A look back at an action figure classic!

This Toy Spotlight focuses on a true legend in the action figure industry, and an item that many kids had from the 1970’s. When Mego launched their Star Trek toy line in 1974, it was an instant hit. The first wave of items included a few action figures, accessories and one gloriously fun playset. That playset, made for the 8 inch figures, is now considered a iconic toy classic. So without further ado, I present Mego’s U.S.S Enterprise Playset from 1974.

By 1974, Mego Toys was quickly becoming a global name in the toy industry. With the World’s Greatest Heroes line already proving to be a huge success, Mego turned their sights on other licenses from the the big and small screens. The original Star Trek television series ran from 1966 to 1969 and spanned 79 episodes. In late 1969, Star Trek began running syndicated episodes in over 200 markets, which sparked a huge revival of interest in the show. Star Trek became so big, the original actors returned to voice their characters in an Animated Series from 1973 to 1974. Mego took notice of this, and quickly signed Star Trek to a licensing deal for a very reasonable price. Mego had high hopes for the line from the very beginning, and their attention to detail really showed with the first wave of figures and accessories. Since Star Trek Mania was at a fevered pitch, the Star Trek action figure series turned out to be one of the biggest selling lines that Mego ever produced. It did well enough that additional waves of figures and accessories were released in following years.

The first wave of Star Trek items included five action figures, and a few roleplay accessories such as the Communicator set, a Tricorder, and of course, the Enterprise playset. The Enterprise was arguably the most successful and best selling playset that Mego had ever created, depending on who you ask. It was available in abundance due to massive production numbers by Mego, but you can’t really blame them. Despite the large production runs, it still sold extremely well. The U.S.S Enterprise Action playset was the first one released for the Star Trek line, and would go on to become an icon of that era of toys. The playset itself was not incredibly accurate to the actual bridge from the Enterprise, but it definitely captured the spirit of it, and it was just plain fun.

The Enterprise playset itself could be folded up into a neat and tidy carry case, complete with a handle on top. The set included a computer console with two crew member stools and of course, the captain’s chair. Also included were three different two-sided viewer screens that could be manually changed out. The Enterprise set was basically broken down into three different areas of the ship. The main part was of course, the bridge. This is where you could set up the computer and chairs, along with the view screens. This was the largest area, and could easily accommodate several Star Trek figures. There was a small room to the right of the bridge, which is identified as the “Engine Room”, but has no accessories. The final section of the playset also happens to be the absolute coolest part of it, the transporter room. A figure would be placed inside the transporter, and then you would spin it by using the spin button on top of it. Then you mash the stop button, and the transporter would come to a sudden stop. Just like that, the figure would disappear…..….or at least be on the other side of the transporter.

A “Gift Set” version of the Enterprise also exists, and came in a yellow box. The Gift Set is basically identical to the regular version, but includes the first five figures (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scottie, Klingon), and that’s about it. A separate “Transporter Room” was also offered overseas by the Mego subsidiary, Palitoy. This was essentially the same transporter as the one inside the playset, but sold separately. It was actually a nifty piece to have, especially when you wanted to re-create “transporting” from the Enterprise to a planet surface or another ship.

Mego’s U.S.S Enterprise Playset was a huge hit back in the mid 1970’s, and is highly coveted by collectors nowadays. There were a LOT of these sold back in the day, which obviously affects the secondary market value. The good news is that any collector of Mego or Star Trek needs one of these in their collection. It remains extremely poplar on the secondary market, and still brings good prices. Loose versions of the Enterprise playset can be easily found, and usually sell for affordable prices. Boxed versions can also still be found, but are getting harder and harder to find in a decent shape. Mego really set the bar high for future playsets, and the Enterprise is genuinely considered an all-time classic. Mego’s USS Enterprise remains the gold standard for what a successful action figure playset looks like. Despite its simplicity, it worked really well, and provided hours of entertainment for children (myself included) from that era. It still holds up extremely well, and if you don’t believe me, just ask my kids who loved making their more modern action figures disappear in the transporter room while playing with it. A big thank you goes out to Mego for their creative ingenuity in putting this classic together and shaping an incredible era of toys.

The largest action figure playset ever created!

This Toy Spotlight focuses on a true action figure icon, and an item that sits atop the wish lists of many collectors. When Hasbro re-booted their GI Joe line in 1982, the one significant change it made was to shrink the figures down to a more economical 3.75 inch size. In addition to being cheaper to produce, it also gave Hasbro the flexibility to create a ton of amazing vehicles and playsets for their new sized figures. The smaller size allowed Hasbro to get really creative in putting together a cohesive GI Joe world, complete with all the bells and whistles. So, in 1985, Hasbro took a big gamble and released the largest action figure playset EVER created. Without further ado, I present Hasbro’s U.S.S Flagg Aircraft Carrier Playset from 1985.

