The Mego

Collector

How long have you been collecting Mego figures for?
I vividly remember going into a shop called Co-Op with my mum around 1973. Action Man was around but what I saw in the shelf blew my mind — a display box of 24 of the world’s greatest superheroes! The artwork and colours on the package and display boxes looked astonishing and the figures looked like they had just stepped straight out of the comic books.

How did you start?
By pestering my mum.

My dad had put central heating in our house and there was a loose floorboard in my bedroom, so I used to hide television and superhero related sweet cigarette packets, toffee wrappers, free gifts from comics, food packaging and the boxes from my toys so my mum couldn’t throw them away.

What’s your favourite piece in your collection?
It’s got to be Superman (even though I’m far more Marvel than DC). It was the first one I got; I was around seven or eight. But Ike Godsey’s shop from the Waltons, scaled for eight inch figures, is a close second.

Where did you get them from?
Apart from Co-Op, I would swap toys with my friends as a kid and pick up toys from jumble sales. Over the last 30 years I’ve picked them up from all over the world. In Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Japan most toys were licensed to companies like Cepsa, Lili Ledy, Basa and Popy, so the figures, clothes and packaging are different. I have travelled the world whilst working and collected from everywhere — I have been extremely lucky.

Where do you think man’s need to collect comes from?
I’m not sure. I like design and detail. I just want to open a toy museum.

What else do you collect?
Cereal packets... comics... cars... more toys. I would call it toy art.

When will you stop?
Never.