Mego Corporation

The History of the Mego Corporation and their Popular Lines of Toys

True, G.I. Joe was the first real "action figure" (a.k.a. a "doll" for boys). And Captain Action was the first figure to don a mask & cape and be called a "super-hero action figure." But Mego is the one who really got this party started.

By creating a wildly successful line of eight inch figures in the 1970s and early 1980s, Mego redefined the toy market and changed what boys of that time period spent their time playing with.

Covering everything from Marvel Comics and DC Comics super-heroes to television shows and movies, Mego seemed to have found gold. Mego did delve into the twelve inch 1/6th scale market, but their biggest success was with the smaller 8" figures.

While Mego Corporation's ppopularity came in the 1970s, the company had actually been founded in the early 1950s. Prior to it's success with 8" action figures, Mego was known mostly for producing dime store toys.

It wasn't until Mego began licensing the rights to popular tv and movie characters in the early 1970s that they began to achieve the huge success which made them the dominant force they had become in the toy market by the mid 1970s.

With 1/6th scale figures like Barbie and G.I. Joe being the standard, Mego definitely broke new ground by attempting the 8" format. They were able to make it work so well by using a sort of cookie-cutter mentality -- the bulk of Mego figures used a standard 8" body. Customization was achieved by inserting the specific character head into the generic body and then dressing the figure in it's very own bodysuit, boots, gloves, etc. Voilá -- instant customization.

Kids playing with Megos at the time quickly realized this fact and would mash-up characters to create new ones which Mego hadn't actually released.