Mego Web Hand Aquaman

Courtesy the awesome MegoMuseum.com comes this shot of the uber-rare, never-produced web-handed Aquaman doll. Apparently this version was shown in a 1978 catalog but never put into production. This sole example resides in the (presumably non-webbed) hands of a Mego collector.

If you haven't ever checked out the Mego Museum, make sure you do--but only if you've got many, many hours to kill! It's like visiting the Met, but a lot more fun.

Aquaman vs. The Great White Shark Playset

Would you love to own the Aquaman vs. Great White Shark playset but don't happen to have an extra ten grand lying around? Figures Toy Company has you covered with this new edition of the set, along with a similarly Mego-scaled BatCave playset!

I never had the GWS set (I doubt I ever saw it, because I'm sure if I had I would have nagged my parents until they caved), but man did I have a lot fun adventures with the Mego BatCave. I tried to get my coworkers interested, but none of them ever wanted to be Penguin. What a bunch of stick-in-the-muds.

Mego WGSH Ruler

F.O.A.M.er Brian Heiler was kind enough to feature the Aquaman Pencil Sharpener over on his world-famous Plaid Stallions blog earlier in the month. Right after I sent him the pic of the item, Brian returned the favor by showing me this, a Mego WGSH-style ruler!

As Brian surmises over on PS, this is most likely a foreign knock-off, not an actual licensed product. Too bad, I would have happily drawn my straight lines with the help of the Sea King and his pals. Thanks Brian!

Who's Who Mego Custom Box

This drool-worthy custom Mego box is the work of F.O.A.M.er Anthony Durso, who is a genius at this stuff. He worked up a whole mini-line of Who's Who-branded boxes (Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel), all of them a pure pleasure to look at. I want this so bad!

Human Flying Fish Custom Mego

Check out this amazing Human Flying Fish doll, made by the Mego customizer known on the Mego Museum message boards as Megowgsh (aka Austin). With his grim visage, the Human Flying Fish strikes fear into the heart of superheroes everywhere!

Actually, no he doesn't, that's ridiculous, as is this character. But I'd still buy this if it was actually for sale, Austin did such a great job--he looks like he flew right out of a Ramona Fradon panel!

(h/t: F.O.A.M.er Chris Franklin)

Mego Super-Heroes Ad

Someone get me all of these for Christmas! I already have some (like Aquaman) but I can always use doubles for when I do "evil duplicate" storylines.


(h/t: The Mego Museum)

Aquaman vs. The Great White Shark Returns!

Some Aqua-News from our friends over at 13thDimension.com--Figures Toy Company is bringing back one of those most valuable Mego toys ever, the Aquaman vs. The Great White Shark playset!

It probably won't retail for $12.95, like it originally did--but it also won't cost 14 grand, either.



Thanks to 13D's Dan Greenfield for the tip!

Aquaman Meets The Great Rubber Duck

Mego Aquaman spots something unusual in the ocean this morning...


(h/t: F.O.A.M.er Chris Franklin via The Mego Museum)

The Fire and Water Podcast, Episode 98

THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST: Episode 98

The official podcast of THE AQUAMAN SHRINE and FIRESTORM FAN

Episode 98 - Megos!

This week is Mego Week at THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST! I am joined by Mego expert BRIAN HEILER to talk about our favorite line of action figures, Megos!

Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content?

THE AQUAMAN SHRINE - http://www.aquamanshrine.net

FIRESTORM FAN - http://firestormfan.com

THE FIRE & WATER TUMBLR - http://fireandwaterpodcast.tumblr.com
MEGO MUSEUM - http://www.megomuseum.com
PLAID STALLIONS - http://www.plaidstallions.com   

E-MAIL: firewaterpodcast@comcast.net

This episode brought to you by InStockTrades - http://instocktrades.com

Subscribe via iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-fire-and-water-podcast/id463855630

Opening theme, "That Time is Now," by Michael Kohler. Closing music by Daniel Adams and Ashton Burge of The Bad Mamma Jammas! http://www.facebook.com/BadMammaJammas

Thanks for listening! Fan the Flame and Ride the Wave!

