My Mego collection has become remarkably “fast food logo” in its dominant colorscheme. A couple recent purchases allowed me to basically bag all the red heroes from the toy line.
Team Red consists of Spider-Man, my very first Mego purchased from a fellow collector when I was a teen; the newly restored Human Torch; a near-mint Shazam; and a used but nonetheless spiffy Iron Man. Now I need to start grabbing characters with starkly different palettes to balance the collection out.
I got two Human Torches and started a Frankenstein-esque project to take all their best parts and assemble them into a near-mint Torch.
Torch #1 had never been removed from his beat-up, price tag covered card. I cut a hole in the top like with my Spider-Man so I could remove him whenever I want. Oddly enough, my second carded Mego doll is ALSO French, just like my Spidery-Mon. Torch #2 was purchased loose from a Facebook group.
Here’s the situation I was faced with:
Left (originally on card, since removed):
-faded, sticky head
-cracked left hand
-busted left leg pin
-rest of body is pristine
-suit is in excellent condition
-cracked feet
-good, tight joints
Right:
-missing left hand (replaced by Guy Luke – thanks man!)
-teeth marks in arms, left leg, and torso
-head is cherry red with no gray
-suit frayed, crotchless, and missing button
-feet also cracked
-good, tight joints
The job ended up being a bit easier than expected: the carded body was pristine apart from the busted knee pin (which I super glued back together) and the gray, sticky head. So I ended up just doing a head-swap after repairing the leg.
I hadn’t done a head-swap with a Mego before though, and I didn’t want to screw it up. Spider-Man’s arm barely survived leg replacement surgery and I didn’t want a repeat. Luckily I still had TestBat, pictured below on the left. On the right is TestBat taking one for the team as I prepare to boil his head and shoulders in order to twist off his head. (I mentioned this out of context to a friend and confused the shit out of her. The pictures didn’t help.)
The end result: two bad condition Human Torches became one near-mint Human Torch (pictured left with Thing), and one raggedy hobo Human Torch (right, with TestBat). Success!
He looks great, especially on the card. I cleaned the sticky residue from the inside of the bubble with a ruler wrapped in a soft, windex-sprayed cloth.
Mike's Toybox 