Before a single Kenner Star Wars figure hit shelves, Mego Corporation ruled action figures with its 8-inch, cloth-costumed “World’s Greatest” format — and no license showed it off better than Star Trek.
Launched in 1974, the crew assortment gave kids Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, and a Klingon, each in tailored fabric uniforms with tiny accessories: phasers, communicators, tricorders. Those accessories are the first thing to check today, because they vanished immediately and originals carry real value on their own.
Loose, complete crew figures run $40–100 depending on condition, with Uhura typically the priciest of the core cast. Carded examples are another universe entirely — crisp cards bring $300–1,000+, and grading has only intensified the spread.
The legends of the line, though, are the 1975–76 Aliens assortments. The Gorn, Cheron, Neptunian, Andorian, Mugato, Romulan, and Talos were produced in smaller numbers, and the second series is genuinely scarce. A loose Andorian in nice shape can clear $500; carded, it’s a four-figure trophy. The Romulan carded is one of the great Mego holy grails, with strong examples reaching several thousand dollars.
Condition knowledge is Mego-specific. Bodies suffer from “Mego rot” — brittle, cracked elbows and knees on the type-1 bodies. Costumes fade and fray; heads yellow. Reproduction costumes and accessories are everywhere and openly sold for restoration, so verify originality: repro fabric is usually brighter and the stitching too clean. The collecting community’s reference sites document originals thread by thread.
Mego lost the Star Wars license to Kenner in 1976 — arguably the costliest pass in toy history — and the company was gone by 1983. The Enterprise crew remains its finest hour.