Mego Super Powers Collection

I simply lack the mental faculties to express how in love I am with this idea, merging Mego's WGSH line with the Super Powers Collection. Just click the image to learn more!



(h/t: F.O.A.M.er Chris Franklin)

Heroes World Pocket Heroes Ad - 1978

This is a page from a Heroes World catalog featuring Mego's line of Pocket Heroes. For those of you too young to remember, Heroes World was a company that sold all manner of DC and Marvel-related merchandise via direct mail. Their ads in comics of the time were ubiquitous, offering all kinds of mouth-watering action figures, posters, comics, puzzles, and other stuff featuring your favorite heroes.

The ads were almost exclusively drawn by Joe Kubert and his school (of which I would attend about a decade later). This particular ad is clearly the work of someone else, though that Heroes World mascot up top is by Kubert. Aquaman didn't show up much in Heroes World catalogs, because he rarely got his own stuff in the late 70s--but here he is, dutifully posing in between the Hulk and Captain America, probably the only time we'll ever get to see that!
 

DC Superhero Shop Open For Business!

Unfortunately, this is not a real store--it's a still from a catalog put together by the LCA, the Licensing Corporation of America. The four-page catalog featured all the top licensors of the time, which is why you see so much Mego stuff on display.

There isn't much Aquaman to be found here, but you can see him a little bit--there's a Mego on the top shelf of the glass case, and on the desk you can see a partially-obscured Super Friends Paint by Numbers kit, which featured the Sea King prominently. Doesn't really matter though--if this store did exist at the time, my parents never would have been able to pry me out of there!

(See if you can guess which site we took this image from)

Megozine #1

This is the cover to Megozine #1, the official magazine for the all-encompassing Mego Musuem website, which has been the spot for Mego love on the web for almost as long as the internet has existed.

For it's inaugural outing, the Megozine folks are using their army of dolls (sorry, "action figures") to recreate the cover to the classic Superman vs. Muhammad Ali treasury edition:

As you can see, Aquaman didn't get a very good seat for the Fight of the Century. But the MegoMuseum was a lot kinder, putting him at ringside, next to who is arguably the most famous Mego ever, Spider-Man! Only fitting, considering the Sea King was one of the original World's Greatest Super-Heroes. I wonder how much money Arthur had on the fight, and whom did he bet on?

You can order a copy of Megozine here. And tell them The Aquaman Shrine sent ya!

Mego Catalog Display - 1973

This is a detail from Mego's display in the 1973 Toy Fair catalog, advertising their new line of World's Greatest Super-Heroes action figures!

There's something about seeing these extremely rare, extremely expensive items like this, so new and shiny, that almost makes my mouth water (is that weird?). I can only imagine the unrestrained glee that kids must have felt when seeing these beauties on display for the first time (the box at left was a prototype that was never released; instead the Mego WGSH's were sent out in the display seen at right). These Megos would never look as perfect and beautiful as they do here.

If you look closely, you see what the breakdown was in terms of how many figures each character got in each box--out of 24 figures, there were 8 Supermans, 10 Batmans, 4 Robins, and a measly 2 Aquamans! Ouch!


(Image courtesy WorldsGreatestToys.com)

Mego Aquaman 12-Inch Custom

F.O.A.M. member and Mego-maker extraordinaire Anthony Durso is back with another superb custom box for an Aquaman figure that never existed, in this case a Sea King for the 12" line (pictured alongside two others that never were, a 12" Green Lantern and Flash).

The figure is by another Mego Custom-er, Brian Leitner, who posted close-ups of it here. An awesome two-man job--I only wish Mego itself had been this crafty!

