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The Mad Monster Series 1974 – 1975

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The Mad Monster Series line featured new interpretations of four iconic monsters, Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman and the Mummy. Each featured a small descriptive word before their name, such as Dreadful Dracula, Human Wolfman, Horrible Mummy and Monster Frankenstein, which was done due to copyright reasons because Mego didn’t own licensing rights. A Mad Monster Castle playset was also released. The beautiful packaging artwork was drawn by the legendary comic artist, Gray Morrow.

For more information about Mego’s Mad Monsters line, see bottom of page for a complete summary.

Mego released four different figures for their Mad Monsters action figure line in 1974 and 1975. The figures were re-released in 1980 under the Lion Rock brand.

Dreadful Dracula

Dreadful Dracula
Accessories: Cloth Suit, Cape, Shoes
Years Released: 1974, 1975; Lion Rock Card: 1980
Difficulty To Find: Hard to Find – Occasionally listed, and usually sells quickly
Notes: Dracula was initially released in 1974 in a solid box package that Mego used in 1972 for their WGSH line. The beautiful artwork was created by the legendary Comic artist, Gray Morrow. Mego later released Dracula in an exclusive narrow blister card package for Kresge (K-Mart) Department Stores, before later switching to a more consumer friendly open window box. The Mad Monsters returned in 1980, but were released under the Lion Rock brand. Dracula did have a slightly different sculpt and costume than the original Mego versions. These Lion Rock card versions can be very tough to find on today’s secondary market.
NOTE: A rare red-haired variation of Dracula was also released, which is extremely rare nowadays.

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Horrible Mummy

Horrible Mummy
Accessories: Cloth Suit
Years Released: 1974, 1975; Lion Rock Card: 1980
Difficulty To Find: Hard to Find – Occasionally listed, and usually sells quickly
Notes: The Horrible Mummy was initially released in 1974 in a solid box package that Mego used in 1972 for their WGSH line. The beautiful artwork was created by the legendary Comic artist, Gray Morrow. Mego later released the Mummy in an exclusive narrow blister card package for Kresge (K-Mart) Department Stores, before later switching to a more consumer friendly open window box. The Mad Monsters returned in 1980, but were released under the Lion Rock brand. The Mummy did have a slightly different sculpt and costume than the original Mego versions. These Lion Rock card versions can be very tough to find on today’s secondary market.

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Human Wolfman

Human Wolfman
Accessories: Cloth Suit, Coat, Boots
Years Released: 1974, 1975; Lion Rock Card: 1980
Difficulty To Find: Hard to Find – Occasionally listed, and usually sells quickly
Notes: The Human Wolfman was initially released in 1974 in a solid box package that Mego used in 1972 for their WGSH line. The beautiful artwork was created by the legendary Comic artist, Gray Morrow. Mego later released the Wolfman in an exclusive narrow blister card package for Kresge (K-Mart) Department Stores, before later switching to a more consumer friendly open window box. The Mad Monsters returned in 1980, but were released under the Lion Rock brand. The Wolfman did have a slightly different sculpt and costume than the original Mego versions. These Lion Rock card versions can be very tough to find on today’s secondary market.

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Monster Frankenstein

Monster Frankenstein
Accessories: Cloth Suit, Coat, Boots
Years Released: 1974, 1975; Lion Rock Card: 1980
Difficulty To Find: Hard to Find – Occasionally listed, and usually sells quickly
Notes: The Monster Frankenstein was initially released in 1974 in a solid box package that Mego used in 1972 for their WGSH line. The beautiful artwork was created by the legendary Comic artist, Gray Morrow. Mego later released Frankenstein in an exclusive narrow blister card package for Kresge (K-Mart) Department Stores, before later switching to a more consumer friendly open window box. The Mad Monsters returned in 1980, but were released under the Lion Rock brand. Frankenstein did have a slightly different sculpt and costume than the original Mego versions. These Lion Rock card versions can be very tough to find on today’s secondary market.

The Mad Monster Series (1974-1975): Accessories

There were no action figures accessories released for the Mad Monster action figure series.

The Mad Monster Series (1974-1975): Playsets

Mego only released one large scale playset for the Mad Monster Series action figure line, but it was a truly iconic piece that remains one the most difficult pieces to track down on the secondary market.

Mad Monster Castle

Market Value:
Boxed $1,500 – $2,000
Loose $650 – $850

Mad Monster Castle
Accessories: Parapets x 4, Operating Table, Draw Bridge & Chains
Years Released: 1974, 1975
Difficulty To Find: Rare – Rarely seen in any condition on the secondary market
Notes: The Mad Monster Castle was released in 1974 and is considered the only official documented large scale playset released for the Mego history and legends lines (unless you believe the Super Knights Castle actually made it to release). The set featured a working draw bridge and four parapets that you could attach to the top corners of the castle. Also included was an operating table and not much else. This playset remains very difficult to find in boxed form on the secondary market.

By 1974, Mego toys was gaining quite the reputation as being a top innovator in the action figure world. With such successful lines as the World’s Greatest Super Heroes, and more mega lines being released, such as Star Trek and Planet of the Apes, Mego was exploding into a huge expansion period. Despite their success with their big brands, Mego was still introducing several different smaller lines to add some diversity to their brand. Since Mego now had some clout in the toy industry and were boasting huge toy sale numbers, they could now afford to take a few gambles with some different types of action figure lines. One of those gambles happened to be the Mad Monster Series action figure line. The idea was to release an action figure line based on legendary and iconic Universal Monster characters, but Mego lost out on the actual Universal Studios license to AHI Toys, which was a smaller toy company. AHI produced a series called the “World Famous Super Monsters”, which are commonly mistaken for the Mego versions. Mego’s monster figures were not based on any actual movie versions, but rather a new interpretation of each character. The line was actually a very successful one for Mego that ran for two years, but in 1975, the decision was made to end the Mad Monster Series and move on to other ventures. As fate would have it, the line would return in 1980 with brand new packaging but the figures were released under the Lion Rock brand and not Mego.

The Mad Monster Series toy line featured four basic characters, which were all new interpretations of each character. Offered were classic and iconic monster characters, such as Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman and the Mummy. Each of them featured a small descriptive word before each actual name, such as Dreadful Dracula, Human Wolfman, Horrible Mummy and Monster Frankenstein. This was done due to copyright reasons. Mego didn’t have to pay any type of licensing fees to use these characters, so the world was their oyster when it came to selecting and designing them. Mego also released a castle playset for the line in 1974, simply called, the Mad Monster Castle. This castle was not easily found in 1974, which makes it incredibly hard to track down nowadays, especially in its original box. There were no other accessories created for the Mad Monster Series.

The original boxed packaging for the Mad Monster Series line of action figures was perhaps the most beautifully drawn artwork that Mego had produced to that date. It was the solid boxed design that Mego first introduced in 1972 with the WGSH line, but the wow factor was without a doubt the lovely character portraits that decorated the front and back of the box, which were drawn by the legendary comic artist, Gray Morrow. The figures were also offered on the popular Kresge Department Store cards from 1974 to 1975 as well. The design was a colorful background with the World’s Greatest Super Heroes logo at the very top, this time the monsters replaced the classic super heroes. The Mad Monsters were also released with the open window box format in 1975 only. The 1980 Lion Rock release was a rather plain yellow and green colored card with the four character portraits sitting on the left hand side in miniature form.