Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 23, 2025 | 5 comments

TOYHEM! From The Love Boat to The Waltons — even Joe Namath — the best toy company of the 1970s wasn’t always the best…

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Welcome to TOYHEM! For the seventh 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! 

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By JIM BEARD 

It should come as no surprise that a certain segment of grown-up children consider the classic Mego Toy Corporation the GOAT of all toy companies. I mean, they dominated the 1970s with the action figures every kid wanted and the licenses every other company drooled over.

That said, they also, like any other manufacturer, had as many misses as they did hits. My list today is an ode to those misfires, the Megoddballs that both amuse and mystify us with their presence in toy history. These are some of the way-out, wacky, and weird choices the company made up the ladder to success—and down the other side.

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Joe Namath (1970). Joe pretty much kicked off Mego’s action figure line (See what I did there?) and got the ball going (See what I did again? I’ll be here all article, folks!). You might even say he was the starting line-up for sports-star action figures (Please don’t leave yet.), but maybe the only one with “12 Different Mod-About-Town Outfits.” (See, I’m not the only one who can make puns.)

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Dinah-Mite (1973). Action Jackson was Mego’s 8-inch answer to GI Joe, and Dinah-Mite was his spinoff. She was supposed to have hit stores earlier, but was delayed until World’s Greatest Super-Heroes was a hit. She allegedly led the pack as the company’s biggest brand for girls, but today she’s mostly been relegated to standing in AJ’s shadow.

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The Wizard of Oz (1974). World’s Greatest Super-Heroes, cowboys, knights, Planet of the Apes… and Dorothy and the Munchkins. Mego can say what they will about the initial interest and sales of the Oz line, but I think we can all admit it was a pretty odd choice even then (though I gotta say the Emerald City playset was kinda cool in a funky, “I’m not really playing with a girl’s toy” way).

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The Waltons (1975). Move over, Sunshine Family—the Waltons are on the scene with… with homespun values and… well… a farmhouse! And a general store and a barn! Seriously, that line had some major playsets, weirdly enough (but no Ike Godfrey action figure, which is sort of a crime).

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Starsky & Hutch (1976). OK, we’re back in solid boy’s toys territory and not all that sissy stuff. The S&H line boasted a wicked Car with Twist-Out Action, as well as a Huggy Bear figure to inform on all his homies and, y’know, whoever was just askin’ to be ratted on. Needless to say, not a big seller, from what I understand.

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One Million B.C. (1976). This was a very interesting, very unique line that has absolutely nothing to do with the 1966 film of the same name. It featured five different figures and at least two dinosaurs, plus a “Tribal Lair” treehouse playset. Despite all that, the line was doomed to, wait for it, extinction. Try the Hairy Rhino, folks, and don’t forget to tip your server.

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Muhammad Ali (1976). Listen, I am in no way demeaning The Greatest by any stretch of the imagination, but when you have an action figure line that only consists of your hero and one “bad guy” (and a boxing ring, to be fair), you can’t expect the toys to “sting like a bee,” can you?

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Our Gang (1976). With a total of six figures, a large playset, and three vehicles, you’d think Mego’s “Our Gang” line was a sign the company thought they could make anything and it would sell. Alas, they actually only did it because the rights came along with Wizard of Oz and less plastic was needed for kid characters. It wasn’t a big seller, which probably surprised absolutely no one.

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Happy Days (1976). Heyyy, this is a tough one for me, because the show was sort of the soundtrack of my childhood, but in the end I just can’t imagine why anyone would have wanted a Potsy figure, or Ralph Malph, for that matter. Fonzie? Maybe. I will admit that the “Fonzie Garage” playset was kinda “Woahhh!”

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C.B. McHaul (1977). Around the same time Mego went international, they also put out something a little closer to home: A line of figures for the C.B. radio craze. Despite the large lineup of characters and a “Big Rig” truck, C.B. and his cronies were squelched after only a year or so. I mean, wasn’t the radio fad thing pretty much over by then, anyway?

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Flash Gordon (1978). Okay, now we’re talkin’, right? Flash was some serious space opera stuff and the perfect fit for action figures — except, in 1978, who was Flash Gordon? Kind of a nobody. The Filmation series was still a year away, and Star Wars was the only SF property a kid cared about, so Flash wasn’t even a flash in the pan for Mego. Four retro Alex Raymond-style figures and a playset and… done.

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The Dukes of Hazzard (1981). When the 1980s dawned, “them Duke boys” were sitting pretty with Mego, boasting two scales of figures (8” and 3 3/4”), and a series of vehicles for both. I admit I watched the show, but more for the musical guests they often had than anything (I’m a little dumber today because of it). I guess it was all a success, but still an oddball. Playtime with the line had to be as one-note as the show, I’m sure.

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The Love Boat (1981). Let’s wrap this up with the line that exemplifies “Megoddball” — Captain Stubing and his lovable crew of rascals. They were conveniently Kenner Star Wars size for when you wanted Doc to try and treat Luke’s missing hand, or Princess Leia and Julie and Vicki to trade hairstyling tips. Let’s not even discuss what Darth Vader and Gopher would talk about. Maybe who had the better playset.

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MORE

— The Complete TOYHEM INDEX of Stories and Features. Click here.

— Dig 13 of the GREATEST PLAYSETS EVER MADE. Click here.

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When JIM BEARD’s not editing and publishing through his two houses, Flinch Books and Becky Books, he’s pounding out adventure fiction with both original and licensed characters. In fact, he’s put words in the mouths of Luke Skywalker, Superman, Fox Mulder, Carl Kolchak, Peter Venkman and the Green Hornet… and lived to tell about it.

Right now, for the holiday season, he’s got a “Comic Book Culture” book bundle up for sale on Amazon — Jack of All Comics! about Jack Kirby; The Old Origin Changeth, about how superhero back stories evolve and expand; Breaking Bold and Brave, an issue-by-issue guide to the classic Brave and the Bold comics series; and, Walking the Wider Web, a guide to Marvel Team-Up. Check it out here.