This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/9/2022
Holy Grail is often mis-used when applied to hobby collectibles, but for any kid that played with toys in the 1970s and was a fan of MEGO, “The World’s Greatest Super Hero” toy line, the label certainly applies to this iconic lot, which kicked off this heavily collected toy line.
According to the MEGO Museum website,
“Batman, like Robin and Superman were the first WGSH figures produced and never left
the assortment. Batman also has the distinction of being one of the few figures to make it into every Mego Superhero line, no matter the format, Mego put a Batman into the mix.
One of the more fondly remembered features of the Mego Batman figure are the “oven mitt” style gloves that the early WGSH characters had. The “oven mitt’ gloves had a relatively short tenure at Mego, by 1974 the Green Arrow had painted hands with a cloth cuff. In 1975, characters like Iron Man began appearing with a solid plastic glove. Despite the fact that the company kept improving the gloves, Mego never thought to go back and fix the oven mitts from previous releases.
The first Batman by Mego is perhaps the quintessential Mego Action Figure. The Removable Cowl Batman came in the initial Solid Box offering, as well as early window boxes and Kresge cards. After a relatively short time (somewhere in 1974 by any guess) Mego switched to a molded head, or “Painted Cowl” Batman. The sculpt was a very light-hearted and kid-friendly approach. Note the small stubby ears on the Caped Crusader. It’s not known whether this was caused by consumer complaints (kids would lose the cowl in a heartbeat) or a cost- cutting, production-simplifying decision.
The first Batman (Removable cowl) were sold in solid boxes for a short period of time in 1973. While the graphic is the same on the back of all Mego Batman boxes, this is in fact a solid box from the very first wave of Heroes. The solid Batman box is one of the hardest to find items of all, because it was in circulation for a very short period of time. Retailer’s complained that kids ripped the solid boxes open to see the doll, so window boxes and bubble cards were quickly introduced.
This figure has the very rare “type O” wrist joint. “Type 1” joints were made from metal, the original first runs, which are rarely found, had the “Type 0” wrist joints. This figure is 100% original with complete and original cowl, head, body, body suit, belt, boots, gloves. The box is solid version, all original, with creasing and some wear.
(66P0836)