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From The Scoop: Brian Heiler: Collecting Mego

From the July 7 issue of Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop:
This week's Main Event spotlights Brian Heiler, a product manager for a toy company, who is making good on nearly a lifetime of toy collecting. His specialty is one of the most fondly remembered toy lines featuring superheroes (among many others) - Mego.

I was born just outside of Toronto, Canada in 1970. I grew up there and eventually moved back, I live blocks from my childhood home. I was only 2- or 3-years old when the first 8” Mego heroes arrived so I'd say almost immediately; they are my earliest memories.

The first one would be Action Jackson. My dad was a “rack job” distributor and when he bought closeouts from the Canadian wing of Mego (Parkdale Novelty) he bought skids and skids of AJ dolls and uniforms.

I was very drawn to the heroes and the Star Trek line as a kid; interest in those brought me back into collecting. My real childhood favorite was Robin, I remember thinking he was the coolest. I started collecting at around 15, so there wasn't much overlap between playing and collecting, maybe three or four years.

My family was supportive but confused. My father would help me make warehouse finds but he really didn't understand how Planet of the Apes dolls were worth money. He'd say, “I used to pay pennies for these!” I'm pretty much the oddball; my sister took her hobby of loving horses into a full time business of breeding and training them, but she's no collector.

My father had contracts with the convenience channel to keep their shelves lined with toys; this meant everything from Aurora model kits to kites. In the early '70s, he bought out Mattel's overstock of Liddle Kiddles, I remember it being a tractor trailer load. He paid a dime a piece, now those things are worth a fortune. He once took me to a distributor and told me I could pick out a toy - I chose a Frankenstein doll. He ordered several cases of Lincoln Monsters, which are hard to find these days. He attended the New York Toy Fairs in the '70s, no telling what he saw there. One year he brought me back a sample of the fist fighting Robin. I remember it having a black button, which is actually the U.K. version.

In my early 20s I hung it up and sold out because I needed the money. Most of this stuff I had gotten through warehouse or old store finds, I guess I didn't appreciate it. I was collecting again in under 2 years but it was much harder and I appreciated it more.

As opposed to my early days, I became more and more interested in companies, especially their non licensed projects.

I think it was the mystery that excited me. I wanted to know if Mego made Logan's Run dolls, if certain play sets got made in Europe. I'd say that still excites me - this year alone we've discovered new foreign super-hero. It's awesome to still be writing new pages in the Mego Book, so to speak.

I dabble with a few other toy lines like Big Jim, and I really love treasury edition comics, but there isn't much room for much else: Mego is a big universe. I dabble in all the Mego standards but my main obsessions seem to be the more unusual stuff. Things like the Super Softies and CB McHaul (Mego's salute to the CB Craze) are really fun to collect. Foreign releases like Mexican Superheroes by Lili Ledy and Palitoy are also high on my list. Mego did so many different things you can focus on something that suits your current mood. I'm always after CB McHaul pieces I don't have, especially carded figures. Also, my hunt never ends for box variations on the Batmobile and Spider-Car that I don't have.

I could write volumes about “the ones that got away!” I once traveled to California to meet a collector who was selling out, and I took some very key pieces at extremely reasonable prices but I left some very rare items behind because I didn't want to get greedy. I spent nearly 7 years finding some of that stuff and I now think to myself, “I should have been greedier!” But I'm a firm believer in the hunt. In order to pay for a bigger piece, I foolishly sold my Palitoy-carded Batman and it went really cheap. I wish I had clung to it. I've never seen another.

My friend Scott Adams started the Megomuseum in 1996. He sought me out from EBay and we hit it off. Scott decided to take a break in 2000 and was kind enough to let me take over in his absence. I'm happy to report that Scott returned last year and has completely remade the site. These days, there is nothing on the Web even close to that museum.

Our plans would be similar to what they have been for the last year, to promote “Mego Awareness” everywhere we can. We decided to do a Mego trading card last year, it was a monster hit and we're at card #38 now. In the future, we're going in-depth into Mego itself, with more interviews and never-before-seen prototypes; it's going to be a fantastic year for Mego collectors.

For me, the Internet turned something that was pretty solitary to an incredible sense of community. The people I've met through the Museum forums are some of the highest quality human beings I've ever encountered.

Whether I need a part, computer advice or somebody to tape a show for me, the Museum forums have become a real part of my daily life. We're having our second annual convention this June and I can't wait to meet some longtime friends for the first time.

For someone just getting started with Mego collection, I'd say take your time. I've seen everything more than once, from the one of a kind prototype to insanely rare Kresge cards. Things you miss the first time, you'll catch them again. It took me years to realize the freeing nature of savoring your purchases...

As the product manager for a toy company, my job is fun, although the toys are only a fraction of what I do, it's the part I like best. I get to procure licenses and then design the product. I would have never guessed I'd be doing this for a living. I had spent a majority of my career in travel publications; when the company I worked for expanded, I was tapped because apparently I “know what kids like.”

Wasting my days watching cartoons seems to have paid off.

To view all of the pictures from this article, read it at The Scoop’s website at http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=12605&si=124.

• Produced for the benefit of all who enjoy the hobby of collecting, Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop is available free of charge to anyone who wishes to receive it. To view the latest edition, or to sign up, visit The Scoop online by at http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com.