MAJOR MATT MASON AND HIS DAIRY QUEEN JET

 I've never eaten a Dairy Queen. I don't think they appeared in the UK, so the association of Major Matt Mason and Dairy Queen is new to me.

Here's an old advertising poster I saw on auction combining the Dairy Queen Jet and the Major.

Is this news to you?

Do you eat Dairy Queen?

MAJOR MATT MASON: OUR MAN IN PASTE

 For the kid who had everything from the worlds of Major Matt Mason ...

.... Major Matt Wallpaper!

I mean, Wow! Who wouldn't have wanted this on their wall back in 1967! I seem to recall I had antique cars but this would have been much better! A major step forward!

Our very own budding astronaut in Finland, Commander Arto Aldrin, is now the proud owner of this piece of Matt Mason history. Suffice to say Arto is excited as it wends a merry voyage to Helsinki Base all the way from the States.

Wall to wall fun or what!

[The picture is from the Ebay seller, toyscout57 of NY, who has sold 14 pieces of this marvellous MMM wallpaper]

DECAL? DEECAL? LET'S PULL THE WHOLE THING OFF!

Its the little things I remember the most from childhood, those small bits and pieces that came with toys.

One such trinket would be the stickers that came with Major Mat Mason toys like these control panels.

These were some I saw online so I saved the snap. They could be repro. I imagine most real stickers were peeled off the paper and put on the various MMM vehicles and the Space Station.

Did you like these stickers? Would you say decals [or deecals]?

LEWIS'S MADHELL SHOWSTOPPER: KENN DISPLAYS ALL

Whoo Hooo, Moonbasers!

I finally finished my Doll and Miniatures Show presentation literally a minute before the doors opened!

1) The finished display! What do you think?

2) HEY BOOMERS! Remember these toys? Major Matt Mason was dead as a toy line the moment Armstrong kicked the moon. But what if Mattel had tried to extend the line. 

Two possibilities, cross it with Barbie and Ken or bring in some heavy duty villains (like the Big Jim range) instead of those cream puff aliens! Yeah, give America's boys some real Bad Guys so they can win a few battles....

3) This is Kenn, he's a really nice guy and he's the first American on the moon. He came for all Mankind, but he planted Old Glory while he was at it!

(Flag sold separately)

4) For the first day, life was really sweet for Kenn and he tooled across the Sea of Crises in his Moon Bugger. 

An unfortunate naming caused by a last minute compromise between the Madhell Naming Department who wanted "Moon Buggy" and Marketing Department who wanted "Moon Crawler". The result was 40,000 boxes that had to have a sticker hand-applied to turn it into " Moon Bug"!

Several Madhell Heads lost their jobs that month ...

Further adventures to follow .....

THE HOT SEAT: EXITING THE MOON ON A CHAIR

Amidst the myriad blogs and sites about the space race and its countless concepts I occasionally stumble into a new one which holds fresh nuggets of conceptual gold.

One such blog, False Steps, warranted further inspection and out popped a superb illustration that immediately made me shout loudly 'That's got Major Matt Mason Written all over it!"

I give you General Dynamics' 1964 'Study for a Lunar Escape Device', a scary looking space deck-chair with a rather natty rocket engine strapped to space hoppers! 

The False Steps author has a disarming and comical style of writing, especially the titles and captions to his posts. 

He amusingly describes this device as 'literally flying from the seat of your pants!", which really made me chuckle. Have a peek yourselves; there are more graphics of this escape unit plus much much more. 

https://falsesteps.wordpress.com/page/5/ 

[Sadly the False Steps blog is dormant, ending in 2017 and presumably as a result of the author Paul Drye publishing his book of the same name].

As for its Major Matt-ness, the brilliant escape device above calls to mind all those wonderful space flyers, chairs and boards that Mattel magicked up for their wired man in space, such as:

The fabulous Recono-Jet 

[courtesy of Blueflamechevelle]

The Space Station Chair as seen within this TV ad by Our Nostalgic Memories

and the never-produced and glorious Space Rover as seen on the magnificent Wildtoys website. Super modeller Frank May recreated it too, which is showcased on the Wildtoys site.

http://www.wildtoys.com/MMMPage/MMMresources/mmmCustomFranksRover.asp

Do you think the General Dynamics Escape Device would have made a good Major Matt toy?

Can you think of other toys that are majorly Matt Masonable?

THE ASTRO-LAUNCH FIGHTERSHIP

 Everythong about the Astr0-Launch Fightership says to me Major Matt Mason.

The box graphics and lettering,

The black and white colours of the toy itself.

Even the launching rotors!

Has anyone ever put a Major Mat or two beside on of these?

MAJOR REPLACEMENTS

 I've been thinking about cheaper replacements for Major Mat Mason Parts. 

Not that I have any Matt Mason anymore but I adored the Major as a nipper.

Consider the cool Matt helmet with that glorious visor.

Well howzabout Playmobil's Mars astronaut's helmet. OK its too small but darn it, that's the same visor design!

And what about Matt's wonderful little chrome tools like those binoculars.

Well, Playmobil have some Mars bins ready to go too!

Larger items are trickier and may need some proper upcycling to replace them. Take the Recono-Jet, that neat zip-line sled.

