World’s Greatest Toys!

Thanks to Mego-head Scott (”megomuseum”) Adams, we have an incredible set of three identical price stickers, affixed to three different, 4th Wave Mego World’s Greatest Super-Heroes figures!

Scott tells me that, while he can’t confirm, he believes these were sold by Service Merchandise. Check out these three price stickers, affixed to MIB “2nd Version” Marvel (New Logo) heroes. Left to right, Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Thor:

The stickers all read:

• 03FO9
• MEGO
• 115605
• 1313
• $2.99

How freakin’ cool that the price stickers actually have “MEGO” printed on them?! More importantly, how weird that the stickers feature the “4-digit” Item Code, well after Mego introduced the “5-digit” Item Code? Wow.

Do you have any idea what retailer sold the toys pictured above? It was Service Merchandise, right? If you agree, or you think it was a different store, please explain why you think so. Post your comments below. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Benjamin

Want to learn more about Mego and the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes?
Pick up a copy of Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys from Amazon.com today! All sales support the author and help finance the blog. How cool is that?

Next to MegoMuseum.com and its community of Mego collectors, the most helpful resource I had while researching the book was “Papa Mego-head” John Bonavita’s out-of-print* magazine-style publication, which reprinted many vintage Mego product catalogs.

There are plenty of other potential resources and guides — documentation I didn’t have access to while creating the book — that I ended up creating myself. I wish I could have included all of this new documentation in the book, but I simply didn’t have the space. One such guide I always wanted is a comprehensive list of every Item Number Mego used for WGSH products.

It’s not the kind of document one casually peruses (though it includes plenty of cool tidbits and fun Mego trivia), but should you ever find yourself wondering what the proper Item Number for the carded 8″ Lion Rock Western Heroes Assortment is (#51369), or you get curious which Item Number Mego re-used the most times (#51317)… or how many times Mego used that number (thrice!)… well, this list is indispensable.

Also, I finally redesigned the non-blog pages of WorldsGreatestToys.com, so this article is a perfect way to introduce the redesign. At last, the entire site has a cohesive design.

*John Bonavita graciously gifted his last remaining case of these magazines to World’s Greatest Toys. Mego collectors can receive one free copy with the purchase of a TwoMorrows-exclusive Collectors Edition of the book.

Without further ado, I present the first of many articles:

Everything you ever wanted to know about Mego WGSH Item Numbers but were afraid to ask (didn’t really care)

(Read the article and check out the redesigned site)

Covering every WGSH product between 1972 and 1982, it’s a fun look at Mego’s product planning and decision-making. Read the article here.

Post your comments below. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Benjamin

Want to learn more about Mego and the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes?
Pick up a copy of Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys from Amazon.com today! All sales support the author and help finance the blog. How cool is that?

Gold Circle, a discount department store founded by Federated in 1967 (in Columbus, Ohio), went out of business in 1988. Thanks to Mego-head Anthony “Toyroom” Durso, we have this awesome Gold Circle price sticker, affixed to a “3rd Version” (4-panel) Shazam box:

Post your comments below. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Benjamin

Want to learn more about Mego and the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes?
Pick up a copy of Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys from Amazon.com today! All sales support the author and help finance the blog. How cool is that?

Two Guys (AKA “2 Guys”) was a New Jersey-based chain of discount department stores with locations in PA, NJ, NY, IL, CT, MD and CA. This is one of the few retailers known to have sold Mego-branded “1st Issue” cards; most “1st Issue” cards were Kresge-branded, thus exclusively available through S.S. Kresge and Kmart stores.

Here’s a fine Two Guys price sticker, affixed to a “1st Version” (old logo) Batgirl box (just $2.99):

Post your comments below. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Benjamin

Want to learn more about Mego and the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes?
Pick up a copy of Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys from Amazon.com today! All sales support the author and help finance the blog. How cool is that?

It’s been a while since I posted a new blog in my Poster Fun! Blog series, so it’s probably time for a new one.

I always thought it might look cool to line up all of the book’s character “Splash” pages into one collage. I finally did it, and this is what it looks like:

Kinda cool.

Post your comments below. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Benjamin

Want to learn more about Mego and the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes?
Pick up a copy of Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys from Amazon.com today! All sales support the author and help finance the blog. How cool is that?

Originally a manufacturer of electric trains, Lionel Corporation became a holding company in 1969, specializing in toy stores. By the early 1980s, Lionel operated some 150 stores, under the names Toy City, Lionel Kiddie City, Lionel Playworld, Lionel Toy Warehouse, and Lionel Toy Town.

After multiple Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, Lionel attempted to merge with bankrupt Child World in 1992, but was unable to secure financing. Lionel stores went out of business in 1993.

In other words, Lionel was a big-time player (reportedly the second largest toy retailer) during Mego’s heyday. They must have been pretty big, as they were one of the few retailers that offered Mego’s Fist-Fighting Power Fist line of action figures, including this Fist-Fighting Joker:

The sticker reads:

• SKU 147439
• LIONEL 097
• $1.91

I have to think if I’d seen one of these in a store in 1975 or 1976 (for $1.91 no less!), I’d have been all over it. I know my mom would have hooked me up for that price.

