Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jul 4, 2024 | 2 comments

JAWSMANIA, Mego-Style!

It’s July 4. You have choices, assuming you’re not working: Go to the pool. Go to the beach. Go to the ballgame. Go to the movies. Don’t go anywhere, stay in the air-conditioning, watch Jaws, read Jaws-influenced comics and break out Mego’s Aquaman vs. the Great White Shark playset. (Or Figures Toy Company’s, if you have to.)

Just like comics publishers, toymakers glommed onto Jawsmania when the blockbuster made pop-culture tidal waves in 1975. This went on for years, and Mego was no exception.

“1978 marked the final product addition to the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes (line),” our pal Benjamin J. Holcomb wrote in the acclaimed 2007 bible Mego 8″ Super-Heroes: World’s Greatest Toys! “Aquaman vs. the Great White Shark is a large display box that paired Aquaman with a 15-inch plastic shark with a propeller.

An original set. Photo courtesy of Benjamin J. Holcomb.

“Depicted in the 1978 Mego catalog, Aquaman clearly has webbed hands with straightened fingers, a variation known as the “Webbed Hand” Aquaman. Many collectors assume Mego created the unique hands specifically for this playset, while others maintain they were intended for a figure based on the 1977/78 TV series Man from Atlantis, which Mego — at least briefly — considered producing. No playsets with webbed hands have been identified, lending weight to the latter theory. While unsuccessful in its day, the playset is very scarce and commands a high price today.”

Courtesy Benjamin J. Holcomb

In 2015, Figures Toy Company produced a replica version — sans propeller and snapping-mouth features. But it has the benefit of being a newer, cleaner toy. It’s extremely difficult to find the original but even though the FTC version is sold out, you can find it on eBay for anywhere between $40 and about about $135. (It retailed for $80.)

It’s an incredibly goofy set but one that’s as charming as the seaside town of Amity.

Of course, you do have to wonder why Aquaman would ever have to fight a shark. After all, he talks to fishes.

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MORE

— SHAAARRRK!!! 13 COVERS That Take a Bite Out of JAWS. Click here.

— 13 QUICK THOUGHTS: FTC’s AQUAMAN/SHARK Set is Epically Silly. Click here.