Action Figure Overview: Star Trek - The Keeper (Mego, 1975)
 |
| 1975 MEGO Star Trek "The Keeper" action figure! |
 |
| Captain Kirk and The Keeper by MEGO |
Because the Star Trek figures sold so well, Mego expanded the line to include four new, alien figures in 1975: The Gorn, Neptunian, Cheron, and The Keeper. The new aliens were inspired by a mix of characters from the TV show and characters from the cartoon, but their design was also influenced by Mego's desire to keep things cheap. As a result, Mego decided to re-use as many parts as possible when creating the new characters! The Gorn figure is a particularly good example of this because the figure uses the brown body from Planet of the Apes figures, a brown version of The Lizard's head from the World's Greatest Super Heroes line, and a Klingon's uniform, boots, belt, red phaser, and red communicator.
 |
| "The Keeper" pictured here in the later version of the package featuring all 14 Mego Star Trek 8" figures |
The Keeper is an interesting figure. He was based partly on a character from "The Cage," the pilot episode of Star Trek (the footage from the pilot was also later re-used to make up the bulk of the episode "The Menagerie") and partly based on a fake alien head that the real alien character "Balok" used to intimidate people in the episode "The Corbomite Maneuver." I suspect that they used this fake Balok head as inspiration because the head appears at the end of the closing credits of most episodes, so it's a familiar image to even the casual fan of Star Trek.
 |
| The Keeper, Mego 1975 |
The Keeper uses the standard Type 2 Mego body, but molded in light blue for the first time (this light blue body was used again in the next wave of Star Trek aliens on the Andorian figure). The head sculpt was new for this character and never used for any other Mego characters. He also came with a white robe that was unique to this figure. The robe has two variations: the early release with slightly lighter orange trim and the later release with slightly darker orange trim. If you look at the photo at the top of this page, the carded figure is the later, darker orange release and the loose figure is the earlier, lighter orange release. From what I've seen, it looks like the lighter orange trim was used on the first release of Keeper figures that were packaged on the card featuring 10 characters (the loose figure above is wearing this version of the robe). The darker orange trim seems to appear on the figures packaged with the backing card that also features the next wave of aliens for a total of 14 characters pictured (this is the version pictured on the carded figure above).
Did you have any Mego Star Trek figures when you were a kid? Do you collect them as an adult? Which character is your favorite?
If you collect toys, you should know about Toylanta, the best toy show in the Southeastern United States held annually in Georgia. Visit Toylanta.com for more information.
Comments
Post a Comment