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Who now remembers Major Matt Mason?

Major-Matt-Mason-space-mission-team.jpg

If I recall correctly, they had rubber bodies with wires inside so that you could pose them. The problem was that after a few dozen or hundred bends of an arm or leg, the wires would snap and the limb would just quiver.

Space palsy, I suppose.
 
I remember a kid at my school brought some of those with him a couple of times. I had no idea what they were but they looked pretty cool. Gotta love that alien.
 
I remember a kid at my school brought some of those with him a couple of times. I had no idea what they were but they looked pretty cool. Gotta love that alien.

Yeah, Callisto was his name--his head was semi-transparent. Major Matt also had a kick-ass battery-powered moon crawler:

Matt Crawler.jpg
 
Who now remembers Major Matt Mason?

My first inkling of them was via Stargate SG-1 when Carter mentions she played with them as a child. I had never heard of the line before then. Years later, I accidentally ran across some information on the webz, and saw pictures of some of the sets.

The space station playset looks pretty neat.
 
My first inkling of them was via Stargate SG-1 when Carter mentions she played with them as a child. I had never heard of the line before then. Years later, I accidentally ran across some information on the webz, and saw pictures of some of the sets.

The space station playset looks pretty neat.

It was cool. I'd forgotten about the 'space radar beacon' on the top. It was semi-modular, so you could combine more than one set together, if you wanted.

matt-mason-space-station-1966.jpg
 
The Mattle's Man In Space was one of the most awesome toy ranges of all time. I had the Space Station. It did not disappoint and the giant laser canon thingie. But as Lofgeornost Lofgeornost mentioned, the rate at which the figures lost limbs out to shame even some roleplaying games!

PS did this range also have a oversized Galactus like figure?
 
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Speaking of Mattel... I had the Mattel Space 1999 Eagle One Spaceship Vehicle/Playset when I was little.



And I did not appreciate it at all. It wasn't until years later I realized how absolutely thrilled I should have been by it. Why was I such an ungrateful little shit?

Well, the first element was that I was a fan of Dinky Toys. I really loved their die cast vehicles. I had been eyeing their Space 1999 toys, and one of those is what I had asked Santa to give me for Christmas.



These were much smaller, but that was what I wanted. I wanted another vehicle to play along with my Dinky Enterprise.



Before you ask why I didn't just ask for the Klingon, I did. For whatever reason my family absolutely refused to get me the Dinky Toys Klingon ship. I begged and begged for it, but I was always denied, even as a Christmas or birthday present.

I didn't know anything about the Space 1999 show. It wasn't aired in my area. I just liked the look of the Eagle vehicle. I liked how it seemed like a "realistic" vehicle. I also liked the size of the Dinky Vehicle which was sizable to my small self, but still extremely whooshable. Once again, I wanted to play with this along with my Dinky Toys Enterprise and have them dogfight or interact in some way.

The other reason I was disappointed was because of the figures. Remember that this was the mid 70s. Action figures at that point were things like the 12" Six Million Dollar Man, the 8" Mego figures, or the 6" Evil Knievel figures. Other figures had cloth goods. The Eagle One Spaceship came with 3.75" figures with limited articulation. These little plastic figures came across the same as lame army men that came 100 to a bag for a 25 cents. Remember, this was before Star Wars popularized the smaller figures. There was no other line of figures for them to be compatible with.

So one Christmas there was that huge box under the tree. I opened it up and saw it was the Eagle One Spacehsip. And then I had that rush of disappointment as I realized it was not the toy I had wanted at all. Yes, it was huge, but it wasn't going to match my play pattern at all.

I think the Eagle One was the specific toy which caused my parents to start saying I would play with the boxes more than the toy. I do recall being more interested in the box than the toy ship and figures.

And it wasn't even like I realized how awesome it was when I got some Star Wars figures. Even after I got my 3.75" Star Wars figures, I preferred to play with them on a little round table rather than use any remnant of of the Eagle One transport as a playset. I was bemoaning that I never got a Millennium Falcon while I had flat out ignored something that was damn near it's equal in terms of toy value.

