Multiple Toymakers "Space Set" Reproduction Card + Bag, with Vintage "Thunderbird 5" Space Station and LP Toys Posed Space Figures

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Just watch it.

Vendor made no claims as to what this was and correctly had it listed as "Used". So he's a hobbyist who likes to make customized packages for vintage space toys he's collected & offer the results for sale. Nothing wrong with that as long as it's done correctly,

I could also tell from the item listing pix that the toy pieces were authentic but that the package pretty much *had* to be a reproduction, and regard it as a bargain find at the price paid. So we're good, nobody got bilked, I got my T5, and here's a good example of what to look for when evaluating New Old Stock packaging for indications of reproduction.

(The above still available for sale as of this posting.)

A possible source for the toy pieces, and confirmation that both the Space Station and figures were likely manufactured by (or at the behest of) Multiple Toymakers. 

The zipper seam bag is the giveaway, and as long as such concoctions are not represented as sealed New Old Stock packaging I see nothing wrong with this method of re-selling vintage space toys. Some may indeed find the replica packaging useful for their Ogle Wall or however they display their prize scores ... Though I would think that if the vendor was straight-up about how they were offering actual vintage pieces in repro packaging they'd do better than my crummy $15 bucks. And that's showbiz.

Two layers of card stock.

No markings on the vehicle, and LOL at the wheels. I guess that's so you know which side goes down? <3 unlicensed Hong Kong space plastics.

No markings on any of the figure bases.

Brand new shiny staple.

Zipper seam on 1970 bag? No, and he didn't claim it was.

Cute, and it worked pinned up on my Ogle Wall with the New Old Stock collection for about ten minutes. Then it was time to get out the box opener.

Interesting "soft" look to the figures, glad to have them in my collection. Had wanted more whites & love the blue. I'd also wanted a Thunderbird 5 toy since I was six, counting it as a score.

Will use the "card" in a collage. Bag is in the recycle bin.

...... AAAAAND UPDATE! 10.30.19

Did a routine after-dinner search for "Spacemen" just to relax for a bit, and d'oh.

Same vendor, same card print, same kind of bag, same non-description ("Used") ... somewhat different contents to say the least. 

...... AAAAAND UPDATE #2! 11.02.19

Yet another, same etc. Am aware that the Hong Kong companies routinely re-used their card designs back in the day so, whatever. Guy needs to diversify his card source content. What these do for me is to make those genuine New Old Stock pieces on my Ogle Wall more meaningful. Will find a yellow MMM crawler some other day.

Do the item searches & make up your own mind if you care enough, am done playing Credibility Detective. But to quote Yaphett Kotto's Parker from ALIEN, 

"I am asking you to pull the plug."

Marx Toys "Official Rex Mars Planet Patrol" Three-Inch Figures, Later 1950s (?)

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Have recently become enamored with this series. I always go for the obscure & underdog variants and these seem to have fallen through the cracks.

Obtained in various "Lot" acquisitions over the past month. All have seen combat and are missing their fitted clear plastic helmets. The two blue figures are new arrivals from a UK vendor, the rest obtained from domestic sources. Am fairly certain they are all originals.

Figure ID courtesy of Eric Johns' "Marx Lane" website:

https://www.marxwildwest.com/space%20figures.html#3-inch_figures

Circular markings with no text = consistent with Marx's figure production from the era.

The one on the left appears to be cast in a more silvery metallic plastic, the one on the right more like a flat gray. The trimming job to the box component hanging below its a bit sloppy but I'm fairly sure it's an original.

Green dude's arm is broken off, and a prior owner sawed his space shotgun down. I like it.

Very different whatever their story. Tempted to land a set of recasts just to score them some helmets on the cheap. Use the copy figures in artworks or whatever. All it takes is money, rite??

Archer Spacemen in a "Tom Corbett: Space Cadet" Sponsor Spot, and "Take Your Swoppet To Work Day"

"Take Your Swoppet to Work" Day, Chenango County NY.

Just finished up with a months-long project which quite understandably had to take place while everything else was going on. We call it "life" and it's a delight to both know it's done and to (finally) have it behind me. Time to look at my toys, make art with them, edit video, and catch up on the blog. I've also been celebrating by binge watching "Tom Corbett: Space Cadet" episodes on YouTube, and look what turned up.

Looks like a hard plastic Archer figure to me, with fitted helmet. Which is downright interesting considering the relationship the series had with Marx Toys.

https://www.marxwildwest.com/space%20figures.html#cadets

Screw the shoes!! How do we get some of them spacemen? And the rocket! Look at that baby.

