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!
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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
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A "Toy Lust" shout out to Mandy Petry, but sadly I didn't get any good shots of the Modern Dr. Who items
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Had I brought twice as much money, I would've brought home the Evel Knievel and Major Matt Mason MEGO-style customs
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...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
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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
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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
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Let's take a moment to revisit Brick Mantooth. Seriously he is the "Dos Equis Man" of imaginary 1970s action figures.
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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.
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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
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He even had the ultra-rare "Batman As A Naked Chick" action figure, though it's worth more still in the package
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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?
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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.
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