Mikey's Dolls: Figures Toy Company Dolls: 2004

An assortment of Mego style dolls made by Classic TV Toys in 2004.

Top row: Fonzie from Happy Days, Frankenstein and Dracula from Mad Monsters

Bottom Row: Captain Zantor from Space 1999, Herman and Eddie from The Munsters

Figures Toy Company (FTC) is one of several toy companies that have emerged in the last ten years as a producer of new Mego-like dolls. What I like best about dolls offered from FTC is that they are made with the goal to have the look of original Mego dolls, as though the Mego company itself were still producing them. To accomplish this, FTC uses very similar doll bodies, costumes and pieces such as shoes, belts or other accessories.

The first major wave of Mego-like dolls to be produced by FTC was in 2004 when the company operated under the name Classic TV Toys (CTVT). This first wave included reissues of six classic Mego doll collections: American West, Super Pirates, Super Knights, Mad Monsters, Happy Days, and Space 1999. The latter three of these collections were also expanded to include new characters and outfits that were not previously available. Along with these original Mego lines CTVT produced all-new collections based on the TV shows I Love Lucy, Brady Bunch, Married with Children, and The Munsters. An original unlicensed series titled Mad Clowns followed along with a stand alone Mego-like Skeleton figure and a wide assortment of individual clothing and accessory pieces that were sold through the company's website.

Although it was amazing that all of this Mego-like product had become available, most of this initial CTVT product from 2004 was unfortunately very poorly made. In fact the dolls were even poorer quality than the original Mego dolls from the 1970s! Only the dolls that were made in late 2004 seemed to be of a better quality, such as The Munsters series.

Here is a CTVT Frankenstein reissued Mego doll from 2004. Many of the earlier produced CTVT dolls had issues with the bubble coming loose from the card while still on store shelves, as shown above.

It wasn't until 2011 that CTVT would produce new product, this time under their new identity, Figures Toy Company (FTC). The move away from the CTVT banner was likely due to the negative impression that Mego collectors had of the company as a result of the poorly made dolls from 2004.

KISS dolls

One of the original series of 12 inch dolls that Mego produced was based on the rock band KISS. First offered in 1978, the dolls were based on the bands Love Gun album and are still highly sought after by collectors today.

In 2011, FTC re-issued all four of the 12 inch KISS: Love Gun Mego dolls, while also offering them in the 8 inch format for the first time (shown below). As the quality of these dolls was much better than the company's product from 2004, the new KISS dolls sold very well and prompted a second series of 12 inch and 8 inch dolls in 2012. This series was called KISS: Self Titled and are original to FTC. Special "variant" dolls were also produced that have additional details such as "blood" painted on the doll's face, doll sized guitars, or a unique costume. Series 3, KISS: Sonic Boom was also released in 2012 in both 12 inch and 8 inch sizes.

Figures Toy Company KISS dolls made in 2011. These are 8 inch versions of the original 12 inch Mego dolls. Above are The Starchild and The Spaceman from series 1. (The Spaceman doll was used in a window display at the store where I bought it so the card is slightly faded and no longer has the yellow border.)

The Demon from series 3, "Kiss: Sonic Boom", 2012.

In 2013 FTC continued to produce additional, original series of KISS dolls including: Series 4: KISS: Monster, and Series 5: KISS: Dressed to Kill. In 2014 the final series was released, Series 6: KISS: Alive. Once again, all of these series were made in both 12 inch and 8 inch sizes, along with variant dolls. The final KISS doll variant to be offered was a 12 inch "blood spitting" version of the Demon/Gene Simmons.

The Return of Mego DC Comics Super Heroes!

Mego collectors received remarkable news in 2013, when Figures Toy Company announced that they would be re-issuing a variety of 8" Mego DC Comics superhero dolls from the World's Greatest Superheroes collection. They would be made as close to the originals as possible with new characters also added to the collection. In addition, the hard to find Teen Titans Mego dolls were also re-issued along with Mego's Tarzan and Conan dolls. Saving the best for last, FTC also produced an all new collection of Mego-like dolls based on the 1966 Batman TV series.

