FANTASTIC FOUR WEEK! — It’s FANTASTIC FOUR WEEK! Because there’s a big ol’ movie coming out! Click here for the COMPLETE INDEX of columns and features! Flame on! — Dan — By CHRIS FRANKLIN  The Fantastic Four. The First Family who ushered in the Marvel Age of Comics. Legend has it that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby may have been responding to publisher Martin Goodman’s edict to copy DC’s successful Justice League of America title, but they created something far different. Using the monstrous sci-fi tales they had been crafting for their anthology stories as a springboard, Lee and Kirby gave us a team of intrepid explorers, each with a distinct personality, and a penchant for disagreement. This quirky quartet caught on, Atlas Comics gave way to Marvel, and readers got heroes and villains they could identify with. Despite their popularity, and a quick jump to television with their 1967 Hanna-Barbera animated series, the FF didn’t get a lot of merchandise in the initial boom of Marvelmania. The ’70s were kinder to them, giving them their first action figures, and over the decades, they have returned in plastic form again and again. For those who have read my other toy gallery articles, my Fantastic Four collection is nowhere near as robust, but luckily my son Andrew had a few items to pepper in for variety. With a new film (hopefully the best one yet) about to hit cinemas, let’s take a look at what forms the trailblazing heroes have taken over the decades. — Mister Fantastic – Official World’s Greatest Super Heroes (Mego, 1976). The Fantastic Four were some of the last new characters added to Mego’s beloved World’s Greatest Super Heroes 8-inch figure line. Because of this they benefited from some of the maturing aesthetics of the series. Reed here has a very Kirby-like sculpt with a strong jaw and lots of character. His outfit (like Sue’s later down this list) has a heat-sealed decal, and not a flimsy fabric sticker like earlier Megos. He also comes with molded gloves that pull off the costume look far better than Mego’s goofy (but nonethe lesscharming) oven mitts. It’s a shame Mego never tried to replicate his power set, since they did make a line of Elastic Heroes later in the decade. — The Invisible Girl– Official World’s Greatest Super Heroes (Mego, 1976). Sue has the distinction of...