Action Figure Overview: Comic Action Heroes - The Joker (Mego, 1976)
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| 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."
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| 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 have). I'm 99% sure that I also had Penguin and Green Goblin. I also had the Fortress of Solitude playset (which was sold with the slightly different Superman). When I sold it at a garage sale as a kid, it was still in the original box and wasn't missing any pieces. <sigh> I have no idea why I sold it. I kept the vast majority of my childhood toys that I had actually liked. There were some toys that I never played with that left the house at garage sales over the years, but I tried to keep all of the cool stuff.
Although I'm not 100% sure of ALL of the figures I had, I do know that I never had The Joker. When I started trying to re-collect them as an adult, I knew I wanted to get them all, but The Joker was higher on my list than many of the others. Not all of the Comic Action Heroes look great. They still have their charm, but some of them quite simply could have been better. But The Joker was actually one of the cooler ones to me!
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| The Joker - Looking sharp on his orange stand! |
The Joker came with a removable coat and a cane (which even the 8" Joker didn't have!) He also came with a little, orange stand which was the same for all of the Comic Action Heroes. I'm sure most of these were lost back in the 70s since most kids probably didn't have much use for them. As with the other Comic Action Heroes, the details of his face weren't painted. In his case, his face was solid white with bright green hair. His outfit was a dark purple with a green shirt under his coat.
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| The Joker could be menacing even in a small scale! |
I've read several articles on the Comic Action Heroes and they tend to skip over one very obvious...um... "feature" of these figures. Well, I am going to address the elephant in the room: the position of their right arm and hand. I can't believe that no one at Mego considered these poses might be problematic. I know the 1970s were a more innocent time (or were they?), but come on! How can any adult not see this?
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| Whoa, Batman! That's not the Batusi! |
Honestly, I thought nothing of it when I had them as a kid, but as an adult, I have to admit, it's occasionally a little bit awkward to show these to people. However, for some reason, The Joker doesn't look so bad in that regard. Maybe it's the cane...or maybe it's the coat. I don't know. But for whatever reason, The Joker looks much less salacious than the rest. I think he's a great figure and I'm disappointed that The Joker didn't make the transition to the "Pocket Superheroes" format in 1978.
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| The Joker could always make us laugh! |
Did you have any Comic Action Heroes as a kid? Do you collect them now? Did you ever have The Joker figure? Which character is your favorite?
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Had all of them , 76-77. Had a "Super Friends" feel to the DC'S.
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