This "historical event" in the world of Mego doll collecting was long overdue, and I can hardly believe that it's finally happened! I had high hopes for Mattel's Retro Action series from 2010. Unfortunately Mattel only made a half-hearted attempt to market their DC Mego heroes, and I was quite disappointed when that series was quickly cancelled in June 2011. Now with Figures Toy Company re-issuing the original Mego dolls, Mego fans are at long last getting what they truly wished for. What I find even more exciting is the potential for this series with the addition of new characters. For example, Batman's loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth, and Commissioner Gordon are two original FTC dolls that were added to the series in 2014.

A selection of FTC's Batman Mego-style 8 inch dolls. Above left is the reissued Mego Robin from 2013, along with the new Alfred the Butler doll which is original to FTC. In 2014, FTC offered the Joker based on the 1966 Batman TV series.

To date several sets of dolls based CD Comics characters have been offered. The collection is now at the point where it's difficult to keep track all of the dolls and variations that have been produced. The 1966 Batman TV series dolls are on a separate page of this blog:
http://mikeysdolls.blogspot.ca/p/batman-1966-tv-series.html

I've attempted to compile a complete list for the rest of the DC Comics dolls from FTC below:

FTC Batman Series

Batman Series 1 (All of these are re-issued Mego dolls)
Batman (attached cowl)
Robin (painted mask)
Joker
Riddler

Batman Series 2 (All of these are re-issued Mego dolls)

Bruce Wayne
Dick Grayson
Penguin
Catwoman

Above is the FTC Dick Grayson doll from series 2. (The one I bought had been put in the window at the comic store, so the card is a bit sun damaged, but as I was going to open the package anyways I didn't think the faded card mattered.)

I like that the artwork for Dick Grayson included the funny hair curls that Mego had put on their Robin/Dick Grayson doll head. Below is a close view of the Dick Grayson head for comparison.

Here is Dr. Mego's version of Bruce Wayne with the FTC Dick Grayson. More information about Dr. Mego is included on the "1971 - 1982: Mego Dolls" page of this blog:

http://mikeysdolls.blogspot.ca/p/mego-dolls-everything-else.html

The FTC packaging for series two is the same as series one, only with the addition of Batgirl who was included in series three.

Batman Series 3 (The first three are re-issued Mego dolls. Alfred is an original FTC doll.)
Batman - Removable cowl
Robin - Removable mask
Batgirl
Alfred Pennyworth First new character!
Commissioner Gordon Second new character, released without card packaging

FTC's Batman series three included a new Mego DC 8 inch doll of Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's loyal butler. Shown above is the Robin doll from series one (with painted mask) next to Alfred. I think FTC did a superior job on Alfred and only have one complaint...his head is too huge! The head sculpting is perfect though, as is the costume. I really like this new Mego doll of Alfred, but every time I look at it I think...if only the head were a tad smaller!

Here is a comparison of the Robin doll head next to the Alfred doll head. On it's own the Alfred doll looks great. Unfortunately, next to the original Mego dolls it becomes very obvious that his head is too big! I hope this isn't going to become the norm for future new characters by FTC. That would really suck!!!

Here is the back of the card for Alfred.

Commissioner Gordon is another new character that FTC will produce. Loose, unpackaged dolls of the Commissioner were available on the FTC website in 2014. It looks like FTC did an awesome job on this character. As of March 2015 the doll was no longer available, but I suspect it will make a return in official packaging sometime down the road to allow for a broader distribution. I think it would be quite odd if that isn't the case. Another new character, Poison Ivy, is shown on the back of the card but has yet to be released (as of Oct 2015).

Limited Edition sets
Batman and Robin Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Batman and Joker Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Batman and Catwoman Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Bruce Wayne and Batman Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Robin and Batman with removable mask and cowl Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Robin and Batgirl Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Joker and Penguin Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive

FTC Teen Titans Series

Teen Titans Series 1 (All of these are re-issued Mego dolls)
Kid Flash
Speedy
Aqualad
Wondergirl

Teen Titans Series 2
Robin in 6.5 inch scale has been announced but is not yet available.

I'm hoping they make the head to look like the 1970s comic version of Robin, such as this illustration by Neal Adams. A prototype of a new Robin doll based on Super Friends was shown on the FTC website, and while the face is well done I found the hair/head shape to be very badly rendered as it's much to round (almost egg shaped!). If the doll gets made, I hope they fix that first!

