Mego Bend 'n Flex Planet of the Apes Astronaut

Quick post. This is Mego's Astronaut from their Bend 'n Flex bendy series from 1975.

I picked this guy up last year from a Mego Marketplace seller. I'm keeping him carded as I love the cheesy, vintage artwork and, in this case, the packaging feels as much a part of the toy as the toy, itself. I especially love the illustration on the back of the package that shows all the characters in the series.

I only had two of these Planet of the Apes bendies as a kid...the astronaut and a soldier ape. I got the Astronaut first and he accompanied me on a road trip from Minnesota to Montana to find a new house when I was about 8 years old. While visiting Montana, we stopped by a Kmart and I was allowed to buy a soldier ape. So, my strongest memory of these Ape bendies has to do with playing with them in the car for hours and hours while riding from state to state.

Better than a Gameboy or Ipod for passing time? Eh, probably not... but there wasn't a whole lot for a kid to do on long road trips back then.

I've said it before, but I love how Mego got away with making their astronaut toys look NOTHING like the astronaut characters from the films.

Gotta love the 70's.

Wham-O Bullwinkle Bendy

There were a lot of bendy figures being produced in the early 70s... superheroes, TV Heroes, cartoon characters, etc. I had quite a few bendy figures during this time and this was one of them... Bullwinkle the Moose from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. This is another bendy from Wham-O that was produced in 1972. Wham-O produced quite a few characters from the Rocky and Bullwinkle/Fractured Fairy Tales cartoons. Hopefully, I can get my hands on a few more of them.

Bullwinkle was produced in true bendy fashion... that is, he was produced as a three-dimensional figure but the term "dimensional" is pushing it a bit. Most bendy figures were produced as thinly as possible. That is, from the front, they look correct. When you turn them sideways, they almost disappear. I'm not sure if this thinness helped with way the internal wires worked or if it was a cost cutting measure but it's definitely a trademark of bendy figures from this era.

Consequently, Bullwinkle looked good in the package but wasn't much to look at once you tried to utilize him as a 3D character. As you can see, his antlers don't quite work once you try to adjust him out of the package.

I love these old bendies from the early 70s. They are just so...TOY. I don't know how else to put it.

Wham-O Boris Badenov Bendy

This is a Boris Badenov bendy from WHAM-O in 1972. I love the name Wham-O. I wish I would have named one of my kids Wham-O, but alas, that ship has sailed.

Boris is from the Rocky and Bulwinkle cartoon. He and his wife Natasha were villains on the show. I haven't seen the show in so long, I can't really offer much more about his character. I believe both Boris and his wife spoke with Russian accents.

I do know that Rocky and Bulwinkle were created by Jay Ward (his name's right on Boris's back) along with a whole slew of other characters like Mr. Peabody, Sherman, Dudley Do Right, and Snidely Whiplash. Great, classic cartoons.

I had this bendie when I was in First Grade. There was just something so cool about how chunky the figure was...and I really dug the jet black rubber and white color scheme. I took him to school one day at Simmons Elementary in Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1973. The thing is, he disappeared at some point during the day and that was the last I saw of him. I guess that's what you get for taking a toy to school when you aren't supposed to. I think I only had Boris for a day or two.

So, if anyone knows someone that went to Simmons Elementary in 1973 that has a Boris bendie, tell 'em I'd like to have a little chat with them...Wham-O style.

Lakeside Popeye Bendie

When I was a kid...a very little kid, Popeye was the "Man." I watched Popeye cartoons on tv, played with Popeye toys and games, and even dressed up like Popeye from time to time. I had a real corn cob pipe and sailor hat. Ball point pen provided the anchor tattoos on my scrawny forearms. I even tried eating cold spinach out of can to emulate my hero once...ONCE.

Until recently, I had forgotten about the Lakeside Popeye bendie. I had one as a kid but it was a forgotten memory. After seeing a photo of one online, I had an "Oh, yeah!" moment and memories of having this bendie came flooding back.

This was produced by Lakeside in 1968 and was sold through, at least, the early 1970's. I do remember that he was sold alongside the Smokey the Bear bendie on toy shelves.

This particular bendie has a greenish sailor suit. Mine, as a kid, was bright blue. I'm not sure if this is from a different production run or if time has altered the original color of the rubber (since the green color is the actual color of the rubber used and is not painted). I have seen both colors in various pictures of this toy online.


I remember being very confused about Popeye's face as a tyke. Is that an eye? Where's his chin? Does he have two mouths (one for talkin' and one for smokin')? The sculpt on this bendy did nothing to clear up my confusion. This is truly one of those faces only a mother could love.

...and therein lies the beauty of Popeye..."I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam." Popeye was always comfortable with himself just the way he was and that always made him cool, in his own right.

Yours truly, about to deliver a spinach-fueled beatdown to "The Bomper," an obviously evil, up-to-no-good clown.

(Edit: I just realized that the bop-bag probably doesn't say "The Bomper." I looked up "Romper Room" and, sure enough, it's a licensed Romper Room toy. The clown's still evil, though. Hmmm. All these years, I thought it said "The Bomper.")

Mego 5" Bend N' Flex Batman

Okay, here's the thing...when a company produced a figure of a Superhero in the 1970s, it was always with the intent that they were producing a toy for children to play with. There were no expensive, high-end Batman statues or sixth-scale figures like the ones that are being produced for the adult collector's market today. There were just toys...and some of them, well, they just screamed TOY!

This is such a figure. It's Batman, no doubt. However, this is Batman at the most simplified, silly, rudimentary level. This is Mego's Bend n' Flex figure from 1973. Mego produced a full line of characters in their Bend n' Flex line that covered such properties and DC/Marvel Superheroes and even characters from the Planet of the Apes films.


My kids just laughed when I showed this figure to them. My oldest son just shook his head in disgust. To them, it was almost inconceivable that a child would want to play with this toy and consider him to be THE Batman. This is Batman at his silliest and he certainly wouldn't instill much fear in criminals prowling around the alleys of Gotham looking like this. However, our standards were a bit lower as children in the 70s and it was always fun to get a new Superhero toy... no matter how abysmal looking it was.


This figure is 5" tall and is constructed in the standard bendy style... rubber/vinyl over a bendable wire armature. It's fun to look at the quality standards for paint work on these cheap toys from back then. On this figure, it's all over the place and looks as if the painters worked on these figures while under the influence.

All in all, these bendy figures were a good alternative to "real" figures when you didn't have enough money for a more expensive toy...or if your Mom was "brick walling" your pleas for a new GiJoe at the department store, you could most often snag one of these guys without too much trouble.

Lakeside Smokey the Bear bendie

Smokey the Bear. It's hard to believe this guy didn't have a TV show or something when you look at all the merchandise that's been produced with his image over the years. I guess it just goes to show how far a character can go towards promoting a public service message. Forest fires? Not for me.



This little gem was produced by Lakeside in 1967. I'm sure not many people will care about seeing this toy but it was a favorite of mine as a little squirt in the very early 70s. He's a classic bendie; about 6 inches tall, rubber over wire armature, down-and-dirty paint scheme, funny little holes on the back, etc. I seem to remember owning a few of these bendie Smokeys as they would get lost or break from time to time. My strongest memory of this bendie involves a hardware store in Aberdeen, South Dakota and a barrel. This particular hardware store was literally selling these, loose, out of a barrel. It was a "barrel of fun" (boo) getting to dig through, what seemed like, hundreds and hundreds of bendie Smokeys.

I think there was also a carded version that came with a shovel. Don't quote me on that, though.

Anyone else remember this guy?