Star Trek
(1974 – 1980)

Click These Links to See Individual Star Trek Pages

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 with Planet of the Apes and now Star Trek, which were both released in 1974. The original Star Trek television series ran from 1966 to 1969 and spanned 79 episodes. In late 1969, Star Trek began running old episodes in syndication in over 200 markets, which sparked a revival of interest in the show from old and new fans alike. This renewed interest took off like wildfire and even spawned the first ever Star Trek Convention in June of 1972. Star Trek became so big, the original actors returned to voice their characters in the Animated Series from 1973 to 1974. Paramount’s strategy to syndicate Star Trek was paying off big time and the country was thrust into Trekkie mania. Mego took notice of this and quickly signed a licensing deal for a Star Trek toy line, for an extremely reasonable price. Mego had high hopes for the line from the very beginning, and put a lot of attention to detail into Star Trek, which really showed with the first series of figures and accessories released in 1974. Since Star Trek Mania was at a fevered pitch, the Star Trek action figure line turned out to be one of the biggest selling lines that Mego ever produced. It did well enough that a second and even third series of figures were released in following years. Star Trek Merchandise exploded into every retail store in the country, and even across the world, but none of them ever achieved the success that Mego did with their iconic toy line.

During its four year run, Mego gave us some truly iconic and classic figures and accessories for the Star Trek line from 1974-1977. In total, Mego released 14 different figures across three waves during its run, along with some great accessories and playsets. The first series initially contained five figures that included Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott, and the Klingon. Lt. Uhura was added to the Series 1 lineup late, but she is still considered part of Series 1. The fact that Mego chose to release a female character (that traditionally did not sell as well to the target audience) over more well known characters, such as Sulu or Chekov was a bold but progressive move for Mego. Also released as part of Series 1 was the U.S.S Enterprise Playset and the Communicators set. The figures proved to be so popular that a second series was released in 1975, which was added four new Aliens characters to the set. Included in Series 2 were Cheron, The Keeper, Neptunian, and The Gorn. Four additional Alien characters were released in Series 3, which contained Talos, Mugato, Andorian and The Romulan. The last series of Aliens were released late, and are among the hardest to find Mego figures ever produced. Several other accessories and playsets were also released during Mego’s Star Trek action figure run, such as the Tricorder, Super Phaser II Target Game, Command Communications Console, and the Mission to Gamma VI playset. These all made for a lot of great fun, playing with the Star Trek action figure line, and remains beloved by that generation of children, myself included.

By 1979, Star Wars had taken the toy industry by storm and all the other toy companies across the globe were just trying to catch up by finding the next big thing. Mego toys had famously passed up the opportunity to make toys based on the Star Wars movie, so they were desperate to find their own powerhouse science fiction franchise. After already snatching up licensing deals with Logan’s Run, Space 1999 and Disney’s The Black Hole, Mego now decided to produce toys based on the new Star Trek movie being released in 1979. Mego already had a licensing deal with Paramount to produce toys from the classic Star Trek television show, and were also granted permission to create the movie toy line as well with very high hopes. Star Trek the Motion Picture turned out to be mildly successful at box office, but met with mixed reviews that left many fans scratching their heads. This translated over to the merchandising items for the movie as well, including Mego’s action figure lines. Mego had big plans for the line but the lack of big demand at the box office meant an early end to the line. Many products were left unproduced and The Star Trek Motion Picture line of action figures proved to be a bit of a disappointment for Mego, which were one of many reasons why they met with an untimely end a couple of years later.

The Star Trek Motion Picture Series toy line actually featured two different action figure lines with a classic 12 Inch series, along with a new 3.75 Inch series as well. The 3.75 Inch series was the main line and featured two waves containing twelve figure in total. Wave 1 included most of the main characters aboard the Enterprise, including Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott, Captain Decker, and Lt. Llia. Sadly, Mego did not produce figures based on the rest of the Enterprise crew, Uhura, Chekov and Sulu. Just like the classic Mego television series line, the 2nd series contained all aliens with Arcturian, Betelgeusian, Klingon, Megarite, Rigellian and Zaranite. Unfortunately, all six figure from Series 2 were only released in Canada and Italy, making them difficult to find nowadays. The U.S.S Enterprise Bridge Playset, was also released for the 3.75 Inch line. For the 12 Inch line, Mego produced six characters, including Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Decker, Llia, Klingon and Arcturian. Mego’s head sculpts for the 12 inch figures are actually quite nice with a lot of attention to likeness details. The 3.75 Inch line suffered the typical paint jobs that other Mego lines endured at the time with a lot of paint fading. A series of ship models were also produced but are incredibly difficult to find on the secondary market.

1974 – 1977

---

1979 – 1980

---