Marx Toys Apollo Astronaut Figures in 54mm and 6-inch Sizes, 1969 - 1978

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Whoa ... I sense some artful potential with that angle. One intention of this collecting habit is to amass interesting forms to be photographed & projected onto a canvas to be traced then painted-in, and that's going into the Keeper Folder.

Let's deal with the size issue to as long as we're here: On my video and in many other places I refer to the smaller figures as 60mm, which is incorrect. More like 54mm, though some with appendages flailing in the air do push it up into a taller bracket. The larger figures are also more like < 5.5 inches but rounding that up to 6 inches is accepted.

As to the dating, my intel has the larger figures debuting first, just after Apollo 11 and likely in time for Christmas 1969 toy shopping. I had the complete set of six poses by the age of five, which would have been January 1972, and my guess is that they were still commonly available at retail as long as the Apollo Program was in the public consciousness, with 1970 as their commonly accepted year of manufacture. 

If my understanding is correct the smaller figures were first issued in the "Giant Martian Landing" set in white (1972 or 1977, reliable sources differ), in both orange and white as part of the "Galaxy Command" playset (1978) and in orange only for the "Star Station Seven" playset (1978/1979). Which makes them somewhat rare as collectors usually prefer to keep those sets together, and to my knowledge they were never packaged alone. Could be wrong! please chime in if you have the skinny.

Blue variant at back left is somewhat rare as well. You can usually score the six inch guys for $15 - $20 shipped. Smaller sized usually turn up in lots and the full twelve poses should set you back $25 - $40 depending on the vendor. Then again as with all such things these are worth exactly whatever the seller can get for them. I've had some of the larger guys on my "Watch" lists for months 'cos I won't go where the vendors would prefer for a single figure. Nope, happy to wait it out until the Junk Drawer seller who doesn't care and is just getting rid of old stuff lists one up for $5 - $10, which is how all of my examples ended up where they are.

Yeah, that needs to be painted.