Mego Micronauts + Superheroes = MAGNA HEROES: Vintage Mego

Vintage Mego returns with a look at the Magna Heroes, a marriage of the Micronauts and the Superheroes. It's the one Mego Superhero line most of us never got but probably should have.
Iron Man was played by Jason Lenzi.
Special thanks to Eddy Berst and Will McGowan (@toltoys_kid) for sharing their discoveries.
#Mego #megoMuseum #micronauts
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Topics Discussed: MegoMuseum, Vintage Mego, GIG, Takara, Jaeg, Jeeg, Microman, Marty Abrams, Iron Man, Worlds Greatest Superheroes, Mego Magna Heroes, Marx Toys, Toltoys, Marty Abrams, Neal Kublan, Tonka, Micronauts, diecast superheroes, elastic heroes, spiderman, batman, hulk, superman, neal adams, baron karza, brian heiler, plaidstallions, toyventures,

[@chrishight6598]

Love the Jason Lenzi cameo. This was the best video yet.

[@cuban4life77]

Thank you Brian! Your show is always a must watch. A new episode day is always a great day!

[@willmcgowan696]

Excellent round-up of the Magna Heroes mate, and thanks for the Hulk shout-out! Definitely a Croner release 👍 Your Hulk proof card is such an amazing piece of history, glad it’s in your hands 🙌 Will

[@IlluminovaNibiru]

My favorite vintage MEGO is the Sleestack

[@IlluminovaNibiru]

Let’s Go!

[@TheNightBadger]

I have an abiding memory of being at a little local outdoor market in the UK sometime in the early 80's, and seeing what I recall are two of these - Spiderman and Hulk. Because they weren't too expensive I was allowed to pick one, and opted for the bigger (and therefore better value) Hulk (also, I had always wanted the Mego Hulk and seen other kids with him, but I never got him - so though I loved Spiderman more, whenever faced with the toys I went Hulk). He's one the very few childhood toys I swapped away and never managed to replace. I didn't know he was so rare until the internet came along. In hindsight the magnetic gimmick may have sounded good, but it never worked for actual play since the Hulk really shouldn't come apart, and the concept didn't 'play' well. I can't remember how he was packaged, but I think it was in English, though the market he was at frequently got import merch. EDIT: I figured out who Iron Man _really_ is under the armour... it's John Ritter!

[@rolandguiscard]

Has someone who appears to be about 10 years younger than you, what really astounds me about the toys you put on display is the massive advancements in engineering, design, and appearance that occurred over the course of the 1970s and '80s. These days, without the context of the packaging, I honestly can't tell if a toy was made last week or 10 years ago or 20 years ago, unless it was a toy line that I know for a fact was either started or discontinued at a specific point. It must have been an incredible time to be a toy designer in the '70s and '80s, where you went from these figures that had very limited options for appearance and materials to an incredibly diverse field of options in just 10 years, and then you did it again in another 10 years. If you ever get a chance, look at the difference between a toy from 1970 and one from 1980, one from 1980 and one for 1990, and then one from 2000 and one from today. The leaps and design and engineering in those first two sets are amazing, especially when compared to that third jump.

[@BrickMantooth]

Part of the reason that the industry experienced that jump is the fresh crop of baby boomers with their new engineering degrees. Many early 70s toy designers got into the industry because the big 3 automakers weren't hiring like they once were in the 1960s. That influx of talent brought a lot to the game.

[@rolandguiscard]

@@BrickMantooth And boy does it show! Those engineers weren't just good at engineering, they had creative minds that engaged in play and produced some genuinely amazing stuff. I see people complaining about how kids these days don't play with toys anymore, and I'm like, "have you seen the toys we keep giving them?"

[@captlazer5509]

Licensors, I'm sure today would be not thrilled with mix and match parts of their characters. Cool toy!

[@IlluminovaNibiru]

Do IT!

[@JettBlast]

Great show as always, I am just happy to find a content creator that share my passion for vintage toys and the connected nostalgia! I have been of your webpage for years and long for simple times of my youth. I hope we all have great 2024 and find more adventures and more wonderful memories of childhood.

[@geotroid]

Croner. . . Australia. . . that rings a bell. I’ll send something to you shortly.

[@hello_tree_house]

Hi Brian! Another gem of a video. Thank you for keeping the magic alive. Happy Holidays to you and your family. Looking forward to your new adventures in the new year!

[@murphiverse]

I would have absolutely loved these!

