Been spending a lot of time updating the Plaid Stallions Action Figure Archive and have a few fun updates thanks to some awesome people helping me out.
Let’s dig in shall we?
Our newest page to the Action Figure Archive is the Krazy Kreeps.Krazy Kreeps are a unique find, they are essentially a knock-off of a knock-off! The figures mainly use the bodies and heads from the AHI World Famous Super Monsters brand, which was already a Mego Knock Off. There is a morbid little detail with the Krazy Kreeps that would not fly today.
Croner Buck Rogers Gallery now has Twiki thanks to Clam’s ToyBox. These weird Australian figures have stymied me for years and now I have to wonder if there is a fourth figure. It’s just great to see all of them in one place.
Speaking of Croner, my friend Will (@toltoyskid) turned me on to the Footy Heroes, figures of Australian Rugby players. I don’t normally have much to do with sports figures but I need to know what else they made. Also, I have no idea who these guys are.
New update to the Bugmen of Insecta page, thanks to Clam’s Toybox. These vehicles are super rare, I wasn’t sure they ever got made. A truly obscure 80s toy line that deserves more attention.
intage Mego this week looks at the Hall of Justice Playset for the Mego World’s Greatest Superheroes Toy Line. This deluxe Mego playset came out in 1976 when the Superheroes were the hottest action figure lines going.
The Hall of Justice was not in the comics at the time, just the Super Friends animated show. We look at the Legion of Superheroes prototype, the Green Lantern appearance, discuss its translocator feature, and talk about that other Hall of Justice Playset Mego made that year.
You can get Toy-Ventures Magazine right here:
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Join the MegoMuseum Forums:
http://www.megomuseum.com/community
MegoMania Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/megomania
General Ursus joins Caesar in Mego’s wave 13 assortment of characters. Technically Ursus was a figure in the classic Mego Planet of the Apes but this is not exactly a straight reproduction of that figure. Mego took the classic Ursus/Urko (More on that debacle in the classic Mego Planet of the Apes galleries) and added paints and details to make the figure match James Gregory’s Ursus from “Beneath the Planet of the Apes”.
I have a real fondness for this short-lived but unique toy line by Hasbro, most people at the time didn’t even realize it was supposed to be G.I. Joe, this is mainly because he’s eight inches tall.
G.I. Joe was getting killed by smaller competitors like Big Jim and the Mego World’s Greatest Superheroes, so they shrunk him down to Mego size and sent him to space. What resulted was a fun toy line that just sold well for the first year thanks to Star Wars but laid an egg in the second, thanks to Star Wars toys finally landing on shelves.
Mr. Spock is the first of three 14″ Star Trek figures from Mego corp. This figure was announced in 2019 but was unfortunately canceled due to factory closure. The original prototype shown at Toyfair used the heads from the classic Mego Star Trek the Motion picture 12″ Spock but Mego has decided to blow up the classic 8″ Spock head for this line. Hey, why fix what isn’t broken?
Sculptor: Box says Sean Sansom but that head sculpt is Gene Salmacha Outfit: Rachel Baker Series: Star Trek Wave: 13 Available: July 2021 Accessories: Spare Hands, Belt, Phaser, Communicator
Toy-Ventures Issue 4 is shipping and it includes an exhaustive look at the Mego Mad Monsters with an interview with Marty Abrams. If you dig vintage toys, then Toy-Ventures Magazine is for you.
Mego Knock Off Headquarters– The leading group discussing 70s dimestore goodness like Lincoln International, AHI, Tomland, Durham, you get the picture. Whether you like Mr. Rock or are more of an Astro Apes person, this is the group you need to be in. Mego K.O. HQ is a lot of unlicensed fun, just straight up toy talk with nothing else.
Hey everyone, I’m excited to announce that I’ve finally gotten the swing of this WordPress thing, thanks to some very good friends’ advice (thank you, Robyn and Aaron).
So, I’m able to bring the Action Figure Archive and information into a more browser-friendly format and obviously add things to them from my recent Toy-Ventures publications. This is what I love to do and I’m super excited to get back to work. Look for galleries on some of my favourite toy lines of the 70s-80s and tons from my Knock-Off Collection.
So, to kick things off, may I present the new Matchbox Fighting Furies Archive and Gallery. I honestly think this toy line is a work of art and one that needs to be celebrated, so it excited me to launch the new Archive with this one.
IF YOU PRE-ORDERED TOY-VENTURES ISSUE 2 IT SHIPS THIS WEEK STARTING TOMORROW.
I will have tracking #s for every shipment. I haven’t quite figured out how to attach them to your pre-order but if you have worry, you can email us at toyventuresmag@gmail.com and we can look it up. Our new service drives the magazines to the US and ships via USPS.
Issue two covers a number of genres and has some exciting new voices from the hobby.
H.R. Puppet Stuff! By Kroffty This colourful piece tracks the careers of the legendary Sid and Marty Krofft through puppet merchandise, it will make you smile.
