History of the Mego Corporation

The Mego Corporation was founded by David Abrams in 1952. In its infancy Mego was known as an importer of inexpensive toys and novelties. Most of these items were distributed without copyright, date or company trademark.

In 1971, Martin Abrams was promoted to President of Mego Corporation. The 28 year-old Abrams was the first toy executive to pay top dollar for exclusive rights royalties for popular movie, comic book and TV characters. Until this time, licensing had not been a successful venture for toy companies. Abrams guided Mego into the world of licensing and in the direction of becoming the world's greatest action figure producer. Mego became one of the Top 10 toy companies by the end of the 70s.

One of Abrams greatest and most successful ideas was the use of interchangeable 8" bodies and accessories. This cut down costs significantly and enabled Mego to recover from failed action figures (such as the Planet of the Apes line).

Action Jackson was a dominant force in Megos successful line of figures but most significant was the introduction of the Official World's Greatest Super-Heroes line in 1972 ( first four were Batman, Superman, Captain America and Spiderman). By 1977 there were over 30 in this line.

The darkest note in Megos legacy was in 1977 and signaled the beginning of the end of the Mego Corporation. Mego decided not to produce the action figures for the 1977 Sci-Fi hit Star Wars. This propelled Kenner into the lead in the small action figure market and Mego struggled to regain its feet by acquiring the rights to : Star Trek the Motion Picture, The Black Hole, Moonraker and the Buck Rogers tv show. All of these action figure lines combined could not come close to the impact of the Star Wars action figures.

Mego began falling apart in the early 1980s with the expense of licensing failures. Mego sold off pieces of its corporation to stay in business, and eventually in June of 1982, the end would come as Mego filed for bankruptcy and would never produce another toy again.

Mego Lives!