Sheesh.

I honestly don’t remember ever seeing the Fist-Fighters in any store.

Post your comments below. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Benjamin

Want to learn more about Mego and the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes?
Pick up a copy of Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys from Amazon.com today! All sales support the author and help finance the blog. How cool is that?

Thanks to Mego-head Scott Adams, we have seen some unusual examples of Mego price stickers. Today we offer a gem from Scott Adams’ MIB collection. The very first “Mego Price Stickers” blog, back on April 15th 2007, was a look at price stickers affixed to the original Mego packaging — the “Solid” boxes. We have come full circle.

Given how scarce any “Solid” box is today, it’s really special to locate specimens that retain their original price stickers. We have already been fortunate to show two such stickers.

Today, Scott adds yet another retailer into the fray of early Mego adopters: Roses also purchased Solid Boxed WGSH!

The sticker reads:

• Roses Special
• $1.97

Post your comments below. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Benjamin

Want to learn more about Mego and the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes?
Pick up a copy of Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys from Amazon.com today! All sales support the author and help finance the blog. How cool is that?

Recently, I have focused attention on any retailer that sold Mego WGSH, with little regard to which toys those particular retailers offered. I am especially interested in comparing retailers that sold related Mego toys simultaneously.

We know that Mego offered better pricing for larger orders, so it’s fun to examine differing price-points each retailer required. The printed ’sale price’ is a strong indication of how large a retailer was… in other words, the cheaper the ’sale price,’ the larger that retailer’s purchase order with Mego.

Today, we examine Mego price stickers from two different retailers from the same time period (1976); both stickers are affixed to MIB 4th Wave “Marvel” Super-Heroes. Both Thornbury’s and Toys By Rizzi offered Mego’s final wave of WGSH-branded figures in 1976, at a time most retailers were cooling on Mego products.

First up, Thornbury’s (AKA “The Fun Place”) and this sticker, affixed to a MIB Thor:

The sticker reads:

• The Fun Place
• GJB664b
• THORNBURY’S
• $3.99
• Toys-Bicycles

Next is Toys By Rizzi and this sticker, affixed to a MIB Conan:

The sticker reads:

• TOYS BY
• RIZZI
• 1313
• 256 MGO
• $4.29

It’s interesting that Toys By Rizzi used part of the Mego Item Number (1313) on their sticker, not to mention the fact that Toys By Rizzi’s toy cost $0.30 more than Thornbury’s toy. The price discrepancy reveals the relative scale of each retailer’s buying power. Clearly, Thornbury’s placed a larger Mego order (at least in 1976) than Toys by Rizzi.

Three cheers to both retailers for supporting Mego in the face of diminishing consumer interest and slowing sales. I hope your Mego inventory eventually sold out. Heck, I wish I’d been there to buy them all up!

Post your comments below. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Benjamin

Want to learn more about Mego and the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes?
Pick up a copy of Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys from Amazon.com today! All sales support the author and help finance the blog. How cool is that?

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since I posted the first What in the Mego World? contest. How time flies.

Anyhoo, time for another contest!

Correctly identify each of the following four Mego-related items:

Contest starts at 9am EST today (May 28, 2008). Eligible answers must be posted in the comments section below. I look forward to your answers!

_____

Update: May 28, 2008 6:32pm PST
The contest has officially ended. To recap:

Kolin E. (Wyatterb)

Here we go:

Kolin submitted the following answers at 7:19am:

1. Riddler face
2. Thing Suit
3. Action Jackson jumpsuit with dogtag
4. Batmobile rear sticker

Congratulations to Kolin E. Please Email me your address and I’ll get your prize out to you. Thanks to everyone who played, including Mitch, Derek, Jay, Bryan, Scott, Chris and Thomas!

Benjamin

Want to learn more about Mego and the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes?
Pick up a copy of Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys from Amazon.com today! All sales support the author and help finance the blog. How cool is that?

Yesterday, we looked at an early Toys “R” Us price sticker. Today, we look at the more common, later orange price sticker (most commonly associated with Mego “2nd Issue” cards) that Toys “R” Us affixed to Mego toys, such as this “6th Version” (New Logo) Superman box:

What’s cool about this particular sticker is that it demonstrates approximately when Toys “R” Us introduced the orange sticker (i.e. while Mego was producing the final box variation). I always associated the orange Toys “R” Us stickers with the “2nd Issue” cards, which started appearing after 1977, but now we know the retailer actually introduced the new sticker design in 1976.

Cool!

The sticker reads:

• 51300 F
• TOYS R’ US
• 118893 $2.82

Post your comments below. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Benjamin

Want to learn more about Mego and the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes?
Pick up a copy of Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys from Amazon.com today! All sales support the author and help finance the blog. How cool is that?