Mego Sculptor — Bill Lemmon
Today I spoke with Linda McNett, who was (Mego vice president) Neal Kublan’s Administrative Assistant in the mid-1970s. Linda asked me whether I was aware of a sculptor named Bill Lemmon. I replied that I knew he had done work for Mego, but very little else. She told me a cool story, and sent me some fantastic pictures.
In 1978, a sculptor named Bill Lemmon called Mego, soliciting work. Bill spoke to Mego’s Director of Design, John McNett. Already aware of Bill Lemmon (from Bill’s previous work for other toy companies), John immediately invited Bill to come in to Mego’s New York office.
When Bill came in to meet John, he showed John half a dozen samples of his work. “All original sculptures, all amazingly detailed, and all hand-carved out of solid acetate,” John recalled.
Bill removed his representative sculptures from a briefcase, setting them on John’s desk one at a time. John was “blown away by the quality of this perfect professional.”
Lemmon left the samples for John to review, calling back a week later. Naturally, John hired Bill and immediately assigned him some work. Among other things, Bill worked on Mego’s Star Trek license, including the 3 3/4 inch Klingon.
Returning Bill’s portolio, John asked if he could keep one particular piece, the rook of a fantasy chess set (pictured at right). It was John’s favorite, and Bill obliged.
For the next several years, John steadily gave Bill work, just as he did for sculptor Ken Sheller. John used both sculptors, but for different types of projects. John said, “I tended to use Ken when I needed more of a ‘human touch,’ such as muscles and sinew and the like. I tended to use Bill when I needed more of a ‘mechanical look,’ such as robots and the like.” [Ed. note: Accordingly, Bill worked on Mego’s Micronauts line]
John recalled that Bill Lemmon intentionally over-detailed his sculptures. “The pattern piece gets duplicated in reverse to make the molds, which are then used to make the production pieces,” he said. “But in each stage of replication, the details get ‘mushier.’ Bill knew enough to over-detail the pattern piece, so that enough detail would survive [the rigors of] production.”
Linda McNett added, “Bill Lemmon used a Dremel drill and dental tools to make his sculptures and the [fantasy rook] piece is only three and a half inches tall. So you can just imagine how minute the detail is on it.”
Click here to see a larger version of Lemmon’s Fantasy Rook (front).
Click here to see a larger version of Lemmon’s Fantasy Rook (back).
Benjamin