We Had That

Comic Action Heroes presents The Joker! (Mego, 1976) In the 1970s, Mego brought many of our favorite comic book characters to life with their 8" World's Greatest Super Heroes line.  Since they were having so much success, they decided to branch out into other scales as well.  One of their lines of Super Heroes was the smaller scale Comic Action Heroes line which gave Mego the ability to offer a variety of vehicles and playsets that would have been too large for the 8" scale.  I've seen copyright dates for both 1975 and 1976 for these figures, but from what I understand, their actual first release was in 1976.  The figures continued through 1977 and were given new, straight legs in 1978 and re-branded as "Pocket Superheroes." Two pages from the Mego 1976 mini catalog packaged with the toys I thought these guys were great!  I know as a kid I had Batman, Robin, 2 slightly different Superman figures, Shazam, and Aquaman (the only one of my originals that I still...

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Twiki (Mego, 1979) When the Kenner Star Wars figures first came out in the late 1970s, they sold so well that many other toy companies wanted in on the game.  Action figures for a wide variety of movies and TV shows started arriving at toy stores across the country with each manufacturer hoping that they had the "next big thing" on their hands.  It seemed like Science Fiction was an especially popular genre to gamble on and in 1979, when the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century movie was in the works, Mego acquired the license to manufacture the accompanying action figures Twiki outside of the city (Mego, 1979) The figures didn't sell terribly well and the single wave that was released only consisted of 9 figures, which actually isn't that bad when you consider how many toy lines had only around 4 characters back then!  Regardless, I thought they were pretty cool!  They had more points of articulation than Star Wars figures and several coo...

Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear) (Kenner, 1980) Just like most kids in the USA and Canada at the time, I loved Kenner's Star Wars figures!  From the first time I saw them, I thought they were the coolest toys ever!  When The Empire Strikes Back action figures were arriving in stores in early 1980, I was probably at the height of my love of Star Wars and I was very excited about having new figures for the first time in over a year! 10 NEW Kenner Star Wars figures for 1980! Seeing The Empire Strikes Back in the theater was an awesome experience for me!  I thought it was an amazing movie with all kinds of cool characters and great, new adventures for the heroes that I loved from the first movie.  My favorite scenes were the ones that took place on the ice planet Hoth.  Obviously, being a huge fan of the movie and loving the action figures, I wanted every single Star Wars figure that Kenner released, but the figures from Hoth (plus the  Bespin Luke Skyw...

Vintage G.I. Joe "Swivel-Arm" Scarlett (Hasbro, 1983) In 1964, GI Joe became the first doll for boys...I mean "Action Figure."  Hasbro was extremely careful to make sure that GI Joe was never called a "doll" because in the 1960s, the idea of boys playing with dolls was 100% not ok.  The plan worked and throughout the 60s and 70s, GI Joe was a huge seller.  However, Hasbro did make a few missteps along the way.  One of the biggest was the Action Nurse released in 1967.  Apparently, it was ok for boys to play with male dolls if they were called "Action Figures," but no matter what you call it, a female "Action Figure" was still a doll in 1967.  Hasbro learned from their mistake and never released another female character for the GI Joe line for the rest of the 60s and 70s. "Swivel-Arm" Scarlett with her Crossbow With the relaunch of GI Joe in the 80s, Hasbro reluctantly included a female figure in the line and the character of S...