Continuing the Perry Rhodan Nuclear Ferry thread from yesterday, here's the same Bob McCall Nuclear Ferry art work as used on the German book, being used on the front and rear of the RedBox Operation Astronaut action figure, which we've seen before on MC.
The figure is clearly a Major Matt Mason knockoff complete with space sled! The Nuclear Ferry illustration can be seen in close up below:
They are all most likely a lift from this detail from Robert McCall's original Ferry artwork for LIFE magazine.
The illustration also reminds me of a very similar lifted ferry in the background of the cover of an old Italian Cosmo pulp. I would say its the McCall Ferry above minus any of its sub-vehicles: the front pod and the space taxi.
Blog reader and space publisher Darth sent in these pics including the rear of the RedBox Operation Astroanut toy.
Rob says: Attached is an Argentinian astronaut toy. He is about 10 inches tall (Sword vehicle for scale in pic) and fully articulated. As you can see he is clearly a large version of Major Matt Mason, including a scaled up version of his space sled.
Instead of the rubber, bendy Matt Mason he is more like an old Action Man. His spacesuit is silk-screened cloth. For those who know and love Major Matt Mason I have published The Rocketbelt Pilot's Manual by William Suitor. Bill was the original Bell Rocket Backpack pilot and flew the first rocket belts in the 60s.
He also stood in for Sean Connery in Thunderball. Did all the testing for the lunar rocket packs. The book includes lots of pictures of rocket back packs, including the original NASA simulator that was the concept for the Matt Mason sled. All on my website for anyone interested. Cheers, Rob in Canada.
Here's another Operation Astronaut box variant courtesy of reader Ed Decker. No Ferry on this one though as far as I can tell. There's more about him on what I think is Ed's cool site, Blechroboter. De. The figure naturally features on many Major Matt Mason websites and blogs and even gets a mention on the Mego Museum here.
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