1970s | Vintage Action Figures

It’s Alive! The Monster Frankenstein from Mego’s Mad Monster Series

With Halloween nearly upon us this seems like an excellent time to take a look at a recent vintage find that combines of two of my favourite action figure collecting passions – Universal Monsters and Mego. This wonderful Frankenstein Monster was released in 1974 as part of the Mad Monsters series, an offshoot of the hugely popular World’s Greatest Super-Heroes 8-inch figure line. The set also included the Dreadful Dracula, the Horrible Mummy, and the Human Wolfman, and while they may have been unlicensed figures, Mego did a fine job in creating figures as reminiscent as possible of the classic movie monsters.

Ming the Merciless – The evil emperor of Mongo by Mego

Every super-hero needs an arch-nemesis, and every toy manufacture knows that too! Action figure giant Mego, the company behind some of the most collectible action figures made during the 1970s, even released an 8-inch “Super Foes” line in 1974 to mirror its Super-Heroes line. And when Mego launched a new 10-inch figure design in 1976 with a stunning Flash Gordon playset, one of the finest characters in the series, aside from Flash himself of course, was the big baddie in all three of the 1930s Flash Gordon sci-fi film serials – Ming the Merciless.

Flash Gordon – A Mego Masterpiece!

For kids growing up in the UK during the 1970s Saturday morning picture shows at the local cinema were a highlight of the week! This was a long time ago, of course, and it certainly feels like we were living in a galaxy far, far away…Indeed, in those distant, pre-Star Wars days a staple of kids programming was the 1936 sci-fi film serial Flash Gordon, starring Olympic swimming star Buster Crabbe in the title role, and Charles B. Middleton as his arch-enemy Ming the Merciless. A forerunner of today’s television serialised shows, it was filmed for the big screen in 13 instalments and was based on the then brand new King Features comic strip character that had been created by Alex Raymond only two years earlier in 1934.

Ernest Borgnine as Harry Booth – The Black Hole by Mego

One of the most unlikely – but nonetheless wonderful – additions to my vintage action figure collection over the last couple of months must surely be this beautifully detailed 12 inch Mego figure of legendary Hollywood and television character actor Ernest Borgnine. Borgnine died at the grand old age of 95 in 2012 after a glittering career, which saw him win an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1955 for Marty, and star in classics such as The Wild Bunch, The Dirty Dozen, and my personal childhood cult favourite The Poseidon Adventure. This action figure, however, commemorates a real turkey in his resume – The Black Hole – Walt Disney’s 1979 sci-fi blockbuster.

Sam Cobra – The Renegade Bad Man by Marx!

When toy maker Louis Marx & Co. launched its response to industry rival Hasbro’s G. I. Joe (or Action Man, as he was known in the UK ) it was in the form of a 12 inch articulated cowboy “doll for boys” called Johnny West. First appearing in 1965, Johnny West marked the first character in the hugely collectible Best of the West action figure line, with clan leader Johnny quickly joined by other West family members over the years that followed – Jane, Jay, Josie, Jamie, Janice, Jimmie, and Johnty. Marx did eventually branch away from characters beginning with the letter J, and even decided to add some villains to the mix! Cue our devilishly handsome man in black here, the con-man, gambler, and gun-fighting renegade Sam Cobra.

Maximilian Schell is Dr. Hans Reinhardt – The Black Hole by Mego

The Black Hole, Walt Disney’s 1979 sci-fi blockbuster, with its multimillion dollar state-of-art special effects and a star-studded cast featuring such notables as Ernest Borgnine, Anthony Perkins and Maximilian Schell, was clearly intended to be the studio’s answer to Star Wars. That was the plan, anyway. Instead the film has become one of those forgotten movies to which the epithet “cult” is often applied. My own memories of the movie were very dim, so I watched it again on DVD recently, happily prepared to embrace it as a lost gem.

Spider-Man: Mego Pocket Super Heroes

Kenner rightly deserves its place in toy making history for popularising the 3 ¾ inch figure through its vintage Star Wars line of the 1970s and 80s, with the huge success of the movie franchise proving to be a massive marketing lucky break for the company. The Mego Corporation definitely deserves a nod as the very first pioneer of the 3 ¾ inch scale, however, with their Comic Action Heroes line launched way back in 1976, and its revamped series three years later known as the Pocket Super Heroes. Featuring the already licensed comic book characters from its own classic 8 inch World’s Greatest Super Heroes line, these pint-sized action figures were only produced until 1982.

Friar Tuck: Robin Hood and his Merry Men by Mego

The legendary Medieval outlaw Robin Hood has been a hugely popular figure in English folklore for centuries. Armed with bow and arrow and sword, he would steal from the rich to give to the poor, and then head back to his hideout in Sherwood Forest with his band of fellow “Merry Men”. With love interest in the shape of Maid Marian, and the Sheriff of Nottingham as his arch enemy, the story of Robin Hood has been a perennial favourite with Hollywood filmmakers since the early days of silent movies, right through to Russell Crowe’s recent Robin in Ridley Scott’s 2010 Robin Hood. Curiously, it was another Australian-born actor, Errol Flynn,