In 1980, Moog Music was seeking to contract manufacture a mass-marketable synthesizer which could be sold via a large retailer.

[2][3] The MG-1 includes: The MG-1 was produced without some standard Moog features, such as pitch and modulation wheels, as a cost-cutting measure aimed at achieving a lower price for the consumer market.

Since the polyphony section is independently tunable, it can function as a rudimentary third oscillator, allowing the user to create more complex tones than on similar two-oscillator synths.

When the contour (envelope) is triggered by the LFO, it allows for periodic LFO-type waves to be applied to the VCF or VCA, depending on the rise and fall settings.

[5] Although this synthesizer is often erroneously described as having fewer features than its Moog siblings the Liberation and the Rogue, there is a patch which only the MG-1 can do: The LFO can have independent amounts sent to the VCOs and the VCF on the MG-1.

Colorful red, blue, and tan graphics outline different control panel sections to make it more easily understood by the general public not familiar with analog synthesizers.

The synthesizer has a large white REALISTIC logo on the back panel, with smaller print that states: "Custom manufactured by Moog Music in U.S.A. for Radio Shack, a division of Tandy Corporation".

Although a picture of Elton John holding the MG-1 on his arm appears alongside the description of this synthesizer in Radio Shack's 1982 and 1983 catalogs, it isn't credited on any of his recordings or performances.