Mego

Mego Toys (pronounced MEE-go) is popularly known as a major American toy manufacturer and the producer of many licensed action figures during the 1970s and early 1980s. 
Based in New York City, the family-owned company, founded by David and Madeline Abrams, began to produce "dime-store" dolls and other "rack toys" in 1954. Beginning in 1971 and following son Marty Abrams' appointment as CEO, Mego created the first 8-inch action figure called to compete with Hasbro's well-established line. 
Under the auspices of Abrams, Mego successfully branched out into pop culture and produced the World's Greatest Super Heroes line of licensed DC and Marvel comic figures, beginning in 1972. TV- and film-based toy lines including , , and were soon added and also became top sellers.
Having successfully turned the initially small family business into a multi-million dollar toy company, Marty Abrams is considered to be "the father of the modern action figure" by a number of toy experts. (The Toys That Made Us)
Abrams regained control of the Mego trademark in 2009, following earlier unsuccessful attempts. Mego Corporation was reformed in 2018, is currently headquartered in Great Neck, New York, and is a partnership between Abrams and Joel Rosenzweig. 
==Star Trek releases==
After had premiered in 1973, CEO Abrams was approached by his key employee, Neal Cublin, who suggested adding to the company's toy lines, having noted that the show had made a spectacular comeback through syndication. Cublin had also observed that there were virtually no real Star Trek toys on the market at the time to cater to the needs of the growing fan base. Abrams sent Cublin to the Paramount Publicity Department to find out if a license could be acquired, and was pleasantly surprised when Cublin returned with a contract costing the company only US$5,000. (The Toys That Made Us)
By 1974, the company began to produce a line of Star Trek action figures, play sets, and other toys based on , which, as hoped, had became hugely successful. These were the first action figures ever produced for the franchise, with a considerable level of accuracy for their time. 
In the end, the US$5,000 Star Trek toy license grossed the company US$50 million, much to the glee of Abrams. "You can imagine the joy we had on that one!", he stated years later. (The Toys That Made Us) This had been a prime example of how the franchisor viewed its intellectual property at the time, treating "(…)the whole idea of Star Trek licensing and merchandising with immense disdain", as author Stephen Edward Poe opined. (A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager, pp. 45-46) 
In 1976-1977, Abrams declined to bid for the license to manufacture Star Wars toys, purportedly feeling that his company should continue to focus on television-based properties. Like most Hollywood film studios, Abrams had vastly underestimated the impact and longevity of the first Star Wars film and the overwhelming success of both the film itself and its resultant toy lines.
Kenner Toys acquired the Star Wars toy license and began to release these products over the course of 1978, resulting in phenomenal sales and a profound effect on Mego. Mego dropped from a 75% male market share to 30% almost overnight, with its turnover likewise dropping from US$150 million to $50 million, leaving the company in dire financial straits. Stated Abrams, "Star Wars put a dagger in the heart. We just couldn't figure a way how to pull the dagger out and heal ourselves up fast enough." (The Toys That Made Us)
Two years later, Mego pinned its hopes on the success of , itself a direct result of Star Wars incredible profitability, and the company began to produce new, film-based 3¾-inch action figures, 8-inch starships, and assorted related toys in 1980.
Lamentably, the film was generally received as a disappointment and hoped-for Star Wars-like toy sales did not materialize. Already in financial trouble, Mego declared bankruptcy in 1982 and finally closed its doors in 1983, amidst tremendous legal turmoil, finally resulting in Abrams' conviction and incarceration for several counts of fraud and obstruction of justice. (The Toys That Made Us)
A number of Mego items were sold in Canada by Grand Toys and bore both its brand and that of Mego. British toy company Palitoy was the exclusive UK distributor of Mego's Star Trek products.
In , the history and development of Mego's Star Trek lines was featured in the "Star Trek" episode of the Netflix series, The Toys That Made Us.
In July 2018, the Mego brand was reintroduced (by the newly-reconstituted Mego Corporation) for a new line of toys, including updated versions of its classic Star Trek figures. Alongside new figures from the films and , TOS versions of Hikaru Sulu and Pavel Chekov figures were introduced to the series for the first time, having been omitted during the 1970s.
===Action figures===
Debuting in 1974 and the first Star Trek action figures ever produced, figures stood eight inches tall, were fully articulated, and included cloth uniforms (or costumes) and miniature accessories. Most were reasonable likenesses of the show's characters while others were clearly "rush jobs" or re-uses of figures from earlier, unrelated Mego toy lines.