They say that you can’t keep a good man down, so GI Joe made his triumphant return to toy shelves everywhere in 1982. The best part about the smaller sized figures, was that it opened the door for a ton of great vehicles, playsets and accessories. The older 12 inch figures had vehicles and limited playsets as well, but they were a bit clunky with not a lot of detail. The new 3.75 inch size allowed Hasbro to dive deep into just about everything the military had to offer, including tanks, jeeps, bikes, jets, helicopters, personnel carriers, and ships. Hasbro was testing the waters (no pun intended) with each new wave of Joe products, with more detail and grander scale each year. With all the new Joe figures and accessories, there was an big need for large scale playsets, and those playsets show the biggest evolution of the entire Joe line. Hasbro’s first released playset was a very standard and plain cardboard set called the Missile Command Headquarters in 1982. This was followed by the extremely cool GI Joe Headquarters Command Center in 1983, and none in 1984.

By the year 1985, GI Joe was firmly established as one the top selling toy lines in the entire world, and riding a massive wave of popularity. Hasbro could now afford to take a few chances with different types of ideas and get creative. One of those big ideas (no puns intended) was the U.S.S Flagg (CVN-99). It was proposed the year prior, and got the green light after the Joe line posted massive sales numbers in 1984. The Flagg was a traditional aircraft carrier, modeled after the real life, U.S.S. Nimitz. Hasbro knew they had to make the carrier big because of the already large sized vehicles that would be on it, such as the Skystriker jet. If it was built to true scale with the rest of the Joe figures and vehicles, the Flagg would’ve been nearly 65 feet long and 13 feet wide. As amazing as that sounds, it just wasn’t going to happen. The final size of the U.S.S Flagg ended up being 7 feet and 6 inches long, just over 3 feet wide, and almost 3 feet tall. That may not be 65 feet, but it was still absolutely HUGE for an action figure playset at the time, or any time for that matter. In fact, it would be the largest item ever created for any action figure line, and remains so to this day.

When the U.S.S Flagg hit the toy shelves, it retailed for $109.99. That’s a steep price to pay for a playset in today’s world, so you can imagine how that felt in 1985. For obvious reasons, the Flagg was produced in more limited quantities than other GI joe vehicles and accessories of the time. Any child who grew up in the 1980’s immediately wanted this, as soon as we saw it in the store catalogs. This was, without a doubt, one of the most iconic toys of the entire GI Joe line. At first glance, the box for the U.S.S Flagg was huge. Once you dumped all the pieces out, and took a glance at the mini novel instructions, you instantly knew that your work was cut out for you to put this thing together. The main deck came in four large plate pieces, that fit onto the main bow support. If you go by the instructions, you will have to assemble several other pieces before you get to putting the main deck together. To say this thing had a lot of small pieces for assembly would be a MASSIVE understatement. I’m very sure that many parents back in the 80’s struggled to put this together. This assembly can be a bit overwhelming, but just focus on the ultimate prize of seeing the Flagg in all of its glory, sitting on your dining room table!

When completely assembled, the U.S.S Flagg really comes to life, with all of its detailed pieces and features. The ship came with a two-piece vehicle, which was a tow vehicle and fuel trailer. It also included multiple radar dishes, missile launchers, cannons, an elevator deck, arrestor cables, and an admiral’s launch ship. One of the more awesome features of the Flagg was the electronic public address system. This was basically a bullhorn hooked up to a speaker, that allowed kids to speak into it and have their voice projected around the room, just like being on board the ship. The PA system also played various battle sounds to simulate those classic fights with Cobra. The commander of this incredible ship was Vice-Admiral Keel-Haul, who was included with the Flagg. Even though the U.S.S Flagg was featured in both, the comics and animated series, Keel-Haul never was. This ship also later inspired the Joe figure of General Flagg, released in 1992, who was the son of the original commander of the U.S.S Flagg.

Hasbro’s U.S.S Flagg Aircraft Carrier was a tough sell back in 1985, but is highly coveted nowadays by GI Joe fans around the world. I would guess that it sits near the top of any Joe collectors “Holy Grail List”. The problem is, this item doesn’t come up for sale very often in its original box, and will cost a small fortune when it does. Even loose and incomplete versions of the Flagg go for big dollars on the secondary market. With all due respect to Kenner’s Star Wars line, Hasbro really set the bar when it came to vehicles and playsets for 3.75 inch figures. They created an incredible world for their figures to play in, and brought lots of fun to their GI Joe line. In a business abound with new innovations and creativity, it can be difficult to stand out and truly move the needle, but that’s exactly what Hasbro did with the U.S.S. Flagg. It wasn’t just a huge playset, it was a game changer. No one had ever seen anything like this before, and to be honest, I highly doubt anyone would ever try again. This was absolute joy, stuffed into a massive box, and anyone who was/is lucky enough to own one of these, must have really done something good in their life.