By the time I realized how awesome of a toy the Eagle was, it was too late. I had lost or deliberately destroyed nearly all the parts for it. The last I recall seeing any part of it was in my great grandmother's garage in the late 80s. All that was left was the main body section. If it ever had stickers all of them had worn off or been peeled off. The whole body was completely yellowed from mistreatment. I don't even think it had the side hatch any longer. The command module and thrusters were long gone to who the hell knows where.

It's a toy I really wish I had a do-over on. It deserved a better fate than I gave it.
 
Speaking of Mattel... I had the Mattel Space 1999 Eagle One Spaceship Vehicle/Playset when I was little.



And I did not appreciate it at all. It wasn't until years later I realized how absolutely thrilled I should have been by it. Why was I such an ungrateful little shit?

Well, the first element was that I was a fan of Dinky Toys. I really loved their die cast vehicles. I had been eyeing their Space 1999 toys, and one of those is what I had asked Santa to give me for Christmas.



These were much smaller, but that was what I wanted. I wanted another vehicle to play along with my Dinky Enterprise.



Before you ask why I didn't just ask for the Klingon, I did. For whatever reason my family absolutely refused to get me the Dinky Toys Klingon ship. I begged and begged for it, but I was always denied, even as a Christmas or birthday present.

I didn't know anything about the Space 1999 show. It wasn't aired in my area. I just liked the look of the Eagle vehicle. I liked how it seemed like a "realistic" vehicle. I also liked the size of the Dinky Vehicle which was sizable to my small self, but still extremely whooshable. Once again, I wanted to play with this along with my Dinky Toys Enterprise and have them dogfight or interact in some way.

The other reason I was disappointed was because of the figures. Remember that this was the mid 70s. Action figures at that point were things like the 12" Six Million Dollar Man, the 8" Mego figures, or the 6" Evil Knievel figures. Other figures had cloth goods. The Eagle One Spaceship came with 3.75" figures with limited articulation. These little plastic figures came across the same as lame army men that came 100 to a bag for a 25 cents. Remember, this was before Star Wars popularized the smaller figures. There was no other line of figures for them to be compatible with.

So one Christmas there was that huge box under the tree. I opened it up and saw it was the Eagle One Spacehsip. And then I had that rush of disappointment as I realized it was not the toy I had wanted at all. Yes, it was huge, but it wasn't going to match my play pattern at all.

I think the Eagle One was the specific toy which caused my parents to start saying I would play with the boxes more than the toy. I do recall being more interested in the box than the toy ship and figures.

And it wasn't even like I realized how awesome it was when I got some Star Wars figures. Even after I got my 3.75" Star Wars figures, I preferred to play with them on a little round table rather than use any remnant of of the Eagle One transport as a playset. I was bemoaning that I never got a Millennium Falcon while I had flat out ignored something that was damn near it's equal in terms of toy value.

By the time I realized how awesome of a toy the Eagle was, it was too late. I had lost or deliberately destroyed nearly all the parts for it. The last I recall seeing any part of it was in my great grandmother's garage in the late 80s. All that was left was the main body section. If it ever had stickers all of them had worn off or been peeled off. The whole body was completely yellowed from mistreatment. I don't even think it had the side hatch any longer. The command module and thrusters were long gone to who the hell knows where.

It's a toy I really wish I had a do-over on. It deserved a better fate than I gave it.

My friend had that toy and we played the crap out of it. The front came off and attached to the removable rear engines, the bays opened, the landing pads came off. I swear we put our micronauts in the pilot seats. Maybe we used Adventure People. It was an awesome toy. I'm sorry you missed out on it but thank you for refreshing my perspective on how a child sees things as I deal with my own children's rejection of awesome gifts.
 
Speaking of Mattel... I had the Mattel Space 1999 Eagle One Spaceship Vehicle/Playset when I was little.

And I did not appreciate it at all. It wasn't until years later I realized how absolutely thrilled I should have been by it. Why was I such an ungrateful little shit?

Well, the first element was that I was a fan of Dinky Toys. I really loved their die cast vehicles. I had been eyeing their Space 1999 toys, and one of those is what I had asked Santa to give me for Christmas...

