TOYHEM! When commerce was fun!
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Welcome to TOYHEM! For the fourth straight holiday season, we’re bringing you a series of features and columns celebrating the toys of our youth, which often made for the best memories this time of year. Click here to check out the complete index of stories — and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays! — Dan
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UPDATED 12/13/22: We’ve been celebrating the 50th anniversary of Mego’s World’s Greatest Super-Heroes line, so it seems like the perfect time to re-present this piece from 2021. Right on. — Dan
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One of the great childhood joys of the ’70s was plowing through the latest department store catalogues to see what new toys were coming out. TV commercials were always immensely exciting — like little movies, especially this one…
… but seeing a complete selection in print gave it all a particular tangibility. Of course, if Santa didn’t bring you everything you wanted from the catalogue, it could be a source of frustration. But if you were anything like me, you were overjoyed with what you did get — especially if we’re talking Mego.
Musician Ron Papa appears to be the king of the catalogue page on Facebook. Every time I log on, there’s Ron, spreading his version of holiday joy in any number of groups and I think it’s pretty damn awesome.
Anyway, I’ve wanted to do a piece on catalogues for some time and Ron was the perfect resource to find 13 especially groovy pages. He’s been collecting them for years and understands the experience that came with their arrival in the mailbox: “Just like everyone else, coming home from school in the fall waiting for this to arrive on your doorstep, and heading right to the toy section — that’s a feeling that can only be captured by anyone who had grown up in this simple time.”
I couldn’t put it any better, so here are 13 GROOVY CLASSIC MEGO CATALOGUE PAGES, in no particular order. I picked out most of them and Ron provided the scans and sources.
Dig it.
1976 Aldens
1974 JC Penney
1973 Aldens
1975 Eaton’s
1974 Aldens
1975 Montgomery Ward
1976 JC Penney
1978 Aldens
1975 JC Penney
1975 Aldens
1976 Spiegel
1974 JC Penney
1975 Montgomery Ward
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MORE
— The Complete TOYHEM INDEX of Stories and Features. Click here.
— Mego’s MISSION TO GAMMA VI: The Apple of Any STAR TREK Fan’s Eye. Click here.
December 11, 2021
Wow ! These are awsome. I had a lot of those megos , Evel Knievel/ scramble van, Six million dollar man and Action Jackson.
One figure I had that I could never remember the name was the J. J.Armes but now thanks to you I know it.
Great post , thank you and Merry Christmas
December 11, 2021
Love it. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Nothing fired my young imagination like getting those Christmas catalogs in the mail!
I love that first catalog page with Captain America alongside Superman in the Hall of Justice. Also enjoy the Star Trek play set with the mixed size toys. Thats how kids actually play with toys. My first Megos were Batman, Robin, and Dracula. In my mind, Dracula has always been Batman’s greatest foe. That, and his army of little green army men.
December 11, 2021
Kirk and Spock certainly seem to be having fun in that 1976 Aldens page!
This is a fantastic gallery. Imagine a trade collecting nothing but comic book merch ads from the Silver and Bronze Ages!
December 12, 2021
I’m partial to the POTA hustle line, myself. And YES — a trade collection would be FAB!
December 13, 2021
I grew up in the early 70’s, and Megos were the coolest toy, and had already been around long enough you could readily find them at garage sales. I had probably 10… Batman, Robin, Cap, Supes, Star Trek, POTA, and a few more. I played with them constantly, being very careful to not lose the shoes, oven mitts, stickers, etc.
One thing I did NOT have were the playsets, so I would go out to the sweet potato field directly behind my house and dig out Batcaves or tunnels, or other constructions. One friday evening, my mom called me in for supper, so I left the toys in and about the Batcave, and ran inside. We ate, I took a bath, and went to bed, completely forgetting the Megos. The next morning I was awakened to the sound of a tractor plowing the field! I ran outside, and to my horror, my Megos were nowhere to be seen. I looked for them forever, digging and scratching in the freshly plowed dirt, but to no avail. Several years later, a naked, ruined Robin came up to the surface, but I never found the others. Never forget.
December 13, 2021
All this cool stuff on display, but whoever had that catalogue originally just wanted JJ Arms and his van. Fascinating stuff.
December 25, 2022
Speaking of JJ Aarmes, I did not know this figure was based on a real life P.I.
December 13, 2021
Holy Failed memories!!! I totally forgot about the “Duke” German Shepherd figure seen on the Lone Ranger page! Thank you so much for these memories- I had a lot of these figures and accessories. While Batman and Robin and the Batmobile were always my favorite, I have to to say I also loved Green Arrow and his Arrowcar with firing “arrow-rockets”!
February 4, 2022
Superman, Batman, Robin, Joker, Riddler, Shazam, Spider-man, Captain AmericaHuman Torch, All the Star Trek line and the plaset,nLone Ranger and Tonto. lots of Action Jackson’s and suits.
Tons of memories here.
December 13, 2022
Mark B., you’re absolutely right. “My” Superfriends were Superman, Batman and Robin and Spider-Man because those were the figures we had. There’s a scene in one of the Toy Story movies where the toys play different roles, with the piggy bank as the villain. We had to be creative in those days.
December 17, 2022
These are great. I always loved it when the Sears Christmas catalogue came out. BTW, love the women’s suffrage insult Joker is dropping on Wonder Woman. Keeping it classy!