Martian Manhunter Mego-Style action figure & box by Black Knight Customs

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Over a year ago, I stumbled upon a photo stream featuring an Alien Atlas and Tiny Titan dual Mego custom set, and then as usual set it aside. Other blogs making the same sorts of discoveries and actually posting about them have kind of needled me into finally getting my own done, so here we go!

I never owned many Megos, as their heyday was a bit before my time, plus they were pricier than the 3¾ action figures that I favored (including Mego's own Pocket Heroes*, the Cro-Magnon to the Homo Sapien that was the Super Powers Collection.) Some friends had them, and I bought some every now and again at flea markets, making them the tall guys amidst my Masters of the Universe and the like. J'onn J'onzz was a non-entity in the 1970s, so I'm confident his name was never uttered in the halls of Mego. Recently though, he's gotten one of those Mattel Retro-Action figures, which is a reasonable facsimile of period crappiness, but a bit too inhuman to truly feel Mego authentic. I'm sure I'll buy and further discuss that number for the blog when I find one cheap enough to be enticing.

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I'm not sure when this custom was made, but it was almost certainly before the Retro-Action, and is much better in general aesthetics (if even less Megocentric.) In reminds me more of the 1999 Hasbro JLA Justice League of America Martian Manhunter 9" Doll, which being my favorite mass produced Manhunter figure, is not a bad thing. The costume basics are very true to Super Powers model.

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I never saw boxed Megos growing up, since they'd moved on to the blister cards by then, so I have no particular nostalgia toward that packaging. While I like this better than the legit Hasbro JLA's, I do feel like the image chosen was a missed opportunity. The art here (anyone knows who drew it?) was already used on the Super Powers figure package and its cut-out "trading card." It would have been more fun to dig up a less familiar image, but it still came together well, and the thought surely counts!

More Mego Customs

• Aquaman 12-Inch figure & box @ The Aquaman Shrine
• The Atom figure & box @ Power of the Atom
• Firestorm box @ Firestorm Fan
• The Vixen & Steel figures @ Justice League Detroit

*For the record, I owned at various points, Superman, Batman, Captain America, Green Goblin and the Penguin. More memorably, I also had Spider-Man, Robin, and Wonder Woman, who stuck around the longest before getting stolen/thrown away/???