Well, you could always repurpose an old hairdryer like this Moulinex Jet.

and a base from an old calculator maybe.

The classic Moulinex drier gives further possibilities.

The fab MMM Space Bubble, the Major's posin' globe, could be made from a variety of clear spheres.

Here's some Amazon. Or maybe even find an old Ferrero Rocher gift ball. 

The white frame is a lot harder. I was thinking of a toy wheelbarrow frame?

What do you think?

Have you got any more Major upcycling ideas readers? The wackier the better!

Major Matt Mason on Maxsmodels

Hi

                Max from Maxsmodels is back from his latest trip, and has just done another Livestream. I actually managed to catch this one live. The first item up is Major Matt Mason, and the story behind his space suit. Thought it might be of interest to you. Many other subjects are also covered.

Maxsmodels Livestream 28, The After Hours Soiree - YouTube

What do you think?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

WHAT A FIGURE!

Here are a few of the action figures I've found at local car boot sales in August. Being on furlough I was able to go to two boot sales a week and it's been great fun.

Scorpio, Callisto and Matt were a real rubbery bargain. Just need to test the bulb in Scorpio's head. They were filthy when I got them but have cleaned up really well. 

Here in this bundle of fun we have a couple of Matchbox monster Howlers, a purple Yolanda Skeleton soldier, an Action Force frogman and more.

The figures I cannot ID are the yellow and black one far left, the black Ninja-style rider next to him, the pink big-eared figure far right bottom and the blue rubbery muscly guy next to him. 

Any ideas gratefully received readers!

Here are those mystery figures. Any clues?

Missing from this lot are some boxed Gormiti toy sets I picked up in Stokely, all new to me!

I hope to squeeze one more car boot sale in before I have to go back to work face-mask and all.

LANZADOR ESPACIAL SPACE SPINNERS BY SHAMBERS

I love this space spinner machine from Spain. It reminds me Major Matt Mason and his rotary spinners. I'd have liked this toys as a young astronaut. Would you?

RECYCLING MAJOR MATT MASON'S SPACE STATION

I was reading James Gillam's Space Toys of the 60's last month. I got the book when it first came out years ago and the author kindly signed it for me.

Its a great book to dip into - have you got it? - here's the cover:

James loves Major Matt Mason and there's a great chapter on the Major. 

He mentions some parts recycling too. One I didn't know about was about the MMM Space Station. 

James talks about the re-use of part of it in the Space Moon Base 1999 set. 

Here's the Major Matt station dashboard:

and here it is with different graphics for Mattel's Moon Base Alpha dash.

Have you come across this before readers?

Is there any more MMM/ 1999 recycling?

MAJOR MATT ON TV 1966

Ah, the Major. On You Tube.

What a cool toy line Mat Mason was.

Did you have any as a kid?

MAJOR MATT AND ZERO-X ON MARS

Hi,

Since it's topical, here's a couple of Mars themed pictures!

Kevin D

Cheshire Base

Its Callisto brainier than Modulok?

I came across Modulok the other day.

He's the connectable fellow from the Masters of the Universe range.

His red lobed head rang a bell!

]

Yes, he's a red dead-ringer for my old green headed mate Callisto, who I knocked about with in the Sixties.

Both are from Mattel's toy factory.

I wondered if the connection goes further?

Did you have either of these toys or do you still have them in your collection?

Colonel Hap Hazard Rack Toy 1970

Located with an East Coast US seller, I noticed this unusual spaceman late last year. This is the picture from Ebay.

Its a Marx Apollo Astronaut carded set from 1970. The figure is names as Colonel Hap Hazard.

It all looks so familiar and I may well have had one of these sets. I was 9 in 1970 and 10 that Christmas. 

But I can't help thinking that all the accessories look so much like Major Matt Mason equipment that that's what I'm actually remembering. Its hard to say. I suppose I'm now wondering whether Marx simply cashed in on Mattel's success with Major Matt. What do you think?

There are also countless knockoffs of this Marx set especially in Mexico where the body has many colour variations and different heads including Callisto like these from the amazing Madhunter collection.!

Interestingly Marx released Colonel Hap Hazard in an earlier guise as a tinplate robot in 1968.

Here's some footage on You Tube of the robot by gfu collectible.

Do you have any Hap Hazard toys or knockoffs?

Is the Sears Space Mobile a Mattel Major Mat Mason Cuckoo?

Continuing my occasional theme of toys made by other companies so that well-known toys could be used with them [sort of like cuckoos!], I've probably blogged this before but the Sears Space Mobile seems to be just such a one.

With its antenna like the Firebolt Laser Canon's it seems to have been aimed at fans of Major Matt Mason toys and figures in the Sixties.

.

Did a Mattel Major Matt Mason figure actually fit inside the pilot's seat on this toy?

Anyone know?

NB.

Talking to Bill about this I realise that This vehicle came with a plastic astronaut that looked like Matt 

Mason but was only four and a half inches tall.

In US toy catalogues the Sears Spacemobile was advertised alongside Major Matt Mason toys. I'm still uncertain if the Major could sit or stand in the Sears toy. Do you know?

matt finish

I managed to get a space sled, thus completing my re-collecting of the small amount of Major Matt Mason stuff that I had as a kid!

Take care,

Kevin