Google Major Matt Mason if you are not aware of this ultimate action figure from the late 1960s. Supposedily based on “real” NASA equipment, a young boy of 10 (me) really dug good ol’ Matt. But this was the day before injection molding made some really cool looking toys and Maj. Mason suffered from really bad joints. Simple wires were inserted into each arm and leg to provide “mobility”. Well after about 10 or 12 leaps “To Infinity and Beyond” the Major ended up paraplegic or worse. Eventually you’d get pissed and rip his floppy arms or legs off and pretend he imploded in space. Or for the creative little boy (me) you’d cut open his joints and insert some new wire your Dad had just purchased from some other project then some how the wire went “missing.” Don’t read this Dad, my sisters took the wire…
Harry Nilsson’s “Spaceman” was a little known top 40 hit in it’s day. I love the quirky song and I’m a big Nilsson fan as well. “Nisson Schmilsson” is well worth price of admission on iTunes. Luckily, it fit today’s comic perfectly!
🙂
I can’t remember if my first “action figures” were Star Trek or Planet of the Apes. Not, I suppose that it really matters. Now I’d like to see some webcomic based action figures going…
(Totally forgetting GI Joe with the white tiger and the scar that raised up on his face when you played with him. That would have been my first.)
I totally got busted the other day playing with matchbox cars.
My parents still have my older brothers’ Major Matt Mason toys in the attic.
I played with them some, but preferred the old GI Joes — the ones big enough to date Barbie as opposed to the lame-assed tiny ones that came out when I was a kid. The GI Joes and Barbies could have such interesting times together.
…no wonder I didn’t have more friends.
Damn that brings back memories! My parents decided I was “too old” for major Matt Mason, but as a certified “space nut” I wanted him in the worst way, along with Sgt Storm and Callisto. The Moonbase and that hamster-ball moonrover thing was also much-salivated over.
I was also “too old” for GI Joe (or Action Man as he was known in the UK), but I bought my own anyway. Dad wouldn’t speak to me if he saw me playing with “that doll”.
I still have the deep sea diving suit for him, along with some other bits’n’bobs.
Oh, yeah! I had Major Matt Mason, too, along with his “giant” friend Captain Lazer (http://www.captainlazer.com/capt.htm) and one or two of the Outer Space Men (http://www.flickr.com/photos/modern_fred/2172258510/), too!
hmmm.. yeah, a little before me. I was obsessed with Thundercats. And yeah, I still have ’em too, the neighborhood kids play ask to play with them!
Remember the MMM toys vividly. Also remember the movie The Point.
“Me and my Arrow….”
If anybody has a digital copy of The Point I’d be eternally grateful.
I too had a Major Mat Mason. I remember my neighbor friend (same age) decided that we were too old for him. I remember the spaceman fondly. I too have a point. little Obleo.
I’m 10 years younger than you, my first “action fire” that I remember was Steve Austin. (The Six Million Dollar Man, not Stone Cold) I think for that same christmas, I got Stretch Armstrong. Good times.
figure, not fire. damn keyboard.