The other reason I was disappointed was because of the figures. Remember that this was the mid 70s. Action figures at that point were things like the 12" Six Million Dollar Man, the 8" Mego figures, or the 6" Evil Knievel figures. Other figures had cloth goods. The Eagle One Spaceship came with 3.75" figures with limited articulation. These little plastic figures came across the same as lame army men that came 100 to a bag for a 25 cents. Remember, this was before Star Wars popularized the smaller figures. There was no other line of figures for them to be compatible with.

That was one of the key weaknesses of the Major Matt Mason line--there was no real space ship for it. I guess at 6" tall for the figures, a ship would have been just too large. There was a re-entry glider:

Re-Entry Glider.jpg

Which would glide rather like a paper airplane, but not too well (I love the marketing--you must have an astronaut inside).

Mattel also made a space-ship like carrying bag for Mason toys, but it was pretty lame--I never had one:

Spaceship Case.jpg

The closest they came to a real interplanetary ship was the 'star seeker' which you could program to move in different patterns on a floor. But it looked little like a real 1960s spacecraft and was only a 1-seater:

Star Seeker.jpg
 
Well, that's typical.

I had JUST payed over MSRP for the Transformers Soundwave 3 Pack that had been a Walmart exclusive. I figured that was the only way I was going to get it since it had been released back in October and I had never been able to track it down (always out of stock).

Then, literally minutes after I completed the order, I get an email from Hasbro Pulse saying they have it in stock at regular price.

Goddamn it Hasbro.
 
The little enabler voice in my head said, "go for it." I needed this for Selene/Black Queen and a real Emma Frost/White Queen rather than the version of her which currently exists in the comics and has gotten figure variants. Shaw/Black King is a nice bonus. Instead of Piece/White King, I would have preferred a Mastermind/Wyngarde or maybe a 80s Hellfire Club White King Magneto. I also think another alternate head for the Black Queen body should have been provided: Tessa. (not that she's the Black Queen, but her outfit was similar enough that it would have been a good option, and there's very little chance of getting a Tessa any other way) But the set is what it is, and I felt it was worth it.

Hellfire.jpg

On the reverse side of the "painting" there's an envelope with an invitation to join the Hellfire Club.
 
I never played with Legos all that much as a kid--my childhood was before Legos' expansion into various setting like Star Wars, Batman, etc. I was surprised to see a news story the other day about a gang of Polish crooks stealing Legos in France for resale on the collector's market--here are stories in Forbes and The Guardian.
 
Reminds me of this bit of Youtube drama a few years back...

 
There's apparently some people out there who really need to get their Lego fix.

minneapolis-riot-memes-need-to-know-more-about-the-white-guy-that-would-challenge-both-a-globa...jpg
 
More Mego Star Trek figures coming.

My Locutus and Q are waiting in my BBTS pile of loot. I'm still waiting on McCoy and Scotty.

Last night the 8" figures of the new wave went up. I put in my pre-order for Kang and Riker. Kang from Day of the Dove was pretty much the definitive Klingon to me as a child. As an adult, I think I find the presence of Kor in Errand of Mercy to be superior, but Kang is still a favorite.

This afternoon the 14" figure pre-orders went up. I went in for Kirk, Spock, and the Gorn.

I'm hoping the Kitzconcept Minmei figure I pre-ordered over a year ago will hit my BBTS pile of loot soon. Once that and McCoy and Scotty hit, I'll probably ship.
 
Just watched this video. I think the second half of it is pretty interesting. In fact, I'd say there's some some indirect and inadvertent potential commentary about RPGs there.



I more or less gave up on toys after I got my Atari 2600. It was all about video games for those early years of the 80s. Then the video game crash happened and there was no new Atari.

Transformers snuck in for me right as there was no Atari and I was prevented from pursuing over video games like the Commodore 64 or NES (I was a weirdo and wanted an Atari 7800 or a Sega Master System though). This was even though I was too old for toys.
 
I think I’ve come to realize recently that my love for G.I.Joe is sort of stuck in amber. I don’t really want new versions of the line or new takes in movies. The upcoming Snake-Eyes movie fills me with dread. I think what I like remembering is 1982-1986 and then leaving the rest a fuzzy memory.
 
