Tigra’s milkshake brings all the nature boys to the yard.
Tigra is the latest purchase for the Mego collection, a very impressively detailed doll based on a very impressively sexy superlady I may have to start reading up on. Rowf.
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The Shadowmobile is the latest addition to the Mego collection, a cool convertible coupe made from a Dick Tracy getaway car.
This is easily near the top of the list of my most grueling custom projects to date. It seats two Megos: one in back, one in front. You can also hide small items in the spare tire case on the back of the coupe. All I need now is to figure out how to get the doors to stick shut when I close them, since the roof of the Dick Tracy car was largely responsible for that.
In my quest to find a good car for the Shadow, I ended up finding a way to make the only interesting Phantom adversary that wasn’t a cookie-cutter yellow peril bad guy: the Baroness, leader of the Sky Band, a group of lady pilots who are also lady pirates!
Since there isn’t much for pictures of her online, I went with her only appearance in the Defenders of the Earth cartoon. I cobbled her portrait together from three different screenshots, and also borrowed that version’s the Sky Band emblem for the decals.
The plane is a Tri-Wing Terror from the Talespin toy line, which is a dead ringer for the style Mego used for their vehicles back in the day. All it needed was open space under the dashboard so the doll’s legs could fit (i did this myself with a dremmel).
She’s an awesome and stylish addition to the collection, though I had to replace her crappy FTC jacket before it completely disintegrated completely, sacrificing the cool fuzzy collar. For a while she was sporting a sexy low-cut pulp bombshell look before I finally got a decent jacket.
Initially I didn’t care to own Mr. Mxyzptlk, but after the ordeal of trying to clean tobacco stink out of a rare Type 2 (and only partly succeeding), getting a spare head, and finally cobbling my own version together out of spare parts, he’s kind of grown on me.
My Mxyzptlk is unique: he sports the arms and legs of a Lion Rock soldier dude, making him an impish 7 inches tall. He actually better resembles the character this way when compared to the others in the line.
So despite my dislike of Superman characters, I’m actually glad I added this one to the collection.
I’ve mentioned before that the Shadow was perhaps the most impressive addition to the collection, originally made to round out a sub-category of pulp heroes to keep Conan and Tarzan company. Since then I’ve expanded the Shadow into a small line of customs all its own.
The Shadow himself is very cool, and can transform into Lamont Cranston with a quick costume change.
Margo Lane was one I had entertained off and on for some time, but once I ended up with all the parts by chance, I made it happen. She’s a lovely addition and looks great in green or red!
Finally, a toy line is only as good as its villains, and I’ve got a Shadow baddie so popular, he got an action figure in 1994 even though he wasn’t in the movie: Dr Rodil Mocquino, the Voodoo Master! I reimagined him as a larger-than-life priest of Baron Samedi, which is way more interesting than the generic robed villain he originally was.
Who knows how many more I may add when inspiration strikes…?
You know the rest.
Appropriately enough, Two-Face began as two different iterations while I struggled to find the right look for him. The final version is on the left, as the suit on the right was far too gaudy (something I repeated with Lex later). I packaged him with a Batman Forever coin as an extra fun touch.
By this point I felt the collection lacked a suitable non-Batman rogues gallery on the DC side of things. The only official DC villain that wasn’t a Batman enemy was Mxyzptlk, who’s a bit on the goofy side.
So despite my not being a Superman fan, a custom Lex Luthor was in order, made from a DC Retro Action Lex and a Green Arrow body. At first he wore the Retro Action costume, but I found it a bit too gaudy and flimsy. I switched to the Super Powers Lex costume, which already looks much better with its darker, more menacing colors and tighter fit.
I don’t know who made this amazing Metallo, but I had to have it as soon as I laid eyes on its retro sci-fi goodness. The only downside to this hobbyist’s masterpiece is the fact that the costume can’t be removed, so if he breaks, I’m outta luck.
As for Wonder Woman…well, I’ll save her nemesis for another post. In the meantime, I can finally have those Legion of Doom secret santa meetings!
My quest to create a Punisher lineup for Mego has nearly reached its conclusion! I’ve ended up with six dolls — three good guys and three bad guys — plus two vehicles. Punisher, Micro, and the Battle Van were covered in previous articles. Here’s the rest of the lineup!
