More than a woman

Meet Kate McRae, the 3 ¾ miniaturisation of Yvette Mimieux from the 1979 Disney film, The Black Hole.  Kate is the token female of the crew, but still, apparently the least desirable to own, with dozens of Kate McRae’s available on the secondary market as individuals, and not infrequently among mixed lots on that auction web-site in particular.  A MOC K8 McRae is still only $25 (though a GIG card is more), and loose collectible quality can be obtained for little more than treble the original retail price.  Like the majority of her ilk, K8 carries no accessory, (no make-up bag or hair-dryer, for instance), so she’s going to struggle to compete with her contemporaries, especially when they include notables like Princess Leia with removable capes and blasters, or Marion Ravenwood with doily dress and chimp companion. 

Mego’s foray into the sci-fi genre in response to Kenner’s spectacular success with Star Wars (and Mego’s epic fail in that regard) was essentially doomed due to diversification and design.  Too many lines competing against one another divided its market (consider Star Trek TMP, CHiPs, The Black Hole and Buck Rogers all appearing at the same time), then the delicate, highly articulated construction and rubber-band joinery ill-suited to child’s play, further eroded the brand.  But I’m not here to bash Mego; for all their mis-steps, I still regard them as being the pioneers of this industry and to this day, remain my absolute favourite action figure brand.  Even if I curse them every time one of their slack-waisted figures checks-in for hip replacement surgery (I guess that’s just the ageing process that many of us will experience anyway, so maybe they were into experiential figures, more realistic than we could ever have imagined).

K8 is your typical female action figure, painted pink and with bumps & curves in all the right places.  She’s not a bad likeness to Yvette, though the same couldn’t be said for some of her peers (think Ernest Borgnine’s Harry Booth for instance).  Susceptible to broken thumbs, slack waist and general wear and tear, K8 is delicate like her dynamic among a shuttle full of men, but still, able to stand her ground in the face of gender discrimination.  Given there are so relatively few female characters in the vintage action figure lines, K8 will maintain a privileged place in the annals of action figure history along with the Princess Leia’s, Wilma Deerings, Marion Ravenwood’s et al of this hobby.  She may not immediately spring to mind when considering that relatively small fraternity, but she deserves our attention for her power-suited (albeit still pinkish) only ever-so-subtle androgyny.  She’s an explorer first, woman second.

Kate McRae | 1979 | Mego | The Black Hole