World’s Greatest Super-Heroes

World’s Greatest Super-Heroes
(1972 – 1980)

Click These Links to See Individual WGSH Pages

WGSH (DC)

WGSH (Marvel)

WGSH (12 Inch Figures)

WGSH (Vehicles, Playsets, Accessories)

WGSH (Bend ‘N Flex Figures)

When you think of iconic toy lines for each decade, Mego’s action figures of the 1970’s stand out as one of the biggest things that ever happened to toys. Along with Star Wars and GI Joe, Mego has earned their place on the action figure Mount Rushmore, but their journey to becoming an iconic toy brand went through quite a few trials before finally becoming the mighty toy line we all know and love. The Mego Toy Company was founded in 1954 by David Abrams in New York City. The company was a big producer of dime store type toys and dolls with steady sales for many years. Mego Toys was a known name in the toy industry but very far from the household name that it would later become. When David Abrams’ son, Marty, came to power within the company, he decided to change things up a bit and created a brand new line of action figures to compete with the mega successful GI Joe line, but in an 8 Inch format called “Action Jackson”. Mego also created an interchangeable body system that utilized several different head sculpts that could fit onto a couple of different body types. This helped to reduce production costs and made the figures more cost effective. After Mego’s intial action figure line, Action Jackson, Marty Abrams decided to swing for the fences by going out and acquiring the toy rights to produce action figures based on DC Comics and Marvel Comics characters. The rest, as they say, is history, as the World’s Greatest Super Heroes line went on to become the flagship franchise with Mego and one of the most successful selling action figure lines of the decade.

During its run, Mego gave us some truly iconic figures and accessories for the World’s Greatest Super Hero line from 1972-1980, which included some ultra popular characters from both major comic book lines. All together, there were 33 different characters made into action figures, or 37 if you want to count the four Secret ID figures. Since Mego changed their packaging a few times, there are several different variants of each figure, with minor degrees of variation on each. The first four figures (Batman, Robin, Superman, Aquaman) were released in 1972, but were only available in limited retail locations at a few regional locations. The figures proved to be so popular that the line was expanded in 1973 with three new additions (Tarzan, Spiderman, Captain America). Beginning in 1974, and going through 1977, Mego would regularly add several new figures each year until no new figures were released in 1978. Many of the different figures stopped being produced for the 1979 and 1980 waves. During its run, Mego also released several incredible vehicles and accessories, along with three simply breathtaking large scale playsets. A line of 12 Inch figures was released as well, to include figures based on the Superman Movie and the Wonder Woman Television Series. After an amazing run of over nine years, Mego finally ceased production on their flagship World’s Greatest Superheroes line in 1980. This line has certainly been imitated many times throughout the years , but no toy company yet has been able to re-create the absolute magic and wonder of Mego’s amazing toy run through the 1970’s.

The packaging for the basic assortment of the World’s Greatest Super Heroes figures was colorful and extremely eye catching with absolutely beautiful artwork, which would become a staple for Mego’s packaging. The initial packaging in 1972 had each figure in a solid box with a beautifully drawn portrait of the character on the front. Beginning in 1973, Mego dropped the solid box for a more consumer friendly open window box, which had a cellophane window to better see the figure inside. The character’s name would sit at the top of the box, with the classic WGSH logo resting at the bottom. Multiple colors were utilized for each character’s box to add some serious flare to the package. From 1973-1975, Mego released several figures with exclusive packaging for the Kresge Department Stores. These figures featured a smaller and narrower card, with the figure positioned inside of a bubble at the middle of the card. Mego switched to a more traditional blister carded package in 1976, which allowed Mego to add some additional graphics to the card, such as portraits of other characters in the line. Depending on which series and year the figure was released, determined which set of other characters adorned the package. Once again, Mego continued their tradition of using multiple colors for each figure’s package. These blister pack cards would continue until the line ended in 1980.

World’s Greatest Super-Heroes (DC)

Batman