THE MAGNIFICENT MAJOR MATT MASON...MATTEL'S MAN IN SPACE...



Mattel's Man In Space - but how does he go to the toilet?

1969's "giant leap for mankind" was still a couple of years in the future when one of America's leading toy manufacturers,  MATTEL, released MAJOR MATT MASON and his space-age buddies in 1967. (The copyright date was 1966, but the toys didn't appear in shops 'til the following year.) There was CALLISTO (from Jupiter), SERGEANT STORM, DOUG DAVIS,  LIEUTENANT JEFF LONG and CAPTAIN LAZER, who was a giant plastic figure in contrast to the smaller rubber-and-wire bodies of Matt and his colleagues.

How embarrassing - they both turned up at the Venusian
Ambassador's ball driving matching space sleds

Major Matt Mason
was a brilliant toy and also a rubbish one at the same time; brilliant because it looked great and the
play-time possibilities seemed unlimited due to
the plethora of equipment which could be purchased for the astronaut. (Moon suits, space stations, etc.) Rubbish because the paint over the rubber bodies started to peel off within hours, and the wire within the figures broke within days. So perishable were they that it's actually a small miracle that any figures managed to survive to the present day.

  

Storm and Davis - just good friends

However, in their time, they were the "must-have" toys of the moment, and many a childhood was brightened by its association (short-lived as it may have been) with the first man on the moon - in Mattel's universe at least.

(Photos from my own personal collection. Please excuse the dust.)