In total, fourteen figures in two "waves" were eventually released by Mego in 1974 and 1975. Collectors note that the second "Aliens" wave is the hardest to find, and that the Romulan and Andorian of this wave are commonly considered to be the rarest figures of the entire series.
In 2007, EMCE Toys began to release faithful reproductions of many of Mego's 8-inch Star Trek figures, and supplemented the line with several new additions. Mego's USS Enterprise bridge playset was also re-released. Its "Star Trek Retro Cloth Figures" and its playset are distributed by Diamond Select Toys. 
Eaglemoss Collections' Hero Collector webshop also began to retail a number of Mego's new action figures in 2020, followed after its August 2022 bankruptcy by (new) Master Replicas who took over Eaglemoss' remainder Mego stock. 
====Wave One figures (1974)====
This wave originally consisted of these five figures:
* Captain James T. Kirk – with belt, phaser, and communicator
* Mr. Spock – with belt, phaser, communicator, and tricorder
* Mr. Scott ("Scottie") – with belt, phaser, and communicator
* Dr. McCoy ("Bones") – with belt, phaser, communicator, and tricorder
* Klingon – with belt, phaser, and communicator
Later, as part of the same set, Mego added:
* Lt. Uhura – with tricorder
====Wave Two figures ("Star Trek Aliens", 1975)====
* Neptunian (a lizard-like aquatic alien with scales and webbed wings; never appeared in canon) – no accessories
* The Keeper (more closely resembles Balok's puppet in a white robe) – no accessories
* The Gorn (actually a brown re-cast of the World's Greatest Super Heroes "Lizard" figure head on a Planet of the Apes "soldier ape" figure body) – shares the accessories and uniform of the Klingon figure 
* "Cheron" (presumably modeled after Bele; entire body and costume is half-black/half-white) – no accessories
* The Romulan – with gold "vac-metal" helmet, black belt, and "Klingon red" phaser and communicator
* "Talos" (wearing a yellow jumpsuit, with a black collar and orange boots) – no accessories
* Andorian (wearing a standard Andorian outfit, as seen in ) – no accessories
* Mugato (oddly CLOTHED in green top (which may have faded to yellow), black belt, and red pants) – no accessories
====Figure playsets and accessories====
In addition, several playsets and accessories were produced for the figures:
* U.S.S. Enterprise Action Playset (Item No. 51210) – a mock-up of the Enterprise bridge with Captain's Chair, Navigational Console, two "Crew Seat" stools and "spinning" Transporter; doubled as storage case for figures
* U.S.S. Enterprise Action Gift Set (Item No. 51217) – essentially the above playset with the original five "Wave One" figures (no Uhura)
* Mission To Gamma VI – the rarest of the playsets; recreation of Vaal from ; had several action features; came with four generic alien figures
* Telescreen Console – a tabletop game that doubled as an "add-on" piece for the Action Playset; game screen with Captain's Chair and Control Lever
====2007-2008 retro reissues====
In the years 2007 and 2008, Diamond Select Toys reissued near identical (save for the company logo imprint on the packaging) replicas of the Wave One figures and the U.S.S. Enterprise Action Gift Set () as their "Cloth Retro Series 1" line. 
====Waves Three through Five figures (Original Series, 2018-2021)====
The classic Original Series action figures were reissued in 2018 in newly designed packaging shorty after Abrams had re-instituted Mego Corporation – as was henceforth emphatically stressed on the packaging backs. Two packaging styles were utilized; the first concerned the figure packaged in a transparent bubble attached to a hardboard card (the so-called "blister pack") with a card-incorporated J-hook. The second packaging style concerned a 2021 reissue in the more traditional windowed box, which was the one utilized for the multi-figurine box sets of both 2018 and 2021.
While the majority of these releases were in essence reissues of the 1970s releases, Hikaru Sulu and Pavel Chekov were for the first time added to the line, as already stated above. The other two major Original Series characters, Montgomery Scott and Leonard McCoy, were reissued in later followup waves.
=====2018 Blister packs=====
The 2018 blister packs reissues were marketed as a to 10,000 copies/issue "limited" individually numbered edition.
*62710: Lt. Sulu
*62720: Chekov
*62735: Gorn
*62745: Mr. Spock (blue phaser and tricorder)
*62760: Romulan Commander (black tunic)
*62770: Kirk (wraparound green tunic)
=====2018 Box Sets=====
The 2018 box sets came in triangularly shaped window boxes, and were like the individual figure releases limited to 10,000 numbered copies.