[@tikielvis]

❤

[@probotprobert]

I saw these in a hobby shop in the late 70’s or early 80’s. My dad asked me if I wanted them. I said no. It still haunts me

[@dazatronsdioramallama6370]

Only watched this video last week and unbelievably I found one of these in the wild today. The Batman version, he has a broken thumb but incredibly he still has his cape. Never thought I’d get to own one of these, I’m so pleased. A quick plug to Lost in Toys in Kingswinford UK where I found this beauty!

[@jimmypm]

Another great video.Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

[@eltenda]

I confirm the popularity of magnetics dudes and micronauts I have some of them...I remember a few them and among them the magnetic hulk! Great episode merry Christmas 😊

[@jonacheson]

I was a kid still at around this time, but I never even heard of these. For me, once Star Wars came out, that was it for the superheroes. The Mego heroes were always kind of awkward toys, with Iron Man in a costume made of polyester, and Batman wearing mittens. Even the Batmobile didn't really stand up to close inspection. Whereas the Kenner Star Wars toys were absolutely great toys, pretty good representations of the characters, with all the cool vehicles to match. Maybe if they had stuck to robots, the magna hero thing would have worked. Taking apart Spider-Man is tragic, but with a robot it could be kind of cool.

[@johnfronczek2658]

Thank you, Brian! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, too!! This was a great and interesting video. Now, I know why there wasn’t much Superhero action figures from 1979 to the 1984 Kenner Super Powers line.

[@elcowabungahe-man6156]

Love this video a lot of nostalgia happy holidays

[@YAMISOOLD2009]

Interesting story about a toyline that not surprisingly I had never heard of!

[@donaldwiller9238]

Great information 👍.keep up the great work. Merry Christmas 🎅

[@dazatronsdioramallama6370]

Really interesting to see how these came about. The Magnemo toys are some of my faves especially Jeeg and the Micronaut variants. I’ve yet to pick up one of the Magnet heroes mainly due to price and availability. They are cool though and it’s a shame the concept didn’t continue with other characters. Great video. Have a great new year!

[@travishiltz4750]

Fun video. I swear I knew a kid who had one those...pretty sure it was the Hulk, but now that I hear how they never got to the US market, I'm wondering how he got it.... Thanks for this fun little channel. Been great to relive my childhood, looking at these toys and worrying my wife that I'll get into action figure collecting.

[@CoachOta]

Now I'm wishing for the ability to create a magnetic Super Skrull or Super Adaptoid. For modern figures, you buy 6 in a series and get to assemble a 7th special figure. Imagine back in the 1970s buying 4 Fantastic Four figures and reassembling to Super Skrull or 4 Avengers figures and putting together Super Adaptoid. Too bad the line never made it to the U.S. market let alone having another wave of figures that actually make sense to re-combine.

[@BerryTheMusicMan]

As always a great video !

[@edwinsmith-jones6205]

Mega-blocks revisited the concept with a Spiderman figure, based upon Toby Maguire movie, with the addition of studs on its back enabling Lego compatible building blocks to be attached onto it.

[@machineman6498]

👍

[@kevinschmith9379]

I loved those metal superheroes, but they broke in like a day the hulk was so cool

[@scottstalcup6980]

Happy Boxing Day, Brian! 🇨🇦

[@Emily-Whitfield]

Great video ❤❤❤❤ Hope you had a Merry Christmas 🎄🎄🎄🎁🎁🎁

[@phrancklynbillsonmc2581]

Merry X'mas ! 💚 🎄🥳

[@matteofallini8845]

I love so much Magna Heroes! It’s a funny concept and I prefer them to the Die-cast Heroes, they are bigger and nicer looking. Beautiful video, thanks 👏 merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone

[@loganjorgensen]

Great video, good focus, one rabbit-hole at a time heh.😉A really nice line but yeah as an adult one can appreciate the market and behind the scenes machinations from bitd. Happy New Year and keep on truckin'.🎉🤗

[@IlluminovaNibiru]

I want to set up about 100 of them Slee stacks around my Yorky n see what she does.?

[@IlluminovaNibiru]

Dr. Noah Body

[@scockery]

So if those we the big 4 of Mego superheroes, who would've been in a wave 2? I mean, besides the Green Goblin.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

It reminds me of a really awful DC "Free Comic Book Day" comic book cover I saw several years ago. It was some dystopian future thing and the DC Super Heroes severed body parts were attached to various machines. The whole point of "Free Comic Book Day" is supposed to be to attract new readers into buying comics, but this comic would do the opposite. Some kid watches cartoons with these heroes in them, walks into a comic book store, and sees a comic with pieces of their favorite heroes' dismembered corpses attached to robots and tanks and stuff. It was one of the stupidest things I'd seen up to that point.

[@IlluminovaNibiru]

TTFFNN