Above: The back-story.
Below: The results.
Obtained to be opened in the hopes of finding offbeat copies of MPC space figures. Which was the case, though as the video demonstrates limited to only two poses and of very poor quality. Due to the presence of a Gemini-Atlas rocket on the card I'm guessing its age as 1966 - 1968 or so. Pre-Apollo.
60 figures in all, only eight in the Geiger Counter Guy pose and many of the others still bonded together by bits of sprue. Most useful thing to say about them is that Payton modified what had been a sextant in the hand of one figure into what appears to be a flashlight, as seen held by the silver arm at upper right corner.
The more well-known Payton spaceman packaging, and with what looks to be a more diverse selection of (appropriated) MPC poses.
What interested me about finding this is the 1964 date: I'd been wondering when Multiple Toymakers first made their 50mm spacemen available outside of the 1963 Fireball XL5 sets which (if my understanding is correct) first introduced them.
Some of the more intact figures.
Orange figure at center is an MPC original. Note how the Payton dudes flanking him have button-up suits and braided hoses on their Geiger Counters. Just enough of a change to ward off a Cease & Desist from MPC parent company Miner Industries?
The thirteen figures from the sixty in the bag which I'm retaining for my collection including all of the Geiger Counter Guys. Only one yellow is "complete", and indeed only seven of these thirteen are 100% pristine.
Paytons in silver, MPC in gold and blue.
The Payton figures are all about half a notch smaller in proportion to the MPC figures. Not just shorter but smaller overall.
As part of their changes when copying the MPC form Payton gave their Geiger Counter Guy a button up suit. MPC figure's middle vertical feature is smooth.
Note sharpness of MPC gold figure's face in comparison to Payton's in silver. Many of the figures in the bag lacked helmet hoses, though there were no broken bits of hose in the bag. So the mistake happened prior to being sealed up.
One of the few Peyton "Rope and Flashlight" guys to have complete rope coils, though as with the air hoses the bag did not have any of the missing rope remnants.
Flashlight? Kaleidoscope? Drink shaker?
Payton figure's base is also much smoother than the blue MPC figure's base.
I happen to have an unopened bag, these are interesting...
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