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The complete episode. The shoe sponsor spot comes at the 2 minute 17 second mark, just after the opening set-up scene.

Welcome Back, Major Matt Mason: Black Strap Figure with Helmet and Cat Track

Been caught up in the show cycle at the gallery I manage in downtown Syracuse and fell behind on this project. Let's get back to it in style:

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 Now, in defense of the figure's condition: I had not intended to pursue re-acquiring my childhood Major Matt Mason figure this soon. But just happened to be perusing Newly Listed space toy items and bingo. Vendor apparently had no idea or concern of what he was right down to the $5.00 Buy It Now option and I bit.

Black strap figure so post-1967 which makes him a likely match for the figure which I was given for Christmas in 1971 at the age of four. I doubt I had a blue strap guy. He has major issues including wire damage to the legs & left arm, some paint peel and discoloring from age but it's not like he's going to be "played with" much and will likely spend the bulk of his life with me wrapped up in a figure storage box. The extent of my childhood MMM collection consisted of a figure with helmet, the Cat Track vehicle he was issued with, and the inflatable Space Survival Tent.

The helmet was a nail-biter, especially after learning that there were two varieties with a "High Neck" fit and a "Low Neck" fit, presumably related to how the collar on the figure is formed. Picked one out, took my chances on it, and bit again. Finding the Cat Track took about ten minutes and was chosen based on images of the original carded MMM figure perched on a red CT, which I'm fairly certain was how mine came as well.

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Mission Accomplished, and the Space Tent looks to be the harder nut to crack. Or rather, that's the part which is going to cost some money since it must be a functioning tent complete with pump and backpack unit. Which means it may have to be a still sealed / carded example and they aren't cheap.

That'll do for now. I will likely seek out a more pristine example at some point when I have the means but this was the last of the Space Toy goodies I had as a kid along with a Space Bucket set, the six Marx Apollo Astronauts, and a gaggle of MPC figures in both 2" and 5.5" size.

Hing Fat "Space Bucket" Astronauts Painted Like "Major Matt Mason" Figures ... What In Sam Hill ....??

File this under "so stupid it's pure genius"; At some point in the past a "Major Matt Mason" enthusiast decided they wanted miniaturized 2" Army Man scale versions of the Mattel series' four human figures even if they had to modify some he/she already had. The original listing stresses that the figures are hand painted unofficial owner-made modifications. The vendor cannot date them either and my head was messed with when considering their potential provenance. 

Namely that my best estimate of when the Hing Fat style space figures used for the effort first "streeted" in 1972. That's when most of the plastic toy production which had been based in Hong Kong moved to mainland China, predicating the need to stamp them "Made In China" for export to western markets. Yet "Major Matt Mason" (or MMM for short) is definitely a late 1960s toy, at the height of its popularity between 1966 and 1971. 

Could they be present-day creations cashing in on current MMM interest? Well let's take a look.

Clue #1: This figure in white is the Major Matt Mason of the group, the others part of his Moon Crew or whatever they were called. One way that collectors can visually date examples offered up for grabs is the color of the Major's suspender straps, running vertically between his shoulder hinge and the space suit zipper. MMM figures from the original 1966 run have blue suspender straps, from 1967 until the demise of the series c.1974 they were black. So whoever the artist was is interpreting a "later" period MMM figure.

Curve ball variable is that the figure lacks both the rectangular box chest unit and boot detailing I associate with the earliest Space Bucket astronaut figures. These were pressed after that tooling change but before the bottom stamping was changed, though just when those changes were implemented is anybody's guess.

The Major's red-suited second in command, Sgt. Storm, here illustrating one of the few evident flaws in the artist's paint job: The rim of the helmets. Though they may have encountered trouble with them while filling in the face cavity of the figures to simulate the iconic MMM yellow visor. Other than that they did a bang-up job: Some admirable brush discipline on display, bolstering my conclusion that whoever did the painting was somewhat older. They also apparently took good care of the figures as they have no evident play wear or dust accumulation. These were not a child's toy left out in the sandbox overnight, tucked in a pocket to sneak into school or thrown out the window to see what would happen when they hit the driveway.

Very tight brushwork. The bases iare painted with an interesting metallic copper color which to me says "Model Kit paint".

Another reason the artist simulated the yellow visors as transparent is so that blue suited Astronaut Jeff Long's African American ethnicity would still be communicated. They also did a good job in arriving at the light blue that his figure was originally painted in, likely mixing it down with white from a standard stock blue hue.

