The POP EXPOSE ‘Mego’s Mega Mistake’ by Mitchell Smith!
Mego’s Mega mistake
Mego was a toy company founded in 1954 by Dave Abrams. The company thrived in the 1950s and 1960s as an importer of dime store toys. In 1971 David’s Son Martin became president of the company and Mego got into the action figure business. Some of their stuff included Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, and Wizard of Oz. Along with movies they got in to DC and Marvel Comics to create World’s Greatest Super Hero figures. Mego also made figures for popular T.V. shows such as CHiPs, Laverne & Shirley, and The Dukes of Hazard.
They also went through a stint of figures of popular movie stars at the time, such as Sonny and Cher, Suzanne Somers, and Kiss. They also had a fashion doll line to rival Barbie and Action Jackson to rival Hasbro and the 12 inch Joe. They focused on 8 inch figures until Mego came up with the Micronauts, a 3 inch figure that sold very well. When Mego was approached in 1976 to make figures for a movie that would be coming out in 1977 – Star Wars, Dave who still had the final say on business deals felt that he couldn’t make an action figure for every sci-fi movie that came along.
Not knowing how the franchise would turn out at the time it seemed Abrams made the correct decision as his Micronauts held strong in sales and the company was still making lots of profit in the 1970s. It wasn’t long after Mego turned down the Star Wars offer that the company began to loose money and filed for Chapter 11 in 1982 and in 1983 they went completely belly up.
Mego was one of those companies that brought joy to millions of children. There were so many different figures. The CHiPs figures that did not sell well in stores was one of my all time favorites. I was looking at a recent Pop-expose by Thundershot on Star Trek figures, and Mego did really nice work producing figures. This vintage company helped pioneer the 3 inch action figure and paved the way for Star Wars and G.I. Joe and the many others that followed. Mego toys have held their value over the years and many of the figures still trade hands in the open collectible market, some going for thousands of dollars. So if you get a chance check out some of the Mego stuff on line and keep your eye open for Mego stuff if you’re out toy hunting. Do you enjoy collecting Mego figures? Let us know AFTER THE JUMP!
