The Mego toy company dominated licensed
toys throughout the 1970s, but went bankrupt by 1982. How? Because
they passed up a little license known as Star Wars, that's how.
What was one very unique aspect of the Mego super
heroes line was that both Marvel and DC characters shared the
same line! I doubt you'll ever see that happening again.
This is the figure that probably launched a thousand
Iron Man fans. Available for many years, Mego did a fair job of
reproducing his most popular costume, nose and all. There has
been a fair amount of speculation over the years over whether
or not the head was originally intended for a Dr. Doom figure,
as posited by Mego expert John Bonavita.
Here is a nice explanation of why that probable wasn't so by Mike
Clune (taken from Usenet): "[John] has always contended that Iron
Man's head-sculpt was originally intended to be Dr. Doom, but
that Doom was scrapped as being too costly to produce. His "proof"
of this is only that the Iron Man sculpt has a nose, which ignores
three salient points: 1. Iron Man's helmet actually HAD a nose
in the comics at the time his figure was released. 2. Iron Man
was released in the wave *before* the Fantastic Four. Why would
Mego have planned to make the FF's arch-enemy before the FF itself?
3. The Iron Man sculpt just plain doesn't look like Doom at all,
in my book. Again, take nothing away from John B. - he knows more
about Mego than most of us... ever will."
For more
MEGO history and fun, check out the Mego Museum!