Mego Aquaman "Fist Fighting" Custom

F.O.A.M. member and custom Mego maker extraordinaire Anthony Durso created this awesome custom box for a Mego doll that was (*sniff*) never produced--an Aquaman with Fist Fighting Action!

The Fist Fighters were a line of Mego dolls that contained a mechanism inside them that allowed you to have them throw a punch or karate chop in classic superhero style. Aquaman, never being a big seller for Mego, was most likely never even considered for the upgrade, but Anthony went ahead and made a box for it anyway, featuring some cool Jim Aparo art (redundant, I know). Here, Aquaman is using his fist-fighting action to knock Black Manta into next week!

Great stuff, thanks Anthony!

"Thrifty" Mego Ad - 1973

With the Christmas season upon us, I would just like to point out that there was a time when parents could get their kid brand-new, MIP Megos of Superman, Batman, Robin, and Aquaman, all for a measly $7.76 (plus tax).

Santa knows I've been an exceedingly good boy this year, and since he can warp space and time (if the 1959 movie Santa Claus is to be believed, and I think it is), I say the least he can do is go back and time get me all four of these for Xmas.

Oh, and I wouldn't mind the sno-cone machine, either.

Aquaman vs. The Great White Shark by Mego - 1978

I found these photos on an eBay auction, and they made me laugh: they represent the alpha and omega of collecting: an uber-rare item, but one so beat up you wonder if the dang thing is actually worth anything.

Mego's Aquaman vs. The Great White Shark is one of the Holy Grails of Aquaman collecting; a big flop at the time, the set went on to become extremely scarce and consequently extremely expensive to find, in any condition. Case in point: this set, which looks like it got stepped on by King Kong, had a starting bid price of three grand!

I think my favorite pic from the auction was this one:

Clearly some ferocious animal, or perhaps someone's bratty younger sister, spent some time nibbling on the shark. Little did they know they would be costing some future collector a couple of hundred bucks (easy) in potential collectors' value.

The Mego Aquaman doll was never a big seller, and Mego kept pushing it almost up until the end of the line in 1982 because they had so many left over; I'm guessing after the Jaws movies they figured it was a good, cheap way of moving some old product by tying it in to something hot. Personally, I love that shot of Aquaman about to take on an absurdly ferocious-looking shark.

I may be sort of goofing on this eBay seller, but rest assured if I was filthy rich I would have bought it, crushed box or no.


For Further Reading: Check out the Mego Museum's Aquaman vs. The Great White Shark page!

Custom Mego AquaCave

Last week the Shrine posted pics of an awesome custom Aquaman Mego-style three-pack made by F.O.A.M. member Anthony Durso. It was, fittingly, well-received.

As if that wasn't cool enough, Anthony also made this custom AquaCave playset for Aquaman and his family to hang out in! Outrageous!

Anthony adeptly straddled the line between making the set look cool to modern eyes while not getting too far away from what an AquaCave playset made by Mego circa the mid-to-late-70s would have actually looked like. Aquaman's control panel, with shots of Black Manta, Ocean Master, and The Fisherman, is right out of the Mego Hall of Justice playset, one of my most beloved items and one of Mego's finest creations.

Beautiful work, Anthony!

Custom Aquaman Mego 3-Pack

While searching through stuff for the Aquaman Shrine Garage Sale, I dug out all my beloved Megos--I only have about half a dozen, but I love them so!

That reminded me of this pic I had in the Shrine's "To Post" folder, of a custom-made Aquaman Mego "3-Pack" representing different eras of the Sea King's history.

I don't remember who made these (if you do, leave a comment and I'll amend the post), but man are they really nice--the dolls themselves, and the packaging: all of it done to perfection.

I realize if these were really made, they wouldn't be big sellers, but I'd buy a dozen!


Update: Via the comments, Mego customizing genius (and newest F.O.A.M. member) Anthony Durso is the one who created these beauties. Thanks for chiming in Anthony, and welcome to F.O.A.M.!