Lynn Michaels, aka Lady Punisher! A lovely cop turned vigilante with an unhealthy infatuation with the Punisher, Lynn looks great no matter what she wears or how I pose her. She has a sick black leather jacket (the brown FTC one was disintegrating before my eyes–typical) and a police revolver holstered on her hips. She looks best on the Punisher Cycle, so I’ve pretty much given it to her. Lyn Stahl of Metalhead Minis provided the black lipstick.
Jigsaw! Known as Billy “The Beaut” Russo before Punisher threw him face-first through a window and ruined his pretty mug, Jigsaw’s had it in for Punisher ever since The Amazing Spider-Man #162. I had to revise his shirt color from red to yellow, but otherwise he’s a great likeness. Thanks again, Metalhead Minis!
Saracen! A badass arab mercenary and terrorist who keeps crossing paths with Punisher, first as an ally, then as one of his most hated enemies. O. T. Puente provided the sick-ass suit that’s identical to his costume in the comics.
Sijo! While not as well-known as the other villains in the lineup, Sijo has the distinction of being responsible for the death of Micro’s son in Punisher #9. A behemoth from Japan who loves causing pain, he was a worthy adversary even though he only lasted two issues.
Rosalie Carbone! The mob princess with a grudge was a tough one to pull off. Finding the right outfit for her was enough of a chore — the real doozie was that nose ring. The end result is rather chic and looks like the sort of girl you wouldn’t take home to mother.
Cane! AKA Lorne Quickfall, one of seven contract killers hired by Rosalie to kill the Punisher. Cane was my favorite, and was the most fun to make into an action figure due to his gimmick of using weapons disguised as walking sticks. The cane sword was the toughest accessory I’ve ever had to produce, but it was worth it.
This is something of a work in progress, but it’s presentable enough to share here: my custom Mego Battle Van!
Made from an LJN SWAT van and some Coleco Rambo parts, it doesn’t resemble the Battle Van as much as I would like — I would need a nice A-Team van with articulated doors for that — but it still looks pretty great.
I had the choice between this van and the Mobile Bat Lab, but went with the SWAT van because it had a more realistic and military look to it. The Punisher would never drive a 60s flower power mobile.
It also comes with my custom doll of Micro, Punisher’s partner-in-crimefighting! He and the van come tricked out with all sorts of accessories: a roof-mounted minigun turret, a tripod missile launcher which can also be mounted to the roof, a VHF radio set with handpiece, a laptop with removable disks, and whatever other toys I can cram into the back.
Frank also had a slick hog to ride for doing drive-by drug deal raids or reluctantly teaming up with Ghost Rider.
I’ve been adding a lot of villains to my Mego collection lately, namely due to the lack thereof in the official lineup for whatever reason. My second custom Mego project is no exception: the Red Skull, archenemy of Captain America!
I started with this handsome resin head I found on ebay. Not sure if the seller acquired it or made it himself, but it’s a swell rendition of the old school Red Skull from the comics, which is what I was aiming for. I was worried his neck plug wouldn’t fit in the hole even with the hot water treatment, but turns out soaking a Mego bod in boiling water for a full minute gives it a very workable consistency, and he popped right in!
With the head attached, I knew he’d need gloved hands that could hold weapons, so I got him a nice pair of Chips arms perfectly suited to the task. Even without his hosen, Herr Schmidt is already looking pretty badass.
His accessories all came from Dr. Mego, with the exception of his nazi armband. I had to print that myself, after several failed experiments in design and size which almost resulted in an awkward conversation with the family about the presence of nazi symbology cluttering the office.
Another awesome box by Dengar, and he’s ready to join the collection! As you can see by the box art, he’s a dead ringer for classic Red Skull! All he needs is his face painted, which I may have to attempt myself, against my better judgement. I’ll post the results here when that happens.
I recently added a classy cravat to make him look more sophisticated. His neck seemed too bare, but with the old green suit, it just didn’t look right. So I pilfered a couple Action Jackson army suits and swapped the pockets, then finally had the head painted by Lynn Stahl of Metalhead Minis.
The end result is perfection! Red Skull has finally joined the ranks of my impressive Mego collection.
Two new acquisitions have brought a lot more green to the collection. I never drew any attention to ol’ Oliver Queen when he came in the mailbox, mainly because it took awhile for his repro box to catch up with him.
Green Arrow is known for being the best head sculpt in the World’s Greatest Super Heroes line, and one of the best designed dolls overall. It’s hard to disagree with that stately beard and ‘stache, although it’s hard to fit him in the box with his hat on unless I turn his head sideways. The box itself is strikingly minimalist in colorscheme, almost entirely green inside and out, with only some yellow lettering for contrast.
