Mego’s Star Trek figures remain among the most iconic and collectible toy lines of the 1970s, and among the most popular Star Trek figures ever made. Introduced in 1974, the initial five figures (Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, Scotty, and a generic Klingon foe) were the best-selling toys Mego produced, and are still ubiquitous on the secondary market.
It’s no wonder that Mego decided to keep the line going in 1976 with the “Star Trek Aliens” series, producing eight further figures in this sub-line. Significantly rarer than the initial Star Trek figures, these eight have been popular with collectors for decades – despite most of them looking nothing like their on-screen counterparts. Or, in one instance, not even having an on-screen counterpart. Mego’s bizarre creative liberties with their Star Trek aliens have done nothing to affect collector demand: carded aliens from wave one sell for hundreds, and carded wave two aliens can go for thousands. Now, Heritage Auctions is giving Mego Star Trek collectors a rare opportunity to bid on a lot of four of these rarities, including two from the scarce second wave.
Star Trek was an embattled cult favorite when Paramount-CBS pulled the plug in 1969 after three seasons. Even its third season only happened because of a letter-writing campaign from impassioned fans – a decision that’s arguably the single reason Star Trek became the pop cultural institution that it is. With the third season, Star Trek had enough episodes to be sold into syndication, so that it aired daily on local stations across the country in the early 1970s. There, it gained significant popularity with children, including those of Mego Toys Vice President Neil Kublan. Kublan acquired the master Star Trek license for only $5,000, enduring skepticism from both Paramount and Mego president Marty Abrams. The gamble paid off, and Star Trek became a best-seller for Mego.
The secret to Mego’s success was the relatively low production cost of their figures, which shared many parts. They were generally built off of eight-inch scale, articulated doll bodies, overlaid with cloth outfits, unique headsculpts, and character accessories like boots and gloves. For the Star Trek figures, Mego designed a new body with sculpted boots, used for all of the male Enterprise crew members.
The “Star Trek Aliens” line was likely inspired by the strong sales of the Klingon figure in the first wave. The first wave was released in 1975, consisting of four figures: the Gorn, the Keeper, Charon, and the Neptunian. If you’re struggling to remember the Neptunian from the series, it’s because the character was newly created for the line. Major changes were made to the three aliens adapted from the show, both to make them more colorful and “toyetic” and to keep costs down for the ever-frugal Mego.
Charon is modeled after Bele of Charon from Season 3 episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”; Mego’s biggest change to the design is taking the iconic half-black, half-white heads of the Charons and extrapolating it across the entire body. The effect is striking, though notorious for leading to staining on the white half of the figure: the black dye used on the cloth bleeds if stored improperly.
The Gorn was made entirely with reused parts from other Mego figures, and resembles its namesake little. It features a reused head from Mego’s World’s Greatest Super-Heroes Lizard, cast in brown plastic, along with a brown body from Mego’s Planet of the Apes line and a Klingon uniform. Later reproductions from Diamond Select and Mego have corrected these inaccuracies, producing an all-new Gorn more reflective of the alien seen in the series.
The second wave aliens are exceptionally rare, not only the rarest Star Trek figures ever, but some of the rarest Megos altogether. Wave two was shipped with a reissue of wave one, reducing production. And, early in the production run, Paramount requested Mego stop manufacturing original Star Trek series merchandise in anticipation of the in-development Star Trek revival (first a series, eventually evolving into Star Trek: The Motion Picture).
Wave two is even stranger than wave one. Two of the four figures (the Andorian and Romulan) look exactly like they did on the original series, while the other two (the Mugato and Talos) are unrecognizable. Talos, modelled after the Talosian Keepers from The Menagerie, loses the Keepers’ silver robes for a yellow jumpsuit and red boots, while the Mugato gains a lime-green shirt and bright red pants with frilly white cuffs.
The Heritage lot includes a wave one issue-Charon (distinguished by the cross-sell on the cardback and minor differences to the art), and a wave two-issue Gorn, Mugato, and Talos. Though on the more common wave one cardback, the lack of staining on Charon’s white fabric increases his value substantially. The real draw is the Mugato, actually made more desirable to collectors by his baffling inaccuracies to the show. Carded Mugato figures are on eBay right now for $1.8k, almost eight times the current price of the Heritage lot. Heritage last sold a lot of five Mego Star Trek Aliens (plus a sixth figure from Mego’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture line) for $1,750 in 2024, giving an indication of where this auction’s price may finish.
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