I think I’ve come to realize recently that my love for G.I.Joe is sort of stuck in amber. I don’t really want new versions of the line or new takes in movies. The upcoming Snake-Eyes movie fills me with dread. I think what I like remembering is 1982-1986 and then leaving the rest a fuzzy memory.
That's how I feel about thundercats and silver hawks. I doubt if I rewatched them I'd be as fond of them. Never look back.
 
Speaking (indirectly) of Larry Hama, Bossfight's comic-accurate line of Bucky O-Hare figures are quite nifty...

bucky ohare.jpg
 
I think I’ve come to realize recently that my love for G.I.Joe is sort of stuck in amber. I don’t really want new versions of the line or new takes in movies. The upcoming Snake-Eyes movie fills me with dread. I think what I like remembering is 1982-1986 and then leaving the rest a fuzzy memory.

I'm with you, largely.

These updates are modernizations of those characters. Not some wholesale change in the characters original design, per se. I know the guy that did the sculpting on these figures (he's a longtime poster on the forum where I mod) - and it was a big primary concern of his that he stay consistent with their character's appearance while making them look as modern tactically without losing the spirit of the original design.

The first round of these figures were issued with *weird* paint-deco on their armor (like it was anodized gold leg-armor...) and everyone (including me) screeched, and Hasbro immediately reissued the figures with paint-corrections to make them 'green'.


DukeDeco.jpg

But overall - most of the design itself is simply gear added to what is unmistakably the original characters we remember from the cartoon and comics. And it's to Hasbro's credit they do running paint options that cover both comics and cartoon appearances for the fans. I mean look at those Snake Eyes, they're unmistakably homage to the sources.


Snakeyes.jpg
 
That's how I feel about thundercats and silver hawks. I doubt if I rewatched them I'd be as fond of them. Never look back.
Well you're covered by Super 7, in terms of toys.

LionO.jpgPanthro.jpg
 
Who doesn't want clawed nunchuks for their Monk/martial artist character?
 
I'm still waiting on my Robotech Minmei figure to arrive at BBTS. All my Mego Star Trek stuff I had been waiting to arrive has already done so. The last of the Robotech MiniTech models had also arrived. Just waiting on that Minmei which has been available everywhere else since before the new year and which I pre-ordered back in 2019. If that figure ever gets in, I'll hit ship.

I'm thinking the Kingdom series Inferno will be my last Transformers figure for the foreseeable future. I've snagged modern versions of nearly everything I have sentiment for. It looks like the standard line is going to move from being a nostalgia line for G1 to a nostalgia line for Beast Wars. I have no interest in Beast Wars. The Masterpiece line has embraced an extreme "toon-accuracy" theme which I am not interested in either. I was looking at pictures of the new Seeker MP figures and they look simply horrible to me.
 
I'm with you, largely.

These updates are modernizations of those characters. Not some wholesale change in the characters original design, per se. I know the guy that did the sculpting on these figures (he's a longtime poster on the forum where I mod) - and it was a big primary concern of his that he stay consistent with their character's appearance while making them look as modern tactically without losing the spirit of the original design.

The first round of these figures were issued with *weird* paint-deco on their armor (like it was anodized gold leg-armor...) and everyone (including me) screeched, and Hasbro immediately reissued the figures with paint-corrections to make them 'green'.


View attachment 29428

But overall - most of the design itself is simply gear added to what is unmistakably the original characters we remember from the cartoon and comics. And it's to Hasbro's credit they do running paint options that cover both comics and cartoon appearances for the fans. I mean look at those Snake Eyes, they're unmistakably homage to the sources.


View attachment 29429
I’m actually coming at it from the point of changing the back stories and origins of the characters.

For instance, we all pretty much know the origin of Snake-Eyes in the Hama-verse. A Vietnam Vet who’s family was tragically killed goes to train with his war buddy Tommy’s “family business”, then is later recruited for G.I.Joe by his other war buddy, Stalker. He later is in a disfiguring helicopter crash and loses his voice trying to save Scarlett.

By the time of the2009 movie, Snake-Eyes is an orphaned child who winds up trying to find food in the Arashikage dojo and is taken in and trains with the family. When the Hard Master is killed, he takes a vow of silence.

