• Home
  • TV & Movies
    • Star Wars
    • Battlestar Galactica (1978)
    • Indiana Jones
    • Star Trek
    • Planet of the Apes
    • The Real Ghostbusters
    • The Six Million Dollar Man
    • Universal Monsters
    • Doctor Who
  • Comic Book Heroes
    • Kenner Super Powers
    • Mattel Secret Wars
    • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    • The Uncanny X-Men
    • Spider-Man
    • Batman
    • Superman
    • The Incredible Hulk
  • Mego
  • MOTU
  • G.I. Joe
  • Transformers
  • Wrestling

Vintage Action Figures

Reviews of collectible action figures inspired by comic books, TV shows and movies from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Ivanhoe: The World’s Greatest Super Knights by Mego

November 5, 2012 1 Comment

Ivanhoe by Mego

Whilst legendary toy makers Mego are probably most famous for their 1970s 8-inch line of comic book characters the World’s Greatest Super Heroes, some of their most highly collectible figures today are a very different range of swashbuckling literary and historic heroes – The World’s Greatest Super Knights!

Ivanhoe here, was released alongside the Black Knight, King Arthur, and his knights Sir Galahad and Sir Launcelot, in what was a spectacularly detailed series of beautifully made action figures.

Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe looking a lot like Robert Taylor

What impresses most about all the figures in this series is the sheer attention to detail. Using characters which were in the public domain clearly freed Mego from the expense of licensing fees and allowed them to spend more on the figures themselves. The facial sculpt bears a remarkable likeness to the late actor Robert Taylor who had played the title role in Ivanhoe,  Richard Thorpe’s 1952 movie based on the Walter Scott historical novel, whilst his costume would be seen as a deluxe edition even by today’s standards, with its full chain mail effect bodysuit, plate armour, boots, helmet and accessories.

Robert Taylor in The Knights of the Round Table

Robert Taylor in ‘Knights of the Round Table’

The costume, in fact, is clearly based on another Richard Thorpe movie Knights of the Round Table, which also starred Robert Taylor, this time playing the part of the equally chivalrous Sir Lancelot. My Ivanhoe is missing his red lance, and the red feather plume from the top of his helmet, but he still has his red shield with the yellow lion insignia – all faithfully reproduced from his Lancelot movie costume. The Mego design team clearly thought the Ivanhoe costume a little too staid!

Standing the usual 8 inches in height and built with a typical Type 2 Mego body with plastic joints and 14 points of articulation at the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles, this figure’s joints are still nice and stiff and he stands easily unaided. Apart from some missing accessories, such as the spaulders for his shoulders, the figure itself is in excellent and clean condition.

1974 MEGO

© 1974 MEGO

The plastic breast plate is glued tight – there’s no way of removing it or checking the back of the figure for copyright information, but this figure carries the Mego name on the back of his neck, just visible above the armour. The knights figures first hit toy shelves between 1975-1976, but his head is actually date-stamped a year earlier © 1974. Being a European loose action figure find it’s likely that the original boxed version of the figure was distributed by Baravelli in Italy.

A fabulous vintage Mego action figure and superb display piece!

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Mego Tagged With: Mego, The World's Greatest Super Knights

Comments

  1. John Ott says

    November 9, 2012 at 8:30 pm

    looks like wonderfully crafted piece. Looks better as a figure then it does in the movie.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Action figure search

Recent Posts

  • Remembering Princess Leia Organa
  • Indiana Jones, the daring archaeologist and world adventurer of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark!
  • Stunning C-3PO sixth scale figure by Sideshow Collectibles
  • It’s Alive! The Monster Frankenstein from Mego’s Mad Monster Series
  • Wonder Woman the Amazing Amazon – Kenner Super Powers
  • Grrr…it’s Grizzlor! The Hairy Henchman of the Evil Horde
  • Ming the Merciless – The evil emperor of Mongo by Mego
  • Flash Gordon – A Mego Masterpiece!
  • Green-haired General Madine variant figure
  • Send in the Space Marines! Lt. Ripley from Aliens by Kenner

Archives

Copyright © 2009-2021 · VintageActionFigures.net · All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster and opinions expressed are those of the Poster and do not necessarily represent the views of VintageActionFigures.net · Please read our Privacy Policy, GDPR Compliance Statement, Affiliate Disclosure and Cookies Policy - We know...Zzzz!!