Though they aren’t around any longer, for several decades the Mego Corporation was a driving force in the toy industry. Mego actually started more than 60 years ago, in 1954, as a simple importer of dime store toys; however, the rising costs of advertising forced the company into changing its game plan.

Mego ended up shifting to action figures after Martin Abrams took over as the company’s president. His idea was to create figures with interchangeable bodies – the generic bodies could be mass-made and the characters would change by putting different heads and costumes on them. One of their first toys was Action Jackson, an original character created to compete with Hasbro’s G.I. Joe. Action Jackson’s popularity was a flash in the pan, peaking and fading completely between 1971-1974.

However, Mego was able to bounce back by creating their “World’s Greatest Super Heroes!” line, which contained both DC and Marvel heroes. They also had a number of dolls based on television shows and films, such as Star Trek, The Flintstones, Happy Days, The Wizard of Oz, and Planet of the Apes.

A number of highly-prized Mego figures are currently in the ongoing auction at Hake’s Americana. One of these is an Aquaman figure on a red card; in 1979, there were four heroes issued on generic red cards with no names or item numbers, making this example highly prized. Another is the Spider-Man Mego figure, which dates to 1972, and the Conan Mego from 1975 is also available for bidding. These just scratch the surface of the available Mego figures, and a full lineup of what’s available for bidding can be found at the Hake’s website. Auctions will begin to close on November 17.