Friday is Bring Your Starship Captain to Work Day

Lately, I've been taking requests for Bring Your Action Figure to Work Day.

Last week, one of my esteemed co-workers asked specifically for Mego Batman (the removable cowl variety, who always looked to me like a little kid playing in a Batman costume two sizes too big for him) and Robin (the version with the painted-on mask; the removable mask version looks like he's ready for his cameo in Eyes Wide Shut), and I was more than happy to accommodate. I parked the boys on either side of my computer monitor, and they were much admired throughout the day--even though they're both wearing oven mitts.

This week, someone asked for Star Trek figures. And, again, I was pleased to oblige.

Mego produced a full line of Star Trek figures back in the mid-1970s, including most of the crew of the Starship Enterprise (except for Sulu and Chekov, both of whom had figures planned, but never produced) and a variety of aliens for them to fight with. Above, you can see Captain Kirk, smirking ever so slightly like he's checking out an alien babe and thinking, "Hey, how you doin'?" even though he's pointing a less-than-intimidating powder-blue phaser at nothing in particular. (Out of frame are his buddies, Spock and Dr. McCoy, both looking on their commander with a typical mix of awe and irritation.)

Flanking the good captain on the left is the Gorn, an alien that appeared on the original Star Trek TV series and took on Kirk in solo combat. Mego made their own Gorn as part of their original line, but he looked nothing like the TV version: They took the head from the Lizard, a Spider-Man villain they'd produced as part of their World's Greatest Super Heroes line, changed the color to brown, plunked it on the same body and uniform they'd used for the Star Trek Klingon figure and called it a day. Mego fans still debate to this day whether or not the Mego Gorn is charming or abominable. (Count me in the latter category.)

EMCE Toys, which began reissuing Mego's classic Star Trek line a couple of years ago, has since expanded the line beyond what Mego produced (including the never-produced Sulu and Chekov figures) and now have even gone back to make a TV-accurate Gorn. And the masses rejoiced.

The figure on the right, though, is something of a mystery.

Mego named him the Neptunian, even though no such alien race ever appeared on either the original series or the later cartoon version. Co-workers have been somewhat befuddled, one asking if he was a Sleestak (referring to the reptilian monstrosity from the '70s Saturday-morning staple "Land of the Lost") and another remarking that he looked like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The latter may be closer to the truth than the co-worker realized. There's a long-standing rumor that Mego planned to make a Creature figure for their Mad Monsters line (which already had Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man and the Mummy), only to discover that Universal owner the rights to the character. Rather than pay a licensing fee, the story goes, Mego scrapped their idea for a Creature figure and used the hands and feet they'd created for the Neptunian instead.

Whatever the Neptunian's origin--unique creation or aborted effort--he's still kinda cool looking. And Captain Kirk will still totally kick his ass. 'cause that's how he rolls.