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Tomorrow's Collectibles Today!
![]() Mego Star Trek Figures
Mego's first Star Trek figures were released as far back as 1974, pre-Star Wars, and were based primarily on the live-action TV series at the time although much of its' inspiration was also drawn from the Star Trek: Animated Series. Mego also picked up the Trek license at the ideal time as the franchise was perceived as being "dead" and past its sell by date but was about to go through a dramatic and unanticipated resurgence of interest that created a huge cult following around the original series.
The first line of Mego Star Trek figures featured Capt. Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy (Bones), Mr. Scott (Scottie), and the Klingon. These were later amended to include Lt. Uhura as the late, feminist-conscious addition to the first series. These were the first 8-inch figures that Mego produced exclusively on blister cards and weren't produced in boxes, as most of their figures at the time were. Initially these blister cards featured paintings of all five characters, the "Star Trek" logo in white, and each figure's name depicted in white text above the bubble but later the characters name was changed from white text to the color of the respective character's profile circle. Generally a Type 1 body was used for the "5-face" card figures and a Type 2 body on the "6-face" card figures. The five original figures were also available in a rare U.S.S. Enterprise Gift Set which is extremely rare to find in good condition.
These Mego figures have become extremely popular among both Trek collectors and Mego collectors mainly due to the fact that they remain to be generally affordable and reasonably easy to find. However a sizable warehouse discovery of these gems was unearthed in Canada in the mid-1980s, that lead to a drop in value that the collecting community is only now beginning to recover from, some twenty years later which has made them a poor choice for the speculator or investor but for the fan, they remain a favorite choice. The following years saw many new Star Trek figures being released due to the success of the initial line. One of Mego's main priorities was to give the Enterprise crew a number of enemies to fight and so in 1975 they released a Neptunian, the Keeper, a Gorn, and a Cheron. Although these figures were supposedly based on the TV series many of them bore more of a resemblance to the aliens in the animated series and used Type 2 bodies. Also many of the bodies used for the figures were of strange and unique colors, were of an abnormal size, or had unique, character-specific body components created for them and Mego also created new card art featuring a beautiful mountain landscape on the left with a for the Aliens series that featured a red planet and blue moon hung against a black, starry night. These Alien figures, despite the numerous errors and inaccuracies, sold well enough to warrant three series of Trek figures featuring four or more Aliens. The third series, and final series, consisted of a Romulan, a Talosian, an Andorian, and a Mugato and these are considered to be some of the rarest Mego figures produced, mainly due to a fire at Mego's which destroyed a large quantity of the stock. A new card was also produced for this series as well as re-releasing the previous series of Alien figures on the new cards. Mego also produced a number of accessories for their Star Trek figures, most notably an extremely-limited Enterprise Gift Set which included the original five figures (Uhura being the odd woman out) on Type 1 bodies. Other "playsets" produced included a U.S.S. Enterprise Playset in 1975 but "Trek" fans were treated to a stand-alone Transporter Room which was produced by Mego's British associate, Palitoy-Bradgate. Then there was the Mission to Gamma VI Playset based on "The Apple" episode, then finally an eight-inch Telescreen Console. Mego's emphasis on these playsets was to provide something that was high on playability and affordability rather than on accuracy and also featured bright colors. In 1979 Mego also acquired the license to produce figures for Star Trek: The Motion Picture . For these Star Trek figures Mego abandoned the 8-inch scale and introduced three-and-three-quarters inch and twelve inch figures. But these didn't live up to Mego's high expectations, mainly due to their inconsistencies and inaccuracies compared to the popularilty of the Star Wars figures.
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