The Bionic Man makes the jump to action figures!

This week’s Toy Spotlight article focuses on another action figure pioneer from the 1970’s. During that era, the toy market was changing in a big way, and really beginning to take shape. Television and movie stars, along with pop celebrities were making the big jump into the toy world. With that in mind, there was no bigger television show on the air in 1975 than the Six Million Dollar Man. It was time for the Bionic Man to crush the toy market just like Colonel Steve Austin crushed bad guys on the small screen. So this Toy Spotlight is on, Kenner’s Six Million Dollar Man action figure from 1975.

In all started back in 1973 when the ABC television network decided to take a chance on a new TV series. It was based upon a book series called “Cyborg”, which was written by Martin Caidin. Instead of going with the book title, ABC decided to change it to The Six Million Dollar Man. The 90 minute pilot episode debuted on March 7, 1973. The show and its star, Lee Majors, would go on to become a smash hit and gained international success. It seemed a no brainer that a toy line would come from this hit series, and the Kenner Toy Company was the lucky one to secure that license. Kenner released their Six Million Dollar Man line in early 1975, and to say it was a huge success would be an understatement. Since the show was already an international hit, so were the toys. They sold out on toy shelves across the globe and became an instant classic.

Television and Movie action figures had certainly been done before the Six Million Dollar Man came to town. Mego made it a popular trend with their Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, and Wizard of Oz action figure lines. Even before that, we saw toy lines from major 1960’s brands such as Bonanza, Man From UNCLE, Batman, and even James Bond. On its own, action figures from a TV show weren’t that unique, but the Six Million Dollar Man was a Bionic Man with cybernetic parts, so he was ready made for a super cool action figure. Hasbro’s GI Joe toy line had upped their game in the early 70’s with their Adventure Team, and began producing new types of inventive figures. Kenner decided they needed to do the same by making their Six Million Dollar Man figure unique, and adding their own special features.

Any child who grew up in the 1970’s, either had this figure or wanted to have it. This was, without a doubt, one of the most iconic toys from that era. At first glance, the Steve Austin figure came with his classic two piece red jogging outfit, along with red sneakers (no socks). In case he ever forgot who he was, there was a patch on the left side of his chest with the Six Million Dollar Man logo. The head sculpt was pretty spot-on, with an excellent likeness of the actor, Lee Majors. His main included accessory was a plastic molded engine block (more on that later). All of that was well and good, but the real thing that made this figure stand out from the pack were his many special features. Among those many features was a telescoping eye that would allow you look through the back of his head, and see whatever the figure was seeing in front of him. Steve also had a super strength feature that used the car engine block accessory. This allowed Colonel Austin to lift up to two pounds by simply pushing a button on his back (note: his head needed to be turned to the right to make this happen). When the button was pushed, It even made bionic sounds! There was a thin rubber “skin sleeve” that could be rolled up on his arms that exposed the Bionic panels underneath. This was a simple but incredibly effective way to convey the bionic/cyborg part of the figure.

Two more versions of the Six Million Dollar Man figure would be released in the following years. The second version had the same Steve Austin character with red jogging suit, but he now had a Bionic Grip to clamp down on items. The third and final version featured Steve Austin in a different red outfit altogether, with a Supersonic feature, which was basically a super Karate chop. Even though these other figures were nice, they just weren’t the original OG real deal Six Million Dollar Man that all know and love. Kenner also released multiple accessories, playsets and vehicles to go along with its star toy line, along with a load of various non-action figure items such as Play-Doh sets, Movie Viewer, Give-A-Show Projector and much more.

Kenner’s Six Million Dollar Man series was incredibly popular back in the 1970’s, and remains highly collectible in today’s market. From that series, the Steve Austin/Bionic Man figure stands out as one of the best examples of original ingenuity in the toy industry. The creation of this line by Kenner ushered in a new wave of creativity, and brought lots of fun to their Six Million Dollar Man line. This creativity would also carry over to other future Kenner brands, such as Star Wars. Over the course of this article, I’ve listed many reasons as to why the the Bionic Man figure stood out, and became such an iconic piece of toy nostalgia. The biggest truth as to why this figure stands out so much, was that it was just so darn to play with, and that is a formula not easily duplicated in the toy world.

Notice the Six Million Dollar Man action figure behind Lee Majors in this scene from the show!