"Four Super Men Conquer The Moon" Carded Spaceman Set, Early/Mid 1960s? Bizarre Upsized 54mm MPC Spacemen

Hell yeah. Took a couple years but bingo: Got one.

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YAY!!!!

Those graphics say 1962-1965 to my eyes.

Held in place by nigh but staples. Since when??

Figures based on four of the classic MPC 1/32 scale spacemen. Or maybe those were based on the larger ones? Chicken/egg thing going on here. My intuition suggests the larger more detailed figures may have come first. Certainly designed by the same artist who submitted his results to two different companies. The MPC figures resonated better with the buying public and the larger ones disappeared. Cease & Desist from Miner Industries? Or did they just flop, in part because they were poorly balanced, tip over all the time, and kids hate stuff like that. In any event far fewer were made whereas the 1/32 scale versions captured the popular imagination & were in production until at least 1984. Guess which ones are easier to find some sixty years down the road.

My crew of loose figures scored on a lucky afternoon a couple years back.

The loose figures are all marked Hong Kong on their base undersides.

The packaged sets have the same Hong Kong font but add a number, presumably a mold position. So, my loose figures may not have been "Four Super Men Conquer The Moon" dudes.

Not My Collection - An alternate packaging scheme, year and maker also kept secret. I have also seen the figures pressed in red and a gold/green color. Not making any of this up.

Dolls faces inside of the helmet behind the concave visor produces a bizarre optical effect which would have given me nightmares as a kid. Now it excites my geek center.

Other than the helmets the sculpting of the upsizes is dead on perfect with slightly sharper details.

Space Rifle Guy doesn't need no oxygen tanks. Just holds his breath between shots.

Nearly comical lean to the left is real. All but the Geiger Counter Guy are top heavy and fall over without the use of sticky putty on their feet, or a slanted table top.

Subject on the left altered with Golden's light interference acrylic paints. Very pleased with his base of moon terrain.

Further conjectural non-evidence that the large figures first surfaced in the early 1960s. The other spacemen they remind me of most are Marx Toys' four inch Rex Mars figures from 1958 (?). The Four Supermen were responses, including being armed to the teeth and on a less than peaceful mission.

Family Snapshot

Cake Topper Swoppet Spaceman Set from "The Cake Hut", 1970s? with Recast Marx Style Swoppet Spacemen

Very interesting score for my stash of Sealed Swoppet Spaceman Sets, bagged up by The Cake Hut down there in Texas, presumably during the 1970s. Why anyone would put such things on a cake is unknown to my way of thinking but it helped to clear out backlogs of bulk vended space toy pieces leftover after the fad had run its course. Some video provides context, I hope.

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Likely sold at grocery stores, drug stores, household stores or anywhere humans would go shopping for cake decorations. We just used frosting, candles if appropriate.

First time I've been able to see the underside of the flying saucer form and this one at least is not a friction drive toy & has no markings on it my eye can perceive through the thick poly bag. Only staples hold it shut suggesting that The Cake Hut obtained a big bulk shipment of the pieces and bagged up the sets between cake orders, or whatever it is they did there.

Part at lower left is a disconnected weapon of some sort. I've been itching to open one of the sets which has the saucer just to evaluate the damn thing and am displaying Admirable Restraint in letting the staples continue to hold this bag shut. The saucer got around, not just packaged in swoppet spaceman sets but other playlet collections & sometimes individually. Am presuming that like the figures it too was fabricated in Hong Kong, though at least one of the more recently made sets in my Happy Box of sealed stuff indicates some were made in China.

Far out. And no friction drive, though it would not surprise me if some of the early versions were.

Made in China (or so labeled) set with saucer and figures with decidedly non-Marx colors.

Additional swoppet spaceman sets from my stash, the specimen at right Betta Decor's cake topper set with a 1977 date.

Not My Collection - More cake toppers packaged by Gay-Gem Novelties with a 1967 date and swoppet spacemen in a non-Marx pose. Cap bomb rocket minus its firing mechanism, which I guess was to keep things happy at the birthday party.

The swoppet spacemen sealed therein appear to be copies/recasts of Marx Toys' swoppetology, with one specimen of Flash Bulb Guy (my terminology) and two with their arms out at sides, two of the three swopped spaceman poses Marx appropriated c.1967 (?). These figures likely made from the same mold sometime between 1972 (when Marx ceased Hong Kong operations) and 1980, though who knows. I bet there's still pallets of the things boxed up in warehouses somewhere.

Two shades of paint decorating their equipment packs. Original Marx figures will have as many as three shades on theirs. Their colors are also "wrong"; Marx did not use a festive Christmas green, let alone the hot pink ones from my stash of loose figures. Not sure about the red bodies, I do have at least one loose figure pressed in red which I am fairly certain was Marx produced.

Later copies/recasts will have no painted details and pressed in Fruit Loops colors for grocery store or drugstore toy sets.

One pass of paint on their boots. Original Marx figures usually have two with the pod base around the foot a different color then the rest of the boot, but not always.

Not My Collection - Marx "Moon Grabber Train" box with swoppet spacemen, 1968. Whether any figures were included with the set I knoweth not, but it indicates that Marx was pressing the things out in 1967/1968. Would walk many a crooked mile for info on just when they adopted the forms. Additional packaging with a 1970 date has also come to my attention.

Not My Collection - Carded Marx swoppet set demonstrating the correct Marx colors. Note " Card Printed in Hong Kong, contents Made in Taiