Logan’s Run/MEGO

## Logan’s Run

In the back row from left to right is Francis 7, Logan 5 and REM, and in the front middle is the head sculpt for Jessica; each from the TV show.

## Collectible Information

### Status

Found (REM and TV versions of Logan & Francis, head sculpt of TV Jessica)Lost (Full body version of TV Jessica)Existence Unconfirmed (Movie versions of Logan, Francis and Jessica

### Location

The prototype figures for TV Logan, Francis and REM along with Jessica’s head mold are currently in possession of the MEGOmuseum

## Product Information

### Year(s)

1978

Following their historic mistake on passing up the offer to make *Star Wars* action figures, MEGO decided to produce a toyline based on *Logan’s Run*, only for a handful of them to be destroyed and were never seen again until several years later.

## **Summary**

*Logan’s Run* is a science fiction novel published by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson in 1967, depicting a dystopic ageist future society in which both population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by requiring the death of everyone reaching the age of 21. The story follows the actions of Logan 5, a *Sandman* charged with enforcing the rule, as he tracks down and kills citizens who "run" from society's lethal demand—only to end up "running" himself.  In 1976, a movie adaption distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer and directed by Michael Anderson with Michael York as the titular role. The film only uses the basic premise of the novel with some additional changes (the “last day” age being changed from 21 to 30 which saw the inclusion of the “Carrousel”) and it received mixed reviews, but *Logan’s Run* was a modest box office success that brought MGM out of its debt.  To capitalize on its success, a television series spin-off was produced with Gregory Harrison taking on the role of Logan 5 and differs from the movie in that Logan and Jessica are on the run through various locations on future Earth for a mythical place known as the “Sanctuary.” Only 14 episodes were made and only 12 of them were aired on CBS.  Several remakes of *Logan’s Run* have been in the talks since the mid-1990’s, but production on either of them have yet to come into tuition. There have also been a few comic books released to tie-in with *Logan’s Run* along with albums of electronica music and an alternative reality game.

## **Action Figures:**

Our story begins in 1976 where after saying "no" to a potential *Star Wars* license, MEGO decided to produce a toyline based on the *Logan's Run* movie. However, according to interviews taken with former MEGO employees, it seemed that the company didn't care too much about the movie more than they did about getting the likeness rights to Farrah Fawcett; the actress for Holly 13, as MEGO produced a 12" doll of Farrah Fawcett in 1977 and mainly did it to compete with Hasbro who had already produced a figure of her character, Jill, from *Charlie’s Angels*.  It’s worth noting that a majority of the merchandise made for *Logan’s Run* were focused entirely on Holly 13 as Farrah Fawcett was a huge deal back in the 1970’s, despite her character playing a very minor role. Whether a sculpt was created for Holly is unknown, though MEGO did confirm that sculpts were ordered for the actors Michael York (Logan), Richard Jordan (Francis), and Jenny Agutter (Jessica 6). According to internal sources and employee interviews, the sculpts never made it to the factory for production.

In 1977, despite its modest success, MGM opted not to make a sequel for *Logan’s Run* and instead made a deal with CBS to produce a television spinoff that aired from 1977 to 1978, in an attempt to capitalize on the sci-fi craze and weekly long TV series fad. MEGO made four action figures to go along with this series. The characters included Logan 5 (Gregory Harrison), his love interest Jessica 6 (Heather Menzies), his former partner Francis 7 (Randy Powell) who hunts them throughout the series, and REM; an android played by Donald Moffett who provided comedic and was created exclusively for the show. They would have used the 10” format similar to their *Flash Gordon* toyline as it would’ve allowed for more detailed clothing. The *Logan’s Run* toys were first teased in an advertisement for a toy catalog promoting all the science fiction franchises that MEGO had under their belt, but after the show was cancelled following an abysmal failure in ratings and slot schedules, all further development paused on these toys and for years, they never seen again.

According to some MEGO employees, the *Logan’s Run* figures came very close to being released as some of them were ready for shipment prior to cancellation. Though according to Long Island Toy Collector John McGonagle, he saw a news report in the 1970’s chronicling what happens when property investments for a toy company fails and in it revealed a horrifying scene straight out of *Toy Story 3*: cases of MEGO *Logan’s Run* action figures being shoved into an incinerator. Its unknown if this is the truth or not as no available footage of the news broadcast can be found online, but many toy collectors and acquaintances of McGonagle believed this story. It has been confirmed by some former MEGO employees that when they were faced with an overstock of figures, whether it be a cancelled line or products they couldn’t sell, they would dump them into the incinerator.

MEGO had a reputation of trying to save their money as for years now, collectors have been finding blow molded dolls in dollar stores with spare clothes from MEGO action figures. For example, “Mandy the Pretty Doll” with Mr. Fantastic’s uniform and Bonnie Dee dressed in full *Planet of the Apes* regalia. This phenomenon has been explained by some as a 3rd party factory trying to get rid of its extras after MEGO was done with the line and its possible MEGO was unaware of this practice. One of the more peculiar examples is one of the “Princess” fashion dolls exclusively sold at K-Mart during the 1970’s, wearing a black sweater with the horizontal white stripe similar to the tunic that the Sandmen would wear. This was the first clue to some collectors that despite being destroyed years ago, some small remnants of MEGO’s *Logan’s Run* toyline were still out there as many collectors began searching these dolls out of curiosity. And just one decade later, they found their biggest lead.

In the summer of 2000, a former MEGO employee was holding a yard sale where many of the company’s former assets he acquired went up for an undisclosed amount. In that yard sale were two of the missing *Logan’s Run* action figures: Francis 7 with a Ken Sheller sculpted face and REM who had a peculiar accessory being a robotic claw on his left arm which he never had on the show at all. The reason for this addition, aside from being a cheap retool of the Biotron action figure from MEGO’s *Micronauts* line, was that it would have added some play value to REM who was always shown in various states of disrepair throughout the series. John Bonavita, a real estate agent who boasts the largest MEGO collection in the world, purchased these figures and posted information and pictures about them on his website. In 2007, Megomuseum uncovered the third figure in the series, none other than the titular Logan Five.  The story behind its discovery was that it was a gift exchange to a colleague of a former MEGO employee who happened to be visiting in 1978. A factory test pull of the Jessica head sculpt with Heather Menzies’ likeness was also found by the Megomusuem in 2016, but her figure has yet to see the light of day.

## **Final Verdict:**

So far, less than 10 of the *Logan’s Run* TV series figure are known to exist on the secondary market with Francis 7 being the most common one to find while Logan and REM are pretty rare. Aside from the head mold, the finished Jessica test model can has yet to be found and no sculpts for the alleged movie figures have yet to show up, making their existence uncofirmed. Until further evidence, the case of the missing MEGO *Logan’s Run* will remain open: **PARTIALLY SOLVED**

## **Sources:**

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s\_Run
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s\_Run\_(film)
3. ↑ https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/LogansRun
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s\_Run#Other\_adaptations
5. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTeMrvgPQws
6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBQJEeOFtjc
7. ↑ http://www.megomuseum.com/galleries/logans-run/
8. ↑ http://www.megomuseum.com/new-discovery-jessica-from-logans-run-head-sculpt/