Greatest American Hero Action Figures Identification Tool with Pictures

The series centered around the adventures of Ralph Hinkley, a substitute teacher for one of Los Angeles’ high schools. His life radically changed after a chance encounter with extra-terrestrials. These beings deemed him worthy of receiving a special suit that granted him superhuman abilities. Thus, Hinkley gained an entire suite of powers including super strength, flight, invisibility, telekinesis, and many more.

Unlike most costumed superheroes, Ralph Hinkley did not take up a new identity when he donned his red suit. The symbol on his suit also did not correlate with the type of powers or where he received his powers. Instead, it was designed after a pair of scissors that creator Stephen J. Cannel had on his desk. This design happened to resemble the Chinese character for “middle” or “justice”, leading to the name “Flying Red Justice Hero” when the show was localized there. Accenting the suit was a black cape.

When Ralph was given the suit by alien visitors, he was tasked with helping improve humanity. He was also given an instruction manual that would have taught him how to use his new powers. However, he promptly lost the instruction manual, leading to many hijinks as he stumbled his way through his powers. To help keep humanity safe, he worked alongside an FBI agent, Bill Maxwell.

In the same vein as other episodic series of the era, The Greatest American Hero had no set group of villains that he would face against. Instead, Ralph and Bill took on various criminals in each episode.

Even though The Greatest American Hero stopped airing new episodes in 1983, there were still 4 more episodes that were filmed and not released. Fans got the chance to view these episodes through both syndication and later DVD releases. The syndication reruns also allowed for a brief attempt to revive the series with The Greatest American Heroine. However, this spin-off only made it to an unreleased pilot episode that also found its way to DVD.

One of the most notorious elements of The Greatest American Hero is the action figures that Mego had planned to release in 1981. While Mego managed to get part of the toy line to stores, there was another part of the line that was left in the prototype stage.

The toys that made it to the toy aisle were two 3 ¾” action figures of both stars of the show, Ralph and Bill. These two came in a box set that also included a white Convertible “Bug”, modeled after the Volkswagon Beetle. While both action figures were detailed, they lacked some detailed paint on the faces. They also had basic articulation, with only the head, arms, and legs moving.

The 3 ¾” scale toy set from Mego is rare. However, the more popular aspect of this toy line never made it to the toy aisle. Mego had always been well known for their detailed 8” action figures. So, they knew that their fans expected the same scale for the Greatest American Hero toy line. With this in mind, they set out to create action figures of the main cast in this size. So, they created prototypes of Raph, Bill, and Pam.

Even though these action figures never made it to toy stores, they received full-color prototypes. As some of these toys were prototyped inside the package, collectors may possibly collect all three on their card backs. However, it is very rare to find one of these unreleased toys.

While The Greatest American Hero has not resurfaced in the decades since the original series aired, there have been various attempts to revive the series. While there was a fan-made 6-episode web series, no official series has been produced. The latest official attempt occurred in 2018, with another female lead.

For those who always dreamed of owning a Ralph action figure, RXShow created one in 2007. While this action figure had a more modern style head, FXShow aimed to mimic Mego’s style with this action figure. The toy even came in a package that resembled the planned packaging for the 8” action figure.