It’s rare that I find a toy I want to keep in the package because it’s so nice, but this is one of those times.
The back has all the appropriate info and shows off some of the other figures in the series. It also has some other Doctors listed, hinting that perhaps BBP will make other classic Doctors as well. I also like that the 4th Doctor has an inner tray holding him upright, and that does wonders for making the figure not slouch or get beat around like many of the other figures that are loose in these packages so often have issues with.
Sculpt:
BBP has had pretty good success with capturing likeness in this scale for some time. In fact if anything, they’ve often had figures that looked a bit too realistic for what Mego used to do. I’m happy to report that they’ve hit a homerun with the 4th Doctor as he’s unmistakably Tom Baker, but he also has a bit of a toy look to him. It’s a perfect medium!
Some of the early BBP “Mego” figures suffered from ghost face syndrome. That is to say that their heads were cast in a nearly transparent vinyl color that made them especially pasty and stand out from the color of the rest of the skin. Thankfully the Doctor Who line doesn’t seem to suffer from this problem and although the good Doctor is a bit pasty, his head skin tone matches his body’s skin tone.
The face is sort of a blank stare, but I appreciate that. This Doctor can be in any variety of poses and not look out of place. It’s better than having a big grin or something, which will only look good in certain poses. This is the 4th Doctor doing one of his stoic, deep thoughts. It’s nearly identical to the first Character Options 4th Doctor figure’s alternate head.
“Doctor, you’ve been to the future… Tell me, how do they remember me?”
The costume is always important on a small scale figure like this, especially since they use soft goods. Again BBP has soared beyond expectations, as the 4th Doctor has all his patented attire on and it’s quite colorfol and vibrant.
The most important part of any 4th Doctor outfit is the scarf and this one is appropriately gigantic! It’s quite a bit bigger than the Doctor himself. It can be a bit hard to figure out how to wrap it around him properly, but it’s really a nice piece.
I think it looks better than the classic Deny’s Fisher brand Doctor, but at the same time there were elements of that figure which were better… Like the hat!
Underneath the Doctor has his waistcoat which is a separate piece, but one that is actually connected to the shirt underneath. So essentially, it can open like a vest, but you won’t be removing it. He has nice rubber shoes and brown pants. The quality on the clothes is pretty good and appropriate for this style of figure where hyper-details are not necessary.
He also comes with a hat. I’m not going to lie… It’s a mess. The Mego scale of heads have often been a bit too big and the Doctor suffers a bit from this. BBP tried to compensate by making his hat even bigger, to help sit on the curly afro of Tom Baker.
It doesn’t work at all. It looks gigantic, it doesn’t sit properly and honestly even the sculpt looks a bit too “cowboy hat” for some reason. Deny’s Fisher was able to make their Doctor with a removable hat back in the day, but BBP just couldn’t replicate it. Supposedly they were working on this problem, but I guess they never could find a solution.
So yeah, the hat sucks. It’s not the end of the world, just don’t display him with the hat. My hopes is that BBP will release a version with a hat sculpted on, or rescale the head in future 4th Doctor releases. If not, it is what it is. You could possibly cut some of his hair away and glue the hat down, but I’m not brave enough to try it.
Articulation:
Mego and Mego clones tend to have a decent amount of articulation. The one area that they’re really lacking is a swivel joint for the arm. Of course, ball joined heads and thigh swivels would help as well. What you’re left with is a cut neck, some rubber band ball joint shoulders and legs, as well as swivel hinge wrists, hinge knees, elbows and ankles.
BifBangPow actually had an EMCE body made with swivel arms, but for some reason the 4th Doctor didn’t get them. It’s not a huge deal and to be honest, EMCE’s swivel arms seem a bit clunky in comparison to Cast-A-Way toys swivel arms. So perhaps the figure is better off without them.
He’s still pretty poseable and fun to fiddle around with. The only area I have found that’s concerning is that his ankles tend to be a bit loose, causing him to want to lean forward. This is rarely a problem with most Megos, as they typically wear long boots, but the 4th Doctor’s short shoes cause him to have less support there. it’s not a issue all the time, but it could be for those who pose him a lot.
Accessories:
I’ve always said that these style of figures need accessories and lots of them, more often than not. BBP has done a pretty good job here of giving the Doctor everything he needs. From his giant removable scarf, right down to his sonic screwdriver.
The sculpt and paint, while minimal, is perfect. This is a great small scale rendition of the 4th Doctor’s sonic. It fits into his hand quite well and he can be posed with it as needed.
“I once caught a gumblejack this big! Almost as big as my hat!”
The hat is a failure, but we’ve already went over that. At least they included it, so at least you can decide what you want to do with it.
The coat and tie are removable. Speaking of which, I’ve heard some stories of the coat and also the red portions of the scarf staining the figure. Mine isn’t stained, but there does seem to be some red going onto the white shirt underneath. This is a frustrating problem that I’m not sure how to fix. Possibly by gently washing these items. Not everyone seems to have the issue, but it’s something to be aware of.
And that’s pretty much it. Be careful when removing the figure from the package, so that you don’t lose your Sonic Screwdriver. While it’s bigger than the Character Options version, it’s still quite small.
Value:
$20 for a single figure in today’s toy market is a tough pill to swallow, but one we’re seeing more and more. To make matters worse, this figure is sold bundled with a Sontaran in most retail settings. That means you’ll end up paying $40+ for the both of them, more often than not. However, the quality here is pretty nice and aside from a few issues, this guy is worth tracking down if you have even the most modest interest in Mego-like figures. Even classic Mego collectors will want to have this guy in their collection, as he fits right in with the vintage stuff.
Score Recap:
Packaging – 9
Sculpting – 8
Paint – 8
Articulation – 9
Accessories – Sonic Screwdriver, Hat, Scarf
Value – 8
Overall – 9 out of 10
Let’s face it, I’m a sucker for the 4th Doctor and I tend to like Mego-style figures more than most people. This figure is not without it’s problems, with a tad oversized head, a hat that doesn’t fit and clothes that could eventually stain this figure. However, he has a lot of strong points, including a great likeness, nice cloth clothing and a few accurate accessories.
These figures are limited to a run of only 3,000 and each package is individually numbered. While I have hopes that this line will become a huge success for BBP, you may want to pick one of these guys up while you have the chance. It’s not a perfect figure by any means, but it’s the kind of neat retro toy that you might kick yourself in a few years for not picking up when it was affordable.