The Robe

This year for Christmas, my wife Lorie got me two major gifts that I wanted to share with you briefly. The first is a Mego Batgirl. For those of you unfamiliar, Mego is the toy company that produced super hero action figures in the 1970’s. They were GI Joe-esque in that they were articulated dolls with removable clothing and often many accessories. This Mego Batgirl is missing a lot, but I still love it. I’ve been able to order pieces for it from a noted Mego restoration outfit to complete it for display. So I’ll be eagerly adding her to my Mego display once my new comic room is set up. Look forward to that post.

Second is a robe. A robe with super heroes on it. A child’s robe. With pictures of Batman, Superman, and Captain Marvel. The robe is from the late seventies and had to be acquired through eBay from an antique dealer in California.

Here’s a picture of the robe, held by my go-to model for such things.


And after seeing the robe on display on Instagram and recognizing its significance, my mother sent this:


That’s me in 1978… wearing the same robe on Christmas morning and sporting a magnificent haircut. You see… it’s not just a robe. It’s a freaking time machine to my childhood. I’ll (most likely) never wear the robe. But I can display it and maybe even get this picture framed for my wall. So many thanks to my wife for getting me the robe and many thanks to my mother for sending the picture.

NOW….

HOWEVER…

Let’s look at that picture again. The one from Christmas morning, 1978.


I’ve asked my mother to go ahead and forward any pictures she might stumble upon with me and my old toys. I don’t really think the old toys bit registers on my mother, as this is the first time I remember seeing this particular picture.

You’ll notice several of Mego’s Micronauts figures spread on the floor in front of me? I treasured the Micronauts that year, as they were the big thing for boys in 1978. And there you can see in my Father’s ever-present Christmas morning “trash box” the discarded packaging for these Mego figures. Also, you’ll notice I’m holding a boxed Mego Micronauts Giant Acroyear. I’m sure your sharp eye recognized these details.

Also, on the other side of me, are several Corgi character cars from the seventies. I can make out the Charlie’s Angels van, James Bond’s car from Moonraker, and a packaging boasting Spider-Man. I can also make out a “Heroes in Action” figure, which was a little soldier that when you twisted his waist made machine gun sounds. And there on top of it all was one of my favorites. A Matchbox Mobile Action Command police car with figure… still in package. That was a cool figure that saw hours of play. And when I lost all his accessories and his police car, I simply made-believe he was the Atom.


You can read more about Micronauts here.

You can see more about the Mobile Action Command here.

Thanks,
DCD