*62732: Kirk & Spock Mirror universe Set
*62782: Sulu & Uhura Mirror universe Set
=====2019 Blister packs=====
2018 was the year in which the Star Trek franchise ordained an unified packaging art-style for all non-print/home video merchandise, resulting in that the 2018 releases were a year later reissued in the new packaging style. This edition remained limited with the numbering continuing from the previous year. The stock item numbering however, was changed, in most cases to indicate figurine variants.
*62797: Romulan Commander (red tunic)
*62880: Captain Kirk (Dress uniform)
*62898: Lt. Uhura
*62977: Mr. Spock (-style with tribbles and black phaser/tricorder)
*62978: Gorn
=====2021 Box releases=====
*62883: Mr. Spock Gift Set, contains clothing and torso to represent Spock as seen in as well as in the regular Original Series episodes.
*62912: Kirk & Spock Mirror universe Gift Set (in essence a reissue of the 2018 box set)
*62922: Gorn
*62923: Captain Kirk
*62924: Mr. Spock (with tribbles)
====Waves Six through Seventeen figures (2019-2022)====
Starting in 2019, new 8-inch retro-style action figure lines were launched. Expanding beyond the classic Original Series, the lines now included figurines from later Star Trek incarnations as well. The figurines were mounted on the same style blister packs introduced in 2019 for the above-listed classic figure reissues.
The individual waves, however, were released out of numerical order; wave six for example, which concerned the to 1,000 copies/issue limited and individually numbered releases was issued in the 2018-2021 timespan during which the other (regular issue) waves were released, causing the stock item numbering to not be chronologically consistent. The most recent wave, seventeen, from 2022, which featured characters from , sported a much lower numbering than wave fifteen from 2021, for example, which concerned figurines originating from .
:Note: This list is currently incomplete. Issues that were released as exclusives for trading cards company Topps are indicated as such.
*62715: Jean-Luc Picard
*62781: Data
*62783: Q
*62798: Saru
*62866: Locutus of Borg (TNG-style)
*62871: Borg Queen (First Contact variant - Mego Topps Exclusive)
*62872: Admiral Kirk (-style)
*62873: Captain Spock (Wrath of Khan-style)
*62874: Khan Noonien Singh (Wrath of Khan-style)
*62894: Captain Kirk (TOS-style, new head sculpt)
*62913: Exclusive Star Trek Pack (box especially designed to hold the three above mentioned Wrath of Khan blister packs, and while these were individually numbered, no allowances were made to have the ones held within the box match each other)
*62944: Michael Burnham
*62949: Exclusive Star Trek Pack (box especially designed to hold blister packs 62792 – Romulan Commander in red tunic – , 62872 and 62872, and while these were individually numbered, no allowances were made to have the ones held within the box match each other)
*62954: Captain Pike (DIS-style)
*62976: Captain Kirk (in essence a reissue of the 2018 release with tribbles)
*62985: Star Trek 3 Item Set (box especially designed to hold the 2018 blister packs 62710 [Sulu], 62745 [Spock] and the 2019 pack 62976 [Kirk], and while these were individually numbered, no allowances were made to have the ones held within the box match each other)
*63005: Mr. Spock (SNW-style)
*63009: Captain Pike (SNW-style)
*63039: Commander Spock (The Motion Picture-style - Mego Topps Exclusive)
*63048: Salt vampire
*63049: Dr. McCoy
*63050: Scotty
*63055: Will Riker
*63063: Kang the Klingon
*63070: Geordi La Forge
*63071: Mr. Spock ("Where No Man Has Gone Before"-style)
*63093: Kor the Klingon (uniform variant - Mego Topps Exclusive)
*63096: Captain Benjamin Sisko (uniform variant - Mego Topps Exclusive)
*63097: Quark (maroon outfit - Mego Topps Exclusive)
*63143: Mr. Spock (The Motion Picture-style Vulcan outfit)
*63119: Lt. Worf (TNG-style - Mego Topps Exclusive)
*63101: Borg Queen (First Contact-style)
*63143: Quark (green outfit)
*63144: Kor the Klingon
*63145: Captain Benjamin Sisko
*63151: Lt. Worf (First Contact-style)
===Other toys===
====Star Trek Communicators====
Sold in both a boxed set and a carded "blister pack", this was a pair of walkie-talkies styled after the communicators seen on the original Star Trek. They were molded primarily from blue plastic, with a button-release "cover" that flipped up like the antenna grid on the original prop.
====Command Communications Console====
Marketed to be compatible with the above communicators, this was a large unit made to resemble the communications console on the Enterprise bridge.
====Super Phaser II Target Game====
This was a "role playing" toy that consisted of a light-emitting "Super" type 2 phaser (an enlarged, bulkier version of the standard type 2 phaser) with a "sonic buzzer device" that fired at a "target reflector badge" depicting a Klingon cruiser. Firing at the badge's large red target reflected the light back to the phaser, activating a buzzer.
