Space Academy by Aviva
I always kind of found it odd that out of all the cool shows that Filmation produced in the 1970s, my least favourite ones got all the merchandising. Sure, I watched Isis on TV but there was no way in heck I could buy a girl doll.
Also, despite being a lover of SF at an early age, I could never get into Space Academy the way I did Ark 2 or Shazam!. Mego actually snapped up the rights to Ark 2 but didn’t release any of the planned figures but Aviva, a subsidary of Hasbro released the Space Academy line using the Hasbro Super Joe bodies in 1978. From what I’m told, these were an exclusive for Woolworths.
A year later Space Academy would morph into “Jason of Star Command“, a more action orientated series that would, of course, see absolutely no merchandise, boo!
I could never get into Space Academy either. It had great special effects for the time (done by SFX people laid off from Industrial Light and Magic after Stars Wars wrapped), and I liked Jonathon Harris as a good guy for a change, but the rest of the cast was so dull. Jason of Star Command was much better and deserved the full merchandising treatment.
But it had Brian Tochi and his perfectly feathered hair.
I agree Jaso of Star Command was the better of the two shows, and should have got some kind of merchandising. At least it came out on DVD.
Woolworths was exactly where I saw the figures back in the day. Sadly I never had any. Ahhh, I can still smell the lunch counter wafting throughout the store.
I can only image what any James Doohan or Sid Haig based dolls might be worth, if any such survived the 1970s.