One toy which evaded me for Xmas 1970 (and almost ever successive one thereafter) was Mattel's Scorpio from the Major Matt Mason line. Scorpio, a late addition to the range, was another oddity, along with his compadre Captain Lazer. Whereas Callisto, the green brained alien was Matt sized and Captain was almost twice as tall, at Action Man height, Scorpio fitted somewhere in the middle. He follows the original figure form, with rubber limbs over a wire armature, but like the good captain, benefited from a hard plastic torso with a battery compartment that powered a bulb inside his head.
Flicking the switch on his back makes his "eyes glow with the light of an an alien intelligence!".
He also came with clip on armour for his spindly legs and arms, and a lime green 'vest projector' which, with the aid of some bellows, fired polystyrene 'search globes'.
My Scorpio is an alien of many parts, as the figure was gift from a very good friend, the armour parts are reproductions from the states and the vest is from a seller in USA, which arrived painted silver! I still need to remove the final traces of paint and find the correct shade of violet enamel for the armour! Meanwhile, Woodsy kindly sourced a whole bag chock full of search globes last Xmas for me, in the shape of polystrene toy stuffing!
Finally, to round off this seasonal reverie, hers the original patent for the toy, showing a rather simple drawing of this elegant and distinctive alien.
One of the favorite figures of my youth. I'm sure he's still in a box around here somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI had Matt Mason stuff but I think Scorpio saw more action with my G.I. Joes and Big Jim figures. Always sitting on a nebulous cusp between friend and foe.