The Lost Outer Space Men Contributor Steve Fink returns with another tale of tracking down an impossible grail or in this case, six, the legendary second series of Colorforms Outer Space Men.
Godzilla’s Gang Ray Miller does a deep dive into the 1978 Mattel “Godzilla’s Gang” toyline, highlighting their origins. This is a lot of fun.
The Guide to Denys Fisher Doctor Who One of my passions, the Mego produced Doctor Who toy line is explored in great detail with prototype shots, variations and never before seen reveals.
A figure called Sloane Chris G blew us away when he discovered the abandoned Kenner Toy Line to the obscure 1970s TV series “A Man Called Sloane”. Did I mention that I love that show?
Oscillating Vibrations A love letter to the Saturday morning series “Monster Squad” with a complete merchandise guide featuring never before seen items.
BONUS FOR PREORDER CUSTOMERS Everyone who pre-orders Toy-Ventures Issue 2 will receive 3 Monster Squad trading cards featuring the unproduced Ideal Toys action figures of Bruce W. Wolf, Frank and Drac.
The best way to keep “up to speed” is to like or follow our shiny new Toy-Ventures FB page.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD
We’re just starting out and word of mouth is really vital to us right now, so if you like getting this magazine and want to support it further, please tell your fellow collectors about it, post about it on Twitter or Instagram using #toyventures, please tag us (@plaidstallions) and we’ll join in on the conversation.
Share us in a Facebook group, email one friend, anything.
Your voice is really important to us, every little bit of conversation Toy-Ventures can spark is deeply appreciated.
If you’re a retailer interested in our Wholesale program, drop us a line at toyventuresmag@gmail.com
We offer healthy discounts and cross-promotion on mixed bundles of issues 1 and 2.
ISSUE 3 SNEAK PEEK
We’re already hard at it on issues 3 and 4 of Toy-Ventures and this is one of the features we’re working on, a guide to the Lincoln International Monster series of figures.
We’ll also be covering Mego, Palitoy and Popy toys bringing in several new guest columnists from across the globe and a fantastic cover created by a talented and well-known artist. More on this in 2021.
The future, she is bright my friends.
We’ve got some cool Facebook groups:
Mego Knock Off Headquarters focuses on vintage toys that were “Inspired” by Mego corporation, this group was the birthplace of Toy-Ventures magazine and is just straight up vintage toy talk without any pointless melodrama.
Pod Stallions– This is spun out of the PodCast I do with Jason Lenzi and well it’s just a fun group of like-minded collectors and fans of Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Exploitation movies. It’s a really chill vibe, no politics allowed and topics go from Yacht Rock to memorable candy bars of our youth.
Limited Edition Gift Sets Available Now!
Rather than crowdfund the next issue of the magazine, I thought I’d whip up these gift sets full of merch we’ve created in the past. Just that thing for the retro fan in your life. Thanks for indulging me, more content soon!
OUR STORE: http://www.megomuseum.com/odeon/store/products/
Issue two covers a number of genres and has some exciting new voices from the hobby.
H.R. Puppet Stuff! By Kroffty
This colourful piece tracks the careers of the legendary Sid and Marty Krofft through puppet merchandise, it will make you smile.
The Lost Outer Space Men
Contributor Steve Fink returns with another tale of tracking down an impossible grail or in this case, six, the legendary second series of Colorforms Outer Space Men.
Godzilla’s Gang
Ray Miller does a deep dive into the 1978 Mattel “Godzilla’s Gang” toyline, highlighting their origins. This is a lot of fun.
The Guide to Denys Fisher Doctor Who
One of my passions, the Mego produced Doctor Who toy line is explored in great detail with prototype shots, variations and never before seen reveals.
A figure called Sloane
Chris G blew us away when he discovered the abandoned Kenner Toy Line to the obscure 1970s TV series “A Man Called Sloane”. Did I mention that I love that show?
Oscillating Vibrations
A love letter to the Saturday morning series “Monster Squad” with a complete merchandise guide featuring never before seen items.
BONUS FOR PREORDER CUSTOMERS
Everyone who pre-orders Toy-Ventures Issue 2 will receive 3 Monster Squad trading cards featuring the unproduced Ideal Toys action figures of Bruce W. Wolf, Frank and Drac.
Toy-Ventures Issue 2 will ship at the end of December 2020 and each US Purchase will include tracking.
Retailers, interested in selling Toy-Ventures magazine? Email us at toyventuresmag@gmail.com
We’ve been granted early access to one of the most talked-about Mego figures of the year, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. We not only de-card the Creature but also compare him to the earlier version released back in 2010.
Also coming this week: Mego Christopher Lee Dracula.
you can order the Creature at Entertainment Earth
https://www.entertainmentearth.com/s/mego/c?id=ME-002202116
Monster month continues with a long-overdue look at the Super Monster action figures by Azrak-Hamway International or AHI for short. This line only ran for three seasons but the amount of variations it produced is staggering. We also talk about the “unofficial years” that ran after.
