Mego Corporation
[6] In July 2018, the newly-reformed Mego Corporation announced they would be producing a limited run of their classic style clothed dolls in their traditional 1/9 scale, as well as some 1/5 figures sold exclusively through Target.
The company thrived in the 1950s and early 1960s as an importer of dime store toys until the rising cost of newspaper advertising forced Mego to change its business model.
Mego began to purchase the license rights of motion pictures, television programs, and comic books, eventually producing doll lines for Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, and the Wizard of Oz.
[7] During this period, Mego was known for the lavish parties the company threw at the annual New York American International Toy Fair.
[12] In 1976, Martin Abrams hashed out a deal with the Japanese toy manufacturer Takara to bring their popular lucite 3" fully articulated Microman figures to the United States under the name "Micronauts."
This decision seemed of little consequence to Mego at first, because the Micronauts figures initially sold well, earning the company more than $30 million at their peak.
[14][15] Following Star Wars' huge cultural impact, and Kenner's great success with its action figure line, Mego negotiated licenses for the manufacturing rights to a host of science fiction motion pictures and television shows, including Moonraker, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Black Hole, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
[12] Other problems included a rat infestation in Mego's warehouse and a lawsuit from Kenner over illegal appropriation of trade secrets related to the manufacture of their stretch figures.
Starting in 2019, Mego has continued to work with Target and other major retailers like Wal-Mart to bring the classic Star Trek, monsters, celebrities, and superheroes back to store shelves and on-line.
The 1970s toyline included Broadway Joe in New York Jets football uniform, plus additional fashions sold separately.
One of Mego's first toys under Martin Adams was an original character, Action Jackson, meant to compete with Hasbro's popular G.I.
Heavily promoted on television commercials and in newspaper advertisements, the Action Jackson line included dolls, vehicles, and playsets.
[22] (For the South African market, a local radio play hero, Jet Jungle, was included in the series.)
Next, Mego created "Dinah-Mite," a poseable eight-inch (203 mm) scale Barbie-like doll with a boyfriend named Don.
The popularity of the 1974 releases of the Planet of the Apes and Star Trek: The Original Series lines led Mego to produce a variety of licensed figures based on films and TV shows, including The Flintstones, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Our Gang, Starsky & Hutch, The Waltons, and Wizard of Oz.
In the early 1980s Mego produced dolls and vehicles for the popular TV shows CHiPs, Dallas, Dukes of Hazzard, and The Greatest American Hero.
that had the costumes molded onto the figure (and later adopted by Star Wars and Super Powers lines), thus eliminating the extra cost of creating the suits.
[25][26] Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith, Diana Ross,[8] Suzanne Somers, Captain and Tennille, and Kiss celebrity dolls followed in 1977 and 1978.
In 1978, Martin Abrams purchased inventor Michael J. Freeman's toy robot, the 2-XL,[27] which was introduced to the public and became a success.
[31] The 2-XL was part of Mego's electronic games line, which included the handheld devices Mini-Vid and Fabulous Fred.
[32] Mego acquired the moulds of World War II soldiers, vehicles and landscape terrain from Louis Marx and Company, reissuing their Battleground (1980) and Navarone (1981) playsets.
[38] ToyFare staff posed and took photos depicting the dolls in bizarre situations, with added dialogue balloons.
Mego dolls as well as similarly styled figures are used in sexually perverted adult oriented situations in the Cartoon Network/Adult Swim program Robot Chicken.
