The PopCulteer
June 15, 2012

MEGOMANIA

Last week your PopCulteer headed North to Wheeling for the annual MEGO Meet, a convention of devotees of MEGO action figures from the 1970s, and their modern-day counterparts. The poster for this year’s show (seen right) was a tribute to Neal Adams’ classic cover for the “Superman vs. Muhammad Ali” comic book. The folks at The MEGO Museum know how to put on a great toy show.

The Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum played host to this gathering of dealers, customizers and folks peddling new MEGO-style figures. As always, it was a blast.

As always, MEGO Meet was a blast! The odd thing was, I spent most of my money on GI Joe Adventure Team and Captain Action stuff, but the show was mostly MEGO, and rather than blather, I will now kick into photo-essay mode. Enjoy!

Prepare for action figure Nirvana...

Doc Mego, giving a seminar. Doc builds most of the figures used in Adult Swim's "Robot Chicken."

Doc Mego's audience

Some of Doc Mego's spare parts

Brilliant custom work by Random Axe

More by Random Axe

I think this was part of Trappy's assortment of vintage and custom stuff

More of Trappy's table, complete with the MEGO Obama

MEGO also brought Micronauts to America, as seen at this dealer table

Some of the custom entries for the auction

More customs

Another custom, a 12" Aquaman

Brick Mantooth, THE 1970s Macho Man

More customs, including Drew Brees. Thankfully, nobody made a Tebow

This table full of vintage figures is worth more than your house

Cast-Away Toys Gray Phantom on a cool stone throne

These are the four MEGO-style Venture Brothers figures I need for my collection

The first "Toy Lust" shout is to Nick Curnutte, It's Reissues of MEGO-style 8" KISS figures that dominated a case of cool stuff that wasn't for sale, dammit

More not-for-sale stuff. Luckily, I gots most of these

The second "Toy Lust" shout out is to Mark Wolfe. Look, it's Khan!

Mark's "Toy Lust" shout-out continues with a case full of Star Trek figures

Still more Star Trek

There was a lot of Star Trek at the show

A "Toy Lust" shout out to Mandy Petry, but sadly I didn't get any good shots of the Modern Dr. Who items

Had I brought twice as much money, I would've brought home the Evel Knievel and Major Matt Mason MEGO-style customs

...and a "Toy Lust" shout out to Ryan Hardiman, who might have wanted the Dr. Hyde figure that's right there between the two figures I wish I would have picked up

"Toy Lust" alert to Roadblock. It's Animal Man, and not the "New 52" reboot, either

This dealer had lots of non-MEGO stuff, most of which I wanted

Yes, it's custom figures of Count Chocula, Frankenberry and Boo-Berry. If these are successful, we may see Fruit Brute and Yummy Mummy next year

Yet another dealer with tons of cool stuff

Okay, I admit it. That GI Joe Mobile Support Vehicle came home with me

I managed to resist this case of reasonably-priced Adventure Team and Captain Action figures

Johnny West made a cameo a week before the Marx Toy Collectors show at Kruger Street

More really cool customs, including an Inspector Clouseau figure that tempted Melanie

Toy-Man Collectibles, from Wisconsin, from whom I scored a Black Talking Adventure Team Commander, and a Captain Action parachute. His eBay ID is Toyman_Chris and he has a ton of primo Evel Knievel stuff

More of Toyman's stuff

Lee Harrah, showing off his custom Conan, with rooted hair.

A close-up of Conan. I'll have to get a better photo for a later PopCulteer

Giant Man holding MEGO Jesus and Spock was one of my favorite things to see at the show

Let's take a moment to revisit Brick Mantooth. Seriously he is the "Dos Equis Man" of imaginary 1970s action figures.

Back at the custom auction, it's Brick Mantooth's super-sexy van

Yet another dealer loaded with tons of cool, rare toys

Another "Toy Lust" shout-out to Mark Wolfe. Star Trek AND Planet of the Apes at this dealer

GAH! There's too much cool stuff everywhere. My Blood-toy level is spiking

This would earn a "Toy Lust" shout-out to Lee Harrah, but since he was first in line to buy one, that lust is sated

This year’s convention exclusive limited-run figure was an 8-inch MEGO Style figure of Pulsar. Pulsar was one of the cooler, weirder action figures of the 1970s.

Here’s the description from Wikipedia, “Pulsar was a 14″ action figure looked like a handsome middle aged man with short white hair. However once you opened his sweat suit top it revealed that his entire torso was clear plastic which allowed viewing of his internal organs. There was a button on his back that when depressed would make his lungs and heart pump and force simulated blood through some simulated arteries and veins in the body cavity. In addition to having visible innards, Pulsar’s head could flip open and a holographic mission disk (a small lenticular plastic disk) could be placed inside. ”

For this year’s MEGO Meet, the organizers cooked up an 8-inche version of Pulsar, and he sold briskly at $90 a pop.  Major kudos to the fine folks at The MEGO Museum for organizing such a fun gathering, and coming up with such a cool featured figure.

If you see things in this photo essay that ignite your toy lust, visit the MEGO Museum and join the forums, and you’ll probably be able to track down any dealer and customizer shown here.

One of the other cool items seen at MEGO Meet was a series of US Prezidents, depicted as Universal Monsters. You could choose from "Barracula," "Zom-Bush" and 'Monster From The Watergate Lagoon," among others. Clinton as the Wolfman had sold out

One dealer had tons of odd Batman ephemera, much of it Spanish-language

He even had the ultra-rare "Batman As A Naked Chick" action figure, though it's worth more still in the package

I was so blinded by the Batman stuff that I didn't see the Major Matt Mason Space Bubble until I was writing this caption. Crap! How did I miss that?

Got Head?

Toy Lust alert for my kid sister, Diana. "Oh Mighty Isis"

 

With this, we bid farewell to Kruger Street Toy And Train Museum, but only for a week. Next week we will bring you two photo essays. One of the museum's permanent displays, and one devoted to the just-closed Hello Kitty exhibit.