I personally like the first and some of it is because I liked seeing Vietnam Veterans as heroes. My dad is a Vietnam Veteran and I’ve always admired him for his service and going through being drafted and his difficult time over there. It was nice to have a spotlight on that era. I feel it’s lost. It’s the same if they ever remove Captain America from being in WWII.
 
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Well I've largely given up on movies in the last few years. I have zero faith in most movie makers using any IP's from yesteryear to make good on anything anymore.

Where there are exceptions... I'm pleasantly delighted.
 
A film I think was highly under-rated from te last few years as an adaption of a classic IP was Battle Angel Alita. It was very well done, incredibly faithful to the source material, and at least as good as the 90s anime adaptation.

alita_alita-battle-angel_gallery_5c53a4f17b2d1.jpg

s-l1600.jpg
 
Speaking of Mattel... I had the Mattel Space 1999 Eagle One Spaceship Vehicle/Playset when I was little.



And I did not appreciate it at all. It wasn't until years later I realized how absolutely thrilled I should have been by it. Why was I such an ungrateful little shit?

Well, the first element was that I was a fan of Dinky Toys. I really loved their die cast vehicles. I had been eyeing their Space 1999 toys, and one of those is what I had asked Santa to give me for Christmas.



These were much smaller, but that was what I wanted. I wanted another vehicle to play along with my Dinky Enterprise.



Before you ask why I didn't just ask for the Klingon, I did. For whatever reason my family absolutely refused to get me the Dinky Toys Klingon ship. I begged and begged for it, but I was always denied, even as a Christmas or birthday present.

I didn't know anything about the Space 1999 show. It wasn't aired in my area. I just liked the look of the Eagle vehicle. I liked how it seemed like a "realistic" vehicle. I also liked the size of the Dinky Vehicle which was sizable to my small self, but still extremely whooshable. Once again, I wanted to play with this along with my Dinky Toys Enterprise and have them dogfight or interact in some way.

The other reason I was disappointed was because of the figures. Remember that this was the mid 70s. Action figures at that point were things like the 12" Six Million Dollar Man, the 8" Mego figures, or the 6" Evil Knievel figures. Other figures had cloth goods. The Eagle One Spaceship came with 3.75" figures with limited articulation. These little plastic figures came across the same as lame army men that came 100 to a bag for a 25 cents. Remember, this was before Star Wars popularized the smaller figures. There was no other line of figures for them to be compatible with.

So one Christmas there was that huge box under the tree. I opened it up and saw it was the Eagle One Spacehsip. And then I had that rush of disappointment as I realized it was not the toy I had wanted at all. Yes, it was huge, but it wasn't going to match my play pattern at all.

I think the Eagle One was the specific toy which caused my parents to start saying I would play with the boxes more than the toy. I do recall being more interested in the box than the toy ship and figures.

And it wasn't even like I realized how awesome it was when I got some Star Wars figures. Even after I got my 3.75" Star Wars figures, I preferred to play with them on a little round table rather than use any remnant of of the Eagle One transport as a playset. I was bemoaning that I never got a Millennium Falcon while I had flat out ignored something that was damn near it's equal in terms of toy value.

By the time I realized how awesome of a toy the Eagle was, it was too late. I had lost or deliberately destroyed nearly all the parts for it. The last I recall seeing any part of it was in my great grandmother's garage in the late 80s. All that was left was the main body section. If it ever had stickers all of them had worn off or been peeled off. The whole body was completely yellowed from mistreatment. I don't even think it had the side hatch any longer. The command module and thrusters were long gone to who the hell knows where.

It's a toy I really wish I had a do-over on. It deserved a better fate than I gave it.

I used to have some Sylvia & Gerry Anderson toys - an Eagle, a Thunderbird 2, a UFO Interceptor, a Joe 90 Car and Lady Penelope's Rolls Royce. All sadly now consigned to the annals of history.
 
A film I think was highly under-rated from te last few years as an adaption of a classic IP was Battle Angel Alita. It was very well done, incredibly faithful to the source material, and at least as good as the 90s anime adaptation.

View attachment 29440

View attachment 29441
The eyes are too-big, just big enough on that toy to have a real uncanny valley effect.
 
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