World’s Greatest Toys!

Here’s your Daily Mego Adoration for Friday, March 14, 2008: Batgirl!

There are a variety of Mego Batgirl costume and figure variations, including the ‘original’ (screen printed) and ’standard’ outfits — both of which utilize the Type 1 Female body — as well as the ‘late-issue’ outfit, which utilizes the Type 2 Female (straight arms) body and notably different materials for the accessories.

Above: Original Screen Printed Batgirl (left), the ‘Standard’ Batgirl (center) and the late-issue Batgirl (right) featuring the Type 2 (straight arms) body

I discuss Batgirl variations in World’s Greatest Toys! Here’s a snippet from the book (page 114, for those reading along):

Mego first issued Batgirl in a screen printed outfit, along with vinyl gloves and a removable nylon cape. Like the other three Super-Gals, the original figures were shipped without plastic boots. Batgirl’s cowl is the only plastic Super-Gals accessory Mego tooled in time for Christmas 1973 shipments. The original gray bodysuit is screen printed with yellow details: a bat emblem, a belt, boots and cuffs.

Given time to create the requisite molds, Mego eliminated the yellow screen printing, outfitting all Batgirl figures with a cloth emblem, a yellow plastic purse-belt and yellow plastic boots to complement the existing gloves, cowl and cape.

Early plastic accessories exhibit translucency, while later accessories are a bright, opaque plastic. Batgirl was the only Super-Gal manufactured when Mego introduced the new material; no other Super-Gal accessories are molded with the opaque plastic.

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Benjamin