Pocket Heroes, 3 3/4" action figures by Mego, 1979
Mego made a small series of 3 3/4 inch action figures based on Marvel Comics in 1979. Only four figures were made including Spider-Man and the Hulk, shown above. The other two are Captain America and Green Goblin.
Previously in 1975, Mego had made similar action figures of these four characters with bent legs for their "Comic Action Heroes" series. A smaller version of the Spider-Car vehicle that Mego had made for their 8 inch Spider-Man doll, was also offered as part of this series.
Several DC Comics superheroes and vehicles were also included in these two series, which are discussed on the DC Comics page of this blog.
Marvel Heroes, PVC Figures by Comics Spain 1992, and Yolanda 1988(?)
Here are some Marvel PVC figures that I found on e-bay. I've included the 8" Spider-Man Mego for size comparison. The small Spidey figure is by Comics Spain, 1992. The Thor and Silver Surfer figures were made by Yolanda. I couldn't make out the date on either one, but it looks like it might be 1988. Those two figures are not made out of PVC plastic, they are hard plastic figures and are slightly larger than the Comics Spain PVC figures.
Spider-Man 7 inch PVC figure by Cosrich Group, 2004
I found this very cool Spidey figure at a thrift store. The sculpting for this figure is awesome! I think this is a perfect rendering of Spidey. It's a shame that there are suction cups attached, it would have made for a nice figurine to display standing by itself. The size of this figure reminds me of the classic WWE wrestling figures from the 80's! The Cosrich company made a second Spider-Man 7 inch window cling figure in 2006, in a different wall climbing pose. It's also a very cool figure though I think the above figure is the nicer one. Below is the back view.
Marvel Legends, by Hasbro / Kenner, 2021 -2022
Hasbro bought out Kenner in the early 90's, so although it's cool that these Marvel figures have the Kenner logo on the packaging and are done in the retro style, they're not actually made by the original Kenner company, they're made by Hasbro. Kenner made the Super Powers series in the 80's based on DC Comics superheroes, so seeing the Kenner logo on a series of Marvel action figures is somewhat trippy for action figure geeks like me! LOL
For some odd reason, this series included a lot of rather obscure characters that I have never heard of before, which I suspect is why the series was cancelled after only two years. I don't understand why they would make characters like US Agent, Bullseye, Firestar, Carol Danvers, Moon Knight, Sentinel, Nova, Spider Woman, and others before making the more recognizable, likeable and relevant characters that Marvel fans are actually interested in?
Unfortunately the series ended before many popular Spidey characters were made, such as Miles Morales, Lizard, Scarlet Spider, Carnage, Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, Rhino, Vulture, Scorpion, Morbius, Gwen Stacy, Hobgoblin, and Sandman. Other Marvel characters that surprisingly weren't made include Deadpool, Gambit, Punisher, Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes, Thanos, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, Beast, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Angel, Iron Fist, all of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel, Wasp, Namor, and Red Skull among others.
Something else that I think hurt the series, was that the waves were quite mixed rather than offering sets. For example, the Fantastic Four were not offered together at the same time, so as a collector you were wary of purchasing a misfit figure because you had no idea of knowing if you would be able to find the other three in the set, or if they would even be made. The same staggered offering was done for the Avengers, X-Men and Spider-Man characters.
If you are going to offer five or six characters in a wave, and are planning to do 6 or more waves anyways (in this case it was 8), why not just make an entire wave a complete collection of characters? Such as all the main Avengers characters, or all main X-Men characters, or all Spider-Man, all together at once as a complete mini collection within the larger series. This removes any doubt that the set will be left incomplete or that you won't be able to find certain characters. You can't be everything to everyone at all times, so just satisfy some of the fans some of the time, that's still a win!
At first I was only going to collect the Spider-Man characters but I couldn't resist buying the Avengers and a few other characters as well. Originally, these figures retailed for around $20 to $22 in Canada, which isn't cheap considering that minimum wage is only around $12 to $15. Collectors who bought the figures at top retail prices must have been pretty upset when the figures started turning up at dollar stores for $5 each in 2024! I bought most of these at that time, though there are a few that I paid $10 or more for.
It really makes no sense to me why they would originally set such a high retail price and then sell off the stock at such a low price? Would it not have been more prudent to sell low initially in order to move the product faster and increase sales? Focus on quantity of sales to bring in in the profit rather than getting the highest amount per sale? I'm not a financial guy, so maybe that doesn't make sense business wise, but it does seem odd that they wanted so much for them initially and then suddenly were willing to sell them off at a quarter of the price!
I wouldn't mind getting more of these figures, this is a fun collection and I really like the colourful retro packaging. The figures are also well made, though as they're based on classic style action figures the articulation is limited. Below is just a small sample of the collection, there are at least 44 different figures in this series.
On the left is classic Spider-Man (1991). This figure was released on two different card designs however I only have one of them. The other Spider-Man (1992) on the right is a variation with spiderwebs under his arms.
Venom (1992) and Electro (1991). Electro was also released on two different cards.
Incredible Hulk (1991) and Thor (1992)
Iron Man (1991) and Falcon (1992). Iron Man was released on two different cards.
