Mego catalogue 1976 US. World’s Greatest Super-Heroes. Super Heroes Assortment N°1.
The Mego Corporation, sometimes known as Mego Corp or just Mego, was founded in 1954 by D. David Abrams and Madeline Abrams. The company successfully imported dime store toys up to the early 1970s when the Abrams’ son, Martin Abrams, took over as company president and moved production into a line of 8 inch clothed dolls.
By 1972 Mego had gained the licenses to create 8 inch clothed dolls for DC and Marvel comics characters, under the name of “World’s Greatest Super-Heroes”.
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Super Heroes Assortment N°2.
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Super Heroes Assortment N°3.
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Super Heroes Assortment N°4.
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Super Gals Assortment (1972).
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Super Foes assortment.
Sock it to ’em!
The super hero line was a great success, and Mego found itself producing an entire range of comic book dolls, including ‘Super Foes’, ‘Super Gals’, the 1974 ‘Fist-Fighting Super-Heroes’, and 1976’s ‘Comic Action Heroes’.
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Comic Action Assortments.
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Fist Fighting Super Heroes.
TV and film
In addition, Mego acquired licenses for famous film and televison productions. Dolls appeared for Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, Wizard of Oz, Starsky and Hutch, and the license from Edgar Rice Burroughs for his creation Tarzan.
Other dolls included The Waltons, The Flintstones, Happy Days, and a series of 12 and a half inch celebrity dolls featuring stars such as Muhammad Ali, Sonny and Cher, Diana Ross, and Kiss. The Cher doll and her fashion wardrobe (designed by the famous Bob Mackie) was such a hit it was named number-1 best-selling doll of 1976!
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Sonny and Cher from the 12.5 inch Celebrity Dolls line.
Some you win, some you refuse…
1976 proved to be an interesting year, as Mego made a deal with Japanese toy company Takara to sell Takara’s popular Microman action figures line in the US, under the new name of Micronauts.
At the same time, Mego famously rejected the offer to produce toys for an upcoming swashbuckling sci-fi movie that would later prove to be a global sensation – that film was Star Wars… and it would be the Kenner toy company which would go on to successfully produce Star Wars action figures and play sets, as well as a line of 12 inch clothed dolls!
Doll World. Aug 1984. Contains a feature on the large size action figure doll range from Kenner.
The rise and fall of Mego, and the rise again…
In the early 1980s Mego suffered heavy trade losses, and in 1982 filed for bankruptcy. By 1983 the company went under, and that seemed to signal the end of Mego’s story… until 2009 that is… when Martin Abrams successfully purchased the trademark rights to the Mego brand. Fast forward a decade to 2018, July, and a resurgent Mego Corporation under the guidance of another Abrams family member – Marty Abrams – announced the production of a limited run of its classic clothed dolls in their traditional 8 inch scale.
Jump to today, and you only have to look at just a handful of the new figures available to see that Mego is well and truly back in town!
New Mego figures. Images from megofigures.com
Office cats and editors
Unfortunately I never had any Mego dolls as a child, but I distinctly remember a friend having all of the Planet of the Apes figures, which I absolutely adored and was allowed to play with. For now, I get to relive what could have been through the scans of my 1976 Mego catalogue, and a handful of print adverts I’ve picked up along the way. Or maybe Wooof will treat me to one or two of the new Mego figures for my upcoming birthday?
Enjoy the rest of the scans!
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Cover.
Star Trek
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Star Trek Assortments.
Wizard of Oz
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Wizard of Oz Assortments.
Muhammad Ali
Mego catalogue 1976 US. Muhammad Ali.
1,000,000 B.C., The Waltons, Our Gang, Knights, Robin Hood, Starsky and Hutch
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- Mego 1, 000, 000 B.C.
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- Mego The Waltons.
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- Mego Our Gang.
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- Mego Knights.
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- Mego Robin Hood.
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- Mego Starsky and Hutch.
Mego Print advertising
Mego Super-Heroes and Super-Hero Carry Case. 1977. US.
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- Mego Wonder Woman and Hall of Justice. 1977. US.
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- Mego Mobile Madness. 1977. US.
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- Mego Super Hero dolls. 1976. US.
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- Mego Comic Action Scenes. 1977. US.
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- Mego Elastic Hulk and Elastic Spider-Man. 1979. US.
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- Mego figures and vehicles. 1977. US.
Thanks for getting Mega Mego with us 🙂
Information sources: Wikipedia, Megomuseum.com and Megofigures.com
The Vintage Toy Advertiser 
My brother had some of these. I remember when he decided to put Batman’s costume on Mr Spock! Hilarious.
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Ha that’s pretty funny. The Vulcan Crusader, or Spockman 🙂
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Great post with loads of great toys… though I have to admit that I’d never heard of Mego! Just think of how different things would have been for them if they had made a different decision re: the Star Wars toys. Fascinating.
Anyhoo, although I know nothing about them, I’m pleased that they’ve resurfaced.
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Cheers J. Yes, I too wonder how things would have been different had Mego agreed to take on Star Wars. Hard to imagine anyone else other than Kenner now.
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Great stuff. RE-posted on twitter @trefology
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Thank you kindly, tref 🙂
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Wow, I never heard of these dolls! Quite an interesting article, here. Thank you! 😀 x
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Thanks Resa. I knew of them as Mego are famous for snagging the DC and Marvel licenses very early on to sell the toys. Alas, I never had any. Was brilliant getting hold of this little catalogue though 🙂
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Wonderful!
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What wonderful Mego toys adverts. I had several of the superhero figures, loved them so much. Great fun and lots of happy memories brought back by this post. Awesome to see the Wonder Woman and Batman players here with the exploding tower and bridge. Remember lved playing with those! 🙂
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Thanks Paul. Mego did so well picking up those comic book licenses so early, and looks like they had a ball making not just the figures but the play sets and vehicles too!
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Great read! I remember seeing the re-issued variants of Mego DC characters at my local comic-shop a year or so ago, they do look a lot better nowadays, the old ones always looked like their ill fitting costumes were hand me downs! The newer ones I would be more interested in picking up aside from the fact that Barbie make some absolutely wonderful DC dolls now that look utterly amazing ( I picked up the Barbie Antiope and Hippolyta recently and they’re rather stunning!) 🙂
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Thanks my friend. I had a look at the Barbie Wonder Woman line of dolls… oh yes, I want one! You’re right they look stunning!
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WoW! I had never heard of Mego Corp or any of their ranges, but man they had some awesome figures/dolls. And the details are so good you easily tell who each figure is meant to be. That “Cowardly Lion” figure from the new launch figures….mindblown! Thanks for sharing this collection.
p.s. the two figures on the Doll’s World magazine are Boba Fett on the left and IG-88, two bounty hunters that appeared in The Empire Strikes Back.
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They were action figure pioneers in the way they secured the DC/Marvel licenses to bring these comic figures to the world back then. A much loved company!
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