AHI Planet of the Apes Action Figures
Azrak Hamway International (AHI) was founded in 1964 and initially offered cheap novelty style toys. Then in 1974 they acquired Remco Toys and produced better quality toys under the Remco brand, including licensed merchandise such as Universal Monsters, Space 1999, Batman etc. AHI also created the Child Guidance division to produce child learning toys. The Remco and Child Guidance brands were bought out by Jakks Pacific in 1997.
AHI was already in the process of negotiating the license for Planet of the Apes merchandise with 20th Century Fox in 1973 when Marty Abrams took his young son Kenny to the movies for one of the Go Ape! Marathons of the POTA movies. The story goes that Marty, the president of Mego Corp, was so impressed that he immediately got on the phone to Fox and outbid AHI for the action figure part of the license, however AHI retained the license for the other merchandise.
Despite this, AHI decided to produce a line of “Action Apeman” figures, that was obviously targeted towards this market and to undermine Mego’s POTA line.
This resulted in Mego and 20th Century Fox filing a lawsuit seeking an injunction and damages against AHI. AHI eventually agreed to the injunction and a payment for damages, but they retained their license for other POTA merchandise.
Sources:
Mego Action Figure Toys (Schiffer Book for Collectors) by John Bonavita
Official Price Guide to Action Figures Stuart W Wells III and Jim Man
Toyfare Magazine
Sources:
Recent Articles
-
Vintage Toy Biz Iron Man Action Figures Series 2 Collectors Guide
Jul 28, 20 01:54 AM
After the success of the first series Toy Biz Iron Man action figures followed the same formula with 3 Iron Man armour variants, three villains and one ally
-
Spawn series 1
Jul 11, 20 11:20 PM
Spawn action figures all series.
-
How many Kenner Batman action figures were produced?
May 01, 20 02:06 AM
Batman is one of the oldest and most popular of all the Super Heroes. The first Kenner Batman action figure was...
-
How Many Mego Batman Action Figures Were Released
Apr 22, 20 05:22 AM
How many Mego Batman figures were released and when?
-
How many Toy Biz Spiderman Animated Series Figures Were Released?
Mar 02, 20 10:09 PM
It seems ToyBiz loved Spiderman As much as his fans did as no other Marvel hero received the plastic treatment as much as he did...
-
What is Spider-man, who is he?
Mar 02, 20 10:07 PM
Spider-man has been one of the most consistently popular Marvel Super Heroes for more than 40 yars, but did you know..
Other Figures
