Not sure why but this odd collection struck a chord with me, which I'd never even heard of until looking into what the Major Mars figure I'd picked up on the cheap was all about. The spaceship forms are addictively interesting, and my love of the classic early 70s G.I. Joe "All Terrain Vehicle" made the lunar rover cars must-haves. I've even got little astronaut forms which fit in them nice. Was finally able to bring home units of the green moon buggy with yellow trailer last week, making this ad-hoc collection of "Starbase Zeus" vehicles complete. All of them hollow as are most vintage Tootsietoy cars. The rockets don't even have seats. Nothing but their outer forms, which are cool as all Hell.
An example of the complete boxed set courtesy of unknown online vendor, which I stretched to square shape & marked with my Instagram tag ... Not sure what I'd do with the yellow "Starbase" components, which look chinsier than the cool cover drawing -- Awesome play date, Bro! I like redheads. And who needs to care for another fragile trayed box. What would I do with the thing, keep it in a bigger box? Am the kind of collector who puts their toys away, and decided we're good with just the vehicles + figures. Nice modular storage bin from the dollar store & away we go.
Pix demonstrate a couple of reasons why the set may have flopped & is now comparatively rare: Major Mars is way out of scale for his vehicles, almost to the point of being insulting. Kid's aren't that dumb. There's also no Major Marsha, and what fun is there in going off into outer space without having some girls on board. Kenner nailed both of those issues right off the bat with their Star Wars collection debuting at about the same time (1978). Their line included vehicles the figures could get inside of, and they had Princess Leia. She was even armed: File that under "Things Boys Like". Girls too.
Some of the design elements visible on the "Starship" (red) and "Space Ship Shuttle Craft" (blue) are also close enough to the vehicles in "Space: 1999" to suggest infringement, right down to the font style on the box + ATV moon buggy. Even the name "Starbase Zeus" sounds suspiciously similar to "Moonbase Alpha", a coincidence no doubt. But the "Space: 1999" toys had their own weekly show, so guess which ones sold and people still make. These are unheard of relics by comparison.
Hawk Transporter cockpit much? Have wondered if anyone got served any papers for infringement and the set discontinued under duress, which would make a great conversation point when showing them off. I know I never heard of "Starbase Zeus" in 1978 and was the target consumer group (11 years old). But I sure had my Star Wars figures, and some Tootsietoy cars & boats. Never knew they made rocket ships until about four months ago when first discovering the line.
My Major Mars. No articulation, another blunder. He's also missing his helmet and I'll need to dig one up at some point (or make my own) so he can face off against his arch-enemy "Zoltan the Terrible", a crazed alien cyborg hell-bent on ruling the entire Cosmos. Likely impossible to find loose: That's the one I'd have snuck into school every day, until having it confiscated by some meanie teacher. His design is so cool I'm even going to crib someone else's pix of him, with weblink mark to give propz where due. Whoever owns that baby has my respect.
"I got nothin' but respect for Mr. McQuarkindale."
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