How a Mego rarity ended up on J.K. Woodward‘s variant for #4.
As soon as I saw the variant cover to Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive #4, I had a laugh.
There was Spock, trapped in the weird Mego Planet of the Apes Throne used to torment the Astronaut 40 years ago.
Even funnier was that Scott Tipton, co-writer of the limited series from IDW and Boom! with his brother David, had sent us a picture months ago to use for a piece about his own Mego madness.
“Spoiler?” I wondered. Well, I was close.
Turns out there’s a really cool story behind the cover by J.K. Woodward.
“At San Diego Comic-Con, last year, I found the Mego Throne and immediately bought it,” Scott e-mailed me when I asked. “I showed it to J.K. and my brother, who looked at the great painting on the box and were both immediately like ‘That should be the cover! Put Spock in there!'”
![Not David's. H/T toysyouhad.com](https://13thdimension.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/thanks-toysyouhad.jpg)
Not David’s. H/T toysyouhad.com
Woodward recalled: “I remember Scott showing me the toy he had. I immediately wanted to include an homage to the package art for a cover. I asked Scott what he thought of that and he came back with an idea from Dave to put Spock in the chair with a tricorder. I purposely did the gorillas to look more like the Mego toys than what they looked like in the movies. I wanted this to speak to fans of the Mego toys.
“I knew they’d appreciate it,” he added.
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Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive #4 is out now.