On the Marvel end of the spectrum is this awesome custom Mego of Scorpion, who brings the Spider-Man villain count to three (four if you count Punisher, technically). His suit is hand-made, and the resin head modeled from a bald Conan and painted exquisitely. My only complaint is the “base” of his tail, which makes fitting him in his box a tight squeeze.
The box is awesome to behold, too, another ace creation by Dengar on ebay, continuing the green-and-purple theme of the Spider-Man rogues gallery. He rounds out the group nicely in or out of his packaging.
So a few weeks ago I bought an amazing lot of Megos and did maintenance on them all to spruce up my collection. Fifteen dolls, each with a reproduction box.
Or so I thought. Turns out Aquaman included his original box!
Th Aquaman himself was a disaster, so I used him as fodder and bought a Type 1 Aquaman on Etsy, which I then had to renovate and turn into a Type 2. Apart from his missing belt emblem, he’s complete and in pretty fair condition. Aquaman by himself is fairly bland, in my opinion, but when he’s included with his box, he provides a unique and eye-pleasing combination of colors, and his logo has a lot of dynamism.
The box itself is what has me stoked: it’s old cardboard, it shows signs of wear, the linework on the art and lettering is crisp (unlike pretty much all repro boxes), and it has initials scribbled on the lid in ball point pen. I can’t imagine Mego collectors doing such a thing to their repro boxes, but I CAN see a kid doing it in the 70s when marking his territory for his siblings. So this turned out to be another diamond in the rough, and something I’ve been wanting to check off my Mego bucket list for some time: an original Aquaman in the original box.
After several revisions, I finally completed my custom Mego Punisher doll, and have thus added Frank Castle to my massive Mego trove.
I first ordered most of the parts from FTC, only to discover the body and head were atrociously bad, so I scrapped them in favor of a type 2 Joker body and what was originally a Scottie head – Star Trek’s Scottie head sculp has a nice resemblance to a generic “men’s adventure fiction” protagonist complete with no-nonsense scowl. Ultimately it just didn’t look right, though, and after a few more head swaps, I finally got a good custom head from Dr. Mego, painted beautifully by Lyn Stahl of Metalhead Minis!
I also replaced the Mego arms with LJN SWAT arms: they’re bulkier and articulated at the biceps, so Frank can actually hold his weapons properly! I’ve since done the same for all my Punisher customs.
The rifle, belt, boots, and bodysuit are also FTC, and look nice enough when fully assembled into the Punisher’s likeness, though again FTC lets me down: the suit has a hole in the backside, and the original belt split after only a little pressure. I ditched the belt in exchange for a Signature Series Punisher belt which had to be trimmed with my scalpel.
The chest decal is especially nice and comes courtesy of nemo1635 on ebay, though it is slightly larger than expected and doesn’t fully cling to the chest as a result. But it also stays on really well (so far) and looks great on display.
The box was made by Greg Jensen, and looks and feels just like the sort of box Mego would have produced had they made another wave of Marvel characters. I imagine his reproductions are just as impressive.
I’ve never read Ghost World, and I don’t think it’s the sorta indie comic that floats my boat. But I love this big vinyl doll of the protagonist Enid Coleslaw.
The box itself is pretty amazing and self-aware. I love the caveman cartoon strip on the left side, and her advertisement as a Hi-Fashion Glamour Doll.
The doll itself is like an edgier Velma from Scooby-Doo. Her accessories have never been opened (except for the amazing Batman bondage mask), so I left them alone. I’ll have to figure out a way to loosen her shoulder joints, which have frozen likely from the Arizona heat. She’s adorable overall, and looks great on my shelf (she’s huge, too, standing at about a foot and a half tall).
Come see me at Drawn 2 Comics in Glendale, Arizona!
Wednesday, June 27, 5-7pm
Saturday, June 30, 2-8pm
GET DIRECTIONS
Come ask for writing tips, discuss favorite movies, nerd out, buy stuff, take free candy & comics, or just say hello!
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Bring cash for $5 autographed copies of:
KINGDOM OF FAMINE, the 5-Star dystopian thriller.
DADDY’S GIRL, the martial arts graphic webnovel.
SHADOW OF THE FOX, the ninja spy thriller.
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Free Stuff!
THE GAULHEIM HIT, a sample of the Kingdom of Famine sequel.
THE HERMIT OF ILSWHER, a fantasy comic found only at my events.
Cool Bookmarks designed by me.
Mike's Toybox 