THE BATMAN - HERE WE GO (OR SHOULD THAT BE 'ME GO'?) AGAIN...

If you thought I'd exhausted the topic of Mego (and Mego-type) superhero action figures, then think again, Charlie.  As I said in an earlier post, I recently bought (on a whim) an FTC (Figures Toy Company) reissue of the '70s Mego Batman to complement my 'original' figure.  Well, the head, hands, and leotard are original, but the body itself is a contemporary Mego articulated figure from when the company started trading again in 2018.  I bought replacement boots, gloves, bat emblem and belt from diverse sources, but the boots and gloves weren't the correct shade of blue (as I previously showed you), and the emblem shed its image with the merest handling, requiring me to make my own.

But back to the FTC reissue.  The emblem wasn't printed properly on the costume (it was a sticker on the original Mego leotard), and the toe of one boot was a solid blob of plastic so wouldn't accommodate the foot properly, which is why I didn't immediately show it on the blog - one leg appeared longer than the other.  I contacted the manufacturer and requested a replacement boot, as well as the spare emblem shown in their eBay listing, but absent when the package arrived.  The spare emblem was ever so slightly different, presumably because it was modified in later Mego releases, so I assume the FTC spare was to give buyers a choice of whichever version they preferred (or might've originally owned back in the day).

Anyway, I'm told that they're on their way, but I'm an impatient chappie so decided to take matters into my own hands.  I'd already ordered a second set of boots and gloves from another source for the other Batman after being told they more or less matched the originals, but although the boots were more of a match, the gloves were an even lighter hue than the first, so I 'mixed 'n' matched'.  By that I mean I used the first set of gloves with the second set of boots for the Mego-head Batman, and decided to use the second set of gloves with the first set of boots (I'm talking about the replacement sets in each case) on the FTC reissue.  They were too light of course, so I dug out a pot of Humbrol enamel paint and gave them two coats of number 14 blue.  You can see the result in the above photo on the Batman on the left of the pic.

I've also included a photo of the FTC boots and gloves (above), and, as you can see, there's a difference not only between the blue of both pairs of items, but also between the gloves, one of which seems to be made of a different kind of vinyl than the other.  It would seem that consistency is not the order of the day when it comes to these figures, though I'm informed that there was often a slight disparity in the hue of blue on different parts of the costume in the original Mego issues.

I'm not sure if it's obvious in the top photo, but the blue of the FTC Batman head is slightly darker than the Mego one (though the lower flesh face is lighter), and in 'real life', the painted boots and gloves are a closer match to the FTC head, so I might decide just to keep them in place even when/if the replacement boot arrives.  I've also included the first photo I took of the Mego Batman in his replacement lighter blue boots and gloves (below), so that you can more easily compare them with how they look now after my excellent paint job on them.  Once again, feel free to tell me how multi-talented I am when it comes to improving things that haven't been done right in the first place (after you wake up of course).  Okay, I think I'm done with Mego posts - for the moment at least, but I wouldn't get too comfy if I were you.

One final thing: the bat emblem in the photo below is one I made myself and covered in clear tape to protect it before cutting to shape.  Because the tape was glossy, there was a refection of the camera flash on the emblem, which I digitally removed for better effect.  In the top photo, the emblems are again made by me, but this time covered in a matt tape, hence the bat not looking so black as in the original one I made.  They're actually a darker black than they seem, but the light reflecting off the protective tape makes the black look lighter than it is.  Maybe I'll go back to glossier ones - what do you Crivvies think?

Posted in: Cartoons