====Star Trek Tricorder====
This was an actual, functioning portable tape recorder made to look like a tricorder prop from the show. Like the communicators, this was molded primarily from blue plastic. It had a flip-up top that concealed the dial that controlled most of the recorder's functions, as well as the volume control. The tape compartment was located directly below. The unit came with a cassette tape containing thirty minutes of audio from and . The other side of the tape was blank, allowing the user to create their own audio recordings.
====Star Trekulator====
This was a fully-functional large desk calculator with LED readout and a light-up panel depicting artwork of Kirk, Spock, and Uhura.
====Star Trek Phaser Battle====
Similar to the "Telescreen Console" marketed with Mego's original Star Trek action figures, this was a tabletop game unit that allowed the player to attack alien ships. Gameplay was a little more complex than on the Telescreen, as there were more controls (especially dual buttons for port and starboard shields) to use, as well as a larger playing screen and a "digital-style" scoreboard.
====Star Trek Educational Toys====
Mego marketed a line of educational Trek-related toys which included an Intergalactic Projector (a home planetarium projector), a Crystal Radio set, and other "build-it-yourself" scientific toys. 
====Tribble Toy====
The company advertised a tribble toy, but it is doubtful that it ever reached production.
===Starships===
In 1980, Mego released three starship miniatures that appeared in , though distribution was widespread only in Canada. The USS Enterprise refit only saw a wide release in Canada and also bore a Grand Toys logo on its box, like the other Canadian TMP releases. The series was also retailed by Airfix under its own brand in Germany, and the Mego logo was not printed onto the packaging. The ships measured about eight inches long and included stickers and a stand.
* Klingon Cruiser
* (refit)
* Vulcan Shuttle & Sled ()
File:Mego Star Trek starships.jpg|Star Trek: The Motion Picture starships line
File:Mego Star Trek TMP toy promo.jpg|Star Trek: The Motion Picture toys promo
File:Mego Star Trek 8-inch figures.jpg|Star Trek 8-inch action figures
File:Mego Vulcan Explorer.jpg|Unproduced Vulcan Explorer toy prototype
File:Mego USS Enterprise bridge playset.jpg|USS Enterprise bridge playset
File:Mego Star Trek TMP USS Enterprise bridge.jpg|Star Trek: The Motion Picture USS Enterprise bridge playset 
File:Mego Star Trek TMP 3.75-inch figures.jpg|Star Trek: The Motion Picture 3¾-inch action figures 
File:Mego Vulcan Shuttle prototype.jpg|Unproduced Vulcan Shuttle (fuselage pod) playset prototype
===Interactions with pop culture productions===
In the Star Trek parody and pop culture-referencing television sitcom The Big Bang Theory, Mego Star Trek action figures have made appearances on a few occasions. This comedy series is centered on four science nerds who are rabid fans and collectors of Star Trek, science fiction, and comics memorabilia. 
Mego toys appeared prominently in the fifth season episode "The Transporter Malfunction", in which central character Sheldon Cooper and his roommate were given a rare, mint-in-box (a condition highly valued in toy collector circles) Palitoy "Star Trek Transporter Room Playset" as a gift by their attractive female neighbor. This toy is a variant of Mego's " Action Playset" and was seen as a generous gift indeed as this UK-exclusive version is considered to be exceptionally rare. 
Sheldon initially refused to play with it to avoid diminishing its perceived value but he quickly yielded to temptation, goaded on by his Mego Spock action figure which had started to "speak" to him. Spock's voice was performed by Leonard Nimoy. Sheldon accidentally broke the toy then surreptitiously replaced it with his that of his roommate. Later, in his fevered, guilt-ridden imagination, Nimoy's "Mego Spock" chastised him for his dastardly deed and subsequent refusal to own up to it. His initial resistance caused Sheldon to be attacked by a Gorn in a nightmare and he finally confessed his guilt to his roommate.
The reference itself became featured in the "Star Trek" episode of The Toys That Made Us.
The "U.S.S. Enterprise Action Playset" (or "Gift Set") could be seen in its closed vinyl container in the tenth season episode "The Property Division Collision".
The items used in the episode were taken from the CBS Consumer Products archive. CBS is not only the broadcaster of The Big Bang Theory but is also the owner of the Star Trek television franchise.
==Further reading==
* "Collectables: Mego Action Figures", , June 1999, pp. 88-89
==See also==
* Star Trek starship miniatures
* Star Trek model kits
==External links==
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Category:Collectible companies