The paint split behind his left knee suggests it could be acrylics, which will split or peel as the surface it is used on expands or contracts.

Egads ... Well, civilian Astronaut Doug Davis' face is a creep-out and his yellow is too Hansa-bright. Should be a darker mustard color, suggesting to me that the artist did not have a wide range of colors to choose from. Maybe a Tester's model kit paint set, though again that is admirably tight brushwork. Pretty evident that he first painted the suit colors then layered on the detail which takes time. Kids tend to try and do things in a hurry.

This angle gives a better view of how the face cavities were filled in, maybe with resin or even just paste or glue given an amber hue.

And our final clue: The bases all have both a "Made In China" stamp and a figure number -- The original pressings of the Space Bucket astronauts came in ten poses & were numbered until maybe 1980. After that the numbers were scratched off the mould and the "Made In China" script changed to a rougher looking stamping. So my opinion is that the figures are likely early to mid 1970s production pieces, done after the tooling change eliminating the chest box unit but before the numbering was taken off. A present day artist would have had to know to seek out numbered figures. Or just got lucky in choosing an older set.

My verdict based on what I can observe is that they are likely an early/middle 70s creation and almost surely unique, though it should be stressed that the vendor makes no claim about their age as a selling point. I'm just intrigued enough to make a puzzle out of it on my own -- The right MMM collector will not care one jot when they were made even if the asking price may make them wince for a minute. That's "Gotta check with the Mrs. first" pricing and serves as a great lesson on two points of collecting this stuff: They are worth exactly as much as the seller can get for them, and You buy the spaceman & not the story. 

I don't collect MMM (yet) and so they are only a footnote to me. Worth a blog post and an idea to consider replicating with my own figures. In fact, the choice of porky Hing Fat type spacemen to stand in for the beanpole skinny Matt Mason and crew is an odd and interesting decision which speaks for the artist's need to make them with whatever they had. And in 1972 - 1975 Space Bucket sets were all the rage, came with extras of the ten figures, and sacrificing four in the name of this homage would have been a pretty decent swap. Seeking older porky out-of-proportion figures when slim trim MPC figures with a known 60s provenance abound for a nickel or three wouldn't have been my first choice if trying to fake anything. I say early to mid 70s.

Marx Toys "Rex Mars Space Port" Female w/Helmet, "Rex Mars Planet Patrol" 70mm Geiger Counter Guy & Other Fascinating Space Figures, Captain.

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Pretty far out bundle of arrivals, most from a "Lot" acquisition which included a number of Marx figures from the 1950s & their "Operation Moon Base" playset ...

... And her <3 Obtained separately in an ongoing quest to make sure there are female presences in the fictional Space Art universe I'm crafting. Because what's the point of going off into outer space to have all manner of fascinating adventures without some girls around?

Left: Marx "Rex Mars Planet Patrol" Geiger Counter Guy, later 50s.

Center: Presumed Tim Mee Toys Pilot Figure, playset & age unknown.

Right: Tim Mee Toys US Air Force Base playset figure, age unknown.

Not entirely positive about the red figure yet. Tim Mee "Ground Crew" is the suggested grouping it belongs with but I am unfamiliar with whatever set that would imply.

Smooth base bottom is consistent with Tim Mee's lack of markings on any of their figures. You just have to know, see. Or ask someone who does which is the route I took in ID'ing the maker.

Superb!!! Not quite an astronaut but more than a flyboy. X-15 pilot maybe? would enjoy learning more.

This one ID'd as a later 50s 70mm "Planet Patrol" figure by Marx from their Rex Mars series.

(Tentative ID found here: https://www.marxwildwest.com/space%20figures.html#3-inch_figures)

Marx Toys' only Geiger Counter Guy spaceman.

Am convinced he is an original just from the amount of wear & soiling to its surface. This was someone's toy and they loved playing with it for years. Will do my best to rustle him up a replacement helmet.

Two recessed circular marks is consistent with Marx figures. Unless I be mistaken the Mexican made copies from the 90s have smooth base bottoms. Would enjoy learning any information readers may have about his authenticity!

Rex Mars "Space Port" female astronaut with fitted helmet. US quarter for scale. Her base has sort of a line or seam through the middle and am wondering if that is indication of repair or a casting mark. Any insights would be most welcome.

Fairly convinced the helmet is an original.

Put simply as possible, I like how she defies the usual Space Bimbo form and is a serious explorer or technician qualified for their position rather than cup size.

... And I love how the helmet optically distorts her countenance. 

Casting seam or indication of repair? Lemme know what you think! 

Can live with it either way, she's a treasure.