I have a few vivid memories of childhood disappointments. There was being cut from the Little League team and dropped back down to Pee Wees, which pretty much ended my baseball career, there was being sold into a forced marriage in the school playground at the tender age of 8 (a long story), and then there was repeatedly begging for and being denied Mego Super Heroes. I was obsessed with super heroes of all kinds, and spent many an hour lusting over Megos of various descriptions in the toy aisles of various K-Marts throughout my youth, but I think my parents just saw them as dolls and therefore not fitting toys for their little boy. It’s a loss I’ve long bemoaned, especially whenever I look at the price of a genuine MOC Mego Aquaman on eBay. *sob!*
Mattel is bringing the sexy back in their Retro Action DC Superheroes line, which started with the Mattycollector.com exclusive Green Arrow. I was only too keen to order this and very happy when it arrived on the slow boat a few days ago. Green Arrow looks like great fun. The headsculpt is very well done – a modernised version of what would have been once upon a time. As for the body, I like the fact that it isn’t overly updated. The gloves and boots retain that chunky original feel, and the overall proportions don’t seem to have altered at all.
The magic for me in this line is in the reproduction packaging, which comes complete with a bit of “fading” to give it that genuine feel. Thus at this stage I don’t see myself unpacking these – although Green Arrow is very tempting because he comes with some great accessories I could play with, and it does bug me that his archer’s cap is rolling around in the bottom of the plastic bubble. Nevertheless, I’d hate to lose the retro feel of the packaging, and I doubt I’d hold the same affection for these if they were displayed loose, so I’ll hold off at least for now.
I don’t see myself collecting the whole line, but favourite characters Aquaman and Green Lantern are a nostalgic must. Everything else will be on a case by case basis. I’d sure love the Teen Titans in their original Mego glory!
In my view the only way this could have been improved upon would be to have some sort of resealable packaging so that the figure could be inspected or displayed but then repackaged to retain the retro feel. I guess it wouldn’t really be retro if it didn’t have the good ‘ol rip-off bubble!
You can see more pics at Facebook, discuss this at the AFB Forum, and comment on this post to enter the AFB February Comment of the Month Contest.
Until next time!
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