So back again to this issue of the misconception of just who was responsible for spaceman figures like the one shown above. Easily identifiable as a likely mid-60s Made in Hong Kong variant on the Geiger Counter Guy pose associated with plastics toy company MPC, a stub of sprue remnant still decorating the top of his helmet. Believed to have been originated by MPC as early as 1963 for their "Fireball XL-5" toy sets and continued after that range's demise but I could be wrong on that: They may have arrived at the form prior to the Fireball toys and simply included it in those sets to fill em up with spacemen. Please sound off in comments or message if you can issue a verdict -- "I gots to know ..."
The authenticating MPC stamp on bottom along with a number, indicating he was part of a "matched set". Common misconception is that the MPC means "Marx Plastics Company" and the form attributed to Marx. Further delving into the culture of collecting this stuff reveals MPC to mean "Multiple Products Company", often mis-phrased as "Multiple Plastics Company" and often confused with "Multiple Toymakers". If my understanding of the flow chart outlining the different Hong Kong based space toy companies is correct, Marx, MPC and Multiple Toymakers are all distinctly different companies. They made toys which resembled each others' creations, and these MPC spacemen resemble Marx's "Operation Moon Base" figures closely enough to confuse the untrained eye as to which was manufactured by whom.
Believe it or not, this is a Marx Toys spaceman from the middle 60s -- albeit with his equipment pack on backwards to make his face visible -- derived from the Cherilea / Britains "Swoppet" spaceman designs with removable plug-heads & equipment packs. To lower production cost Marx replaced the Cherilea / Britains stand with pod feet and pressed this figure in a softer semi-flexible vinyl type plastic with certain features then hand-painted, though some were hard plastic castings with no painted features. Other Hong Kong toy companies made their own Swoppet derived pod foot spacemen which were pressed in a harder plastic. I've been meaning to get out my Swoppet guys to look em over, try to figure out a formula to discern which came from what company. Which may be a lost cause as one can still find them new/sealed as cake topping decorations dated to the early 80s. They persisted for that long.
Left: Marx "Operation Moon Base" leaping guy pose, 1962 owner painted.
Center: Marx pod foot Plug Head, mid to late 60s.
Left: Marx Apollo EVA figure believed to be from "Giant Martian Landing" set, 1972.
On the Rock: MPC Geiger Counter guy, mid 60s.
One point of the image is to demonstrate how between the Moon Base dude and the orange Apollo guy, Marx' only other of the spaceman figure series from the 1960s was the guys like the one behind the rock. Marx did not make the MPC spacemen. They were a different company and their logo stamp not an acronym for Marx toy production.
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