Tuesday, 1 December 2009

MACKIE 1: ZERO-X / FIREFLASH HYBRID FROM ROCKET PUNCH







Greetings Paul, here are some pictures of that spacecraft toy I recently acquired. It's called the Mackie 1 and was featured in the 1975 Japanese series Ultraman Leo. It was used by an organization called MAC (Monster Attacking Crew) and fulfills the same function as Thunderbird 2. It's clear to me that the designers were Century 21 fans. In fact it looks like the offspring of Zero-X and the Fireflash. You be the judge. RP.

7 comments:

  1. The Philosophic Toad12/02/2009 9:10 am

    What size is this model? And do you know if the Mackie 1 in the series splits in the way Zero X does? I tried YouTube for footage, but could not find any of the craft, only Ultrman himself.

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  2. Isn't MAC what the Project Sword personnel said to each other in the comic strips? Rather like FAB in Thunderbirds. Could there be an influence here - Monster Attacking drew ( great name!) and MAC?

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  3. There's some Ultraman Leo info here

    http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.toyboxdx.com/datafiles/data/takatoku/images/page3files/mackie1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.toyboxdx.com/datafiles/data/takatoku/page3.php&usg=__q6cSrP5dQGVIBrzVY9sadQcbOuI=&h=349&w=478&sz=73&hl=en&start=1&sig2=zz0dytViSoqsjQiREanJYg&um=1&tbnid=TJXiUp-aM6kD9M:&tbnh=94&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbullmark%2Bmackie%2Btoy%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGLL_enGB340GB340%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=NYsWS4-fDcG04QaJv9jVBQ

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  4. The craft itself doesn't separate, however; the front wingtips swing downward when it lands or docks with their space station. The toy itself is approx. 3.5" in length.

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  5. The interesting thing about the various Ultraman series which began in 1966 are the anti monster/alien organizations which the main characters belong to. Each organization has a jet interceptor, a heavy equipment carrying aircraft, a spacecraft, a submarine, a drill vehicle, and a space station. Sound familiar? This pattern remains consistent even with Ultraman series that have been produced in the last ten years.

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  6. The Philosophic Toad12/03/2009 11:04 am

    Thanks, Rocket Punch. There does seem to be more than a little Thunderbirds influence in that organisation's set-up.

    Looking at the image for which Woodsy posted a link, it looks like the Mackie 1 comes with missiles. Does the toy actually fire these?

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  7. I am told there is a toy of this craft that fires missiles. Alas, the one I own has all the exciting features of a paperweight. It looks good on the shelf though.

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