Limited Edition sets
Teen Titans Series 1 Limited Edition 4-pack set, 100 made, Retro Toys Exclusive
Green Arrow and Speedy Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Aquaman and Aqualad Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Wonder Woman and Wondergirl Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive

FTC Superman Series

Superman Series 1

Superman, early bird edition packaging
Superman, standard edition packaging

Supergirl

Bizzaro FTC's third original DC Comics doll
Mr. Mxyzptlk FTC's fourth original DC Comics doll (with a re-issued Mego head), issued on a smaller sized body which is more suitable to the character than the 8 inch "fat body" Mego used

Limited Edition sets
Superman and Bizzaro Limited Edition 2 pack, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Superman and Supergirl Limited Edition 2 pack, Blue Card, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Superman and Supergirl Limited Edition 2 pack, Yellow Card, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Superman and Mr. Mxyzptlk Limited Edition 2 pack, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Superman and Robin Limited Edition 2 pack, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Superman and Wonder Woman Limited Edition 2 pack, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Supergirl and Batgirl Limited Edition 2 pack, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
(See also Super Powers series)

FTC Wonder Woman Series
Wonder Woman Series 1

Wonder Woman "Mego-like artwork" (heads shown in circles) card packaging variation
Wonder Woman "Full body artwork" (illustration of character) card packaging variation

Limited Edition sets
Wonder Woman and Batman Limited Edition 2 pack, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Wonder Woman and Batgirl Limited Edition 2 pack, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
(See also Superman and Teen Titans Limited edition sets)

FTC Super Powers Series

Super Powers with Fist Fighting Action Series 1

Superman

Aquaman

Green Arrow

Shazam

Super Powers with Fist Fighting Action Series 2

Batman (attached cowl)
Robin (painted mask)
Joker
Riddler

Limited Edition sets
Aquaman and Green Arrow Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Shazam and Superman Limited Edition 2 pack, 200 made, FTC Exclusive

DC Comics Retro Kresge Style Packaging

Series 1
Superman
Shazam
Riddler
Mr. Mxyzptlk This one is shown as the standard Mego fat body version
Catwoman
Batgirl

Series 2
Aquaman
Green Arrow
Penguin
Dr. Sivana this is FTC's 5th original DC Comics doll (not including the 1966 Batman series)
Wonder Woman
Supergirl

Series 3 This series was available for pre-order in late summer of 2015 for a tentative Dec 2015 release.
Batman
Robin
Joker
Mary Marvel FTC's 6th original DC Comics doll
Scarecrow FTC's 7th original DC Comics doll
Harley Quinn FTC's 8th original DC Comics doll

Super Friends / Legion of Doom
This series was available for pre-order in late summer of 2015 for a tentative Nov 2015 release.

Series 1
Superman, all new design, FTC's 9th original DC Comics doll
Robin, all new design, FTC's 10th original DC Comics doll
Apache Chief FTC's 11th original DC Comics doll
Samurai FTC's 12th original DC Comics doll

Justice League of America
This series of Mego style DC heroes was released in 2015 and have slight modifications to the costumes that make them more accurate to their comic book incarnations, as compared to the original 8 inch Mego dolls. While I think this is one of the better series to be offered, to me these are still simply re-issued Mego dolls so I don't count them among the "new" FTC dolls.

Series 1
Batman light blue cowl, cape, trunks and boots, blue hands with blue cuff on sleeve, smaller chest logo
Superman Larger chest logo, belt loops on trunks, bright blue costume (shown below)
Shazam Larger chest logo, new white cape with yellow trim, yellow Conan boots
Green Arrow Accessories are made with light green plastic, modified costume
Aquaman Green trunks, green hands with green cuff on sleeves
Wonder Woman Light blue trunks with large stars

I find FTC could have done a better job on Wonder Woman by adding plastic boots with a painted stripe rather than just the fabric boots, and Aquaman should have had the scale pattern on his shirt, a plastic belt, and a plastic trident accessory. It seems to me like FTC wasn't as inspired to update these two characters and took the cheep way out. FTC did an okay job on Superman (shown below) which I have, though he should have had the boots revised (similar to what FTC included with their Super Friends Superman but not as bulky), and I would have preferred that the belt be changed to a plastic removable one, similar to Batman. I'd like to at least get Batman from this set, and possibly Shazam, as they did such a good job updating those two.

To be honest, the packaging for this series is what I like best as it's very well done with the 70's version of the character shown next to the dolls, and the character's logo at the top. They just have a very appealing look to them regardless of how the dolls were updated.

Although the above Superman is not intended to be the Brandon Routh version of Superman, I find that the way FTC altered the Mego head makes this doll look more like Routh than any of the official Superman Returns toys offered by Mattel in 2006. It's also interesting that the original Superman Mego head doesn't look very much like Brandon Routh either. However, since FTC softened some of the features and painted the eyebrows differently as compared with the Mego version, this new Superman head has become an excellent likeness of Brandon Routh which I think is awesome! I've shown a comparison below.

Here is the back of the packaging for the FTC Justice League of America Superman doll.

18 Inch Retro DC Comics Action Figures
These are 18 inch versions of the original Mego 8 inch dolls that were released in 2015. They are sold in boxes rather than on cards.

Series 1
Superman
Batman
Robin
Joker
Riddler

FTC Tarzan Series
Tarzan is a reissue of Mego's Tarzan doll. The other three characters are original FTC dolls.

Series 1
Tarzan
Jane
Korak
Meriem

Limited Edition sets
Tarzan Series 1 Limited Edition 4-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive
Tarzan and Jane Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, Retro Action Toys Exclusive
Korak and Meriem Limited Edition 2-pack set, 100 made, FTC Exclusive

FTC Conan the Barbarian Series
Conan is a reissue of Mego's Conan doll. The other two characters are original FTC dolls.

Series 1
Conan the Barbarian
Kull the Conqueror
Solomon Kane

The reissued Mego Conan doll by FTC was released in 2014. The hair is rooted differently and is slightly longer than the original Mego doll.

The back of the card for Conan showing all three characters in the series. The woman at Conan's feet is not included in the series.

Yet to be released....

Super Friends Series
These were announced in 2014 with prototypes of Jayna and Gleek shown on the FTC website. As of October 2015 they have not yet been released.

Super Friends Series 1

Zan from the Wonder Twins

Jayna from the Wonder Twins
Gleek

Here's a long waited for prototype image of the Wonder Twins dolls, so it seems they're closer to becoming a reality! If the final dolls turn out as good as these, they will become "must have" items for my collection! The head sculpts are perfect! The costumes look awesome and I like that they have removable belts, though I would prefer the classic Mego style hands rather than the FTC rubber hands. Gleek looks awesome too! I found this image at the Mego Museum, here:

http://www.megomuseum.com/wonder-twins-powers-activate-at-figures-toy-company/

Assorted DC Characters

The back of the cards for the limited edition two pack sets show an assortment of DC characters, many of which have not yet been released by FTC. These include:

Green Lantern
Flash
Ra's Al Ghul
Jimmy Olsen
Lois Lane
Superboy
Shazam Jr. (Captain Marvel Jr.)
Mary Shazam (Mary Marvel)
Hawkman
Nightwing
Cyborg
Starfire
Raven

It's interesting that Poison Ivy is not included with this assortment as she was shown on the back of series 2 packaging for the Batman collection. Robin is also shown twice.

In addition to the above list of characters, the back of the Justice League of America Superman package presented another awesome assortment of characters, with the addition of

Black Canary
Elongated Man
Firestorm
Red Tornado
Martian Manhunter
As well as a female hero I don't recognize, shown behind Green Arrow

Therefore, there are 20 DC Comics characters shown on the back of FTC cards that have yet to be released, plus the three Wonder Twins.

If FTC actually releases all 23 of these DC characters as Mego style dolls I will pee my pants!

So far the collection does not include any vehicles, but hopefully this will change soon. FTC has already released their version of Mego's Great White Shark and Aquaman set, as well as the Batcave playset, so perhaps some vehicles are not far behind? With so many characters available it would only make sense to have some vehicles available. Only time will tell what FTC has planned!!!!!

Original DC Comics Mego dolls that FTC has yet to re-issue

Superman Series
The first three dolls on this list were made only in the 12 inch size by Mego. Many Mego collectors agree that these would be awesome as 8 inch dolls. The Mattel Retro Action series offered a similar Lex Luthor doll in the 8 inch format, but it would be nice to see it released on a Mego style doll body as part of the FTC series. The Clark Kent doll was offered in the 8 inch size by Mego, but only in limited quantity and is therefore hard to find.
Jor-el
Lex Luthor
General Zod
Clark Kent (It's been announced that this one is on the way!)