Reading – 1978 Reimagined
Available at the Plaid Stallions online store, 1978 Reimagined is a 16-page “catalog” of Mego action figures, playsets, and vehicles from 1978 . . . that didn’t exist. Sure there are some real items in the catalog, but the entire idea behind this project is to present a “what if?” scenario in which Mego’s largest mistake of the seventies never happened.
Mego passed up on the rights to produce Star Wars figures and accessories.
This is a surprisingly fun — and nicely produced; the paper stock is nice and heavy — magazine-like book and after flipping through it several times I wanted to share the book with all of you. You can find photos in this Flickr set, but don’t forget to keep reading to learn a little about what’s inside the book.
New Licenses!
From Star Wars to Scooby Doo, the book “grants” Mego new licenses for 1978 that would have made younger me (and many others) quite happy. And as I mentioned in “The Death of Action Figure Outfit Sets”, if Mego had created the Star Wars figures of the seventies things would have been very different.
New Toys for Old Licenses!
In addition to the completely new stuff there are also new toys for Star Trek, The Wizard of Oz, and a massive expansion to the World’s Greatest Super-Heroes line. There are far too many amazing custom Mego action figures and toys in here for me to choose one favorite, but I will say that I would love to see bigger photos of every toy shown and that the World of Batman playset is an idea Mattel should run with right now.
Closing Thoughts
1978 Reimagined is a simple concept, but pulling this off had to have been a challenge and everyone involved in the creation of the book deserves thanks and applause; this is a lot of fun and I hope that it sells well enough the try a 1979 edition. Highly recommended to anyone who loves action figures and custom work.
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Gah! Just knowing that that Mego Enterprise Bridge could have existed is seriously depressing me.
I dig the Scooby Doo stuff too. I wish Biff Bang Pow would pick up that license and give those figures a go.
@FigureFan Zero – I suspect the Scooby Doo license it a bit too expensive at the moment. But who knows, maybe they’re chasing that down right now.
Imagine if Mego had produced Star Wars 3 3/4” figures. Their Black Hole action figures trumped the Kenner Star Wars toys in terms of articulation. Add to that all the Micronauts toys they had and I bet we’d have got some kind of super-articulated, combining Star Wars toys! Gah!
@Iok – Now I want to see someone customize Star Wars toys using old Micronauts! That would make for a very cool “what if?” catalog that I would happily buy.