If you are like me and grew up in the '70s, then you probably remember the Mego "World's Greatest Super-Heroes" action figures. Standing at about eight inches tall, these cloth-costumed heroes captured the imagination and hearts of kids throughout the decade. Begun in 1972, the line stayed in production until the company closed its doors over a decade later. No new characters were added after 1978, yet sales remained strong enough to keep the line going. I can't think of any other action figure characters that has stayed on the retail market that long without at least mould, feature or accessory changes.

Mego enjoyed particular success with their DC Comics heroes, so when "Isis" joined the 'Shazam! family' in the mid-70s, Mego snapped up the licence to produce a doll of the title heroine, the only doll in that product line other than Tarzan who did not originate with DC or Marvel Comics.

The doll was available in both boxed and blister-carded varieties. The boxed version is considered much rarer because the doll was introduced during the final year that Mego shipped their dolls in boxes, 1976. Prices I've seen for the dolls: Mint on card (unopened): $250, Mint in box: $600! Mint, no package (complete with all accessories): $125.

Where do you find one? You can usually find some on eBay, though there are several collectible toy dealers around who probably have a better selection (and, likely, higher prices). Good publications to locate dealers are Toy Shop, Tomart Action Figure Digest and Wizard's magazines. Toy Shop is (or at least, was) a particularly good source for bargains and you'll probably find several dealers there who haven't made the leap to online sales yet.

I must say that the costume is very nicely detailed for Mego's standards. The sandals are particularly impressive. A fairly faithful recreation of the costume. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the doll's head. In a cost-cutting measure, Mego chose to recycle the head of their discontinued Wonder Woman doll (with slight paint changes) rather than having a new mould made from Joanna Cameron's likeness. I guess they figured the Wonder Woman's head was close enough.

There are many other people out there more knowledgeable about Mego dolls than I am, but I do know that even the blister-carded version of Isis is hard enough to find, because toy manufacturers (to this day) always produced fewer female characters than their male counterparts. For instance, in Galoob's "Star Trek: The Next Generation" line, only one Tasha Yar figure was packed per case of 24! As the action figure market has always consisted mainly of little boys, female characters tended not to sell very well (Princess Leia figures from the Star Wars line is a good example). Look up the prices of action figures in just about any price guide and (not counting "catalogue exclusive" items) you'll find the top dollar values usually go to the gals.

Additional photos:

boxed doll

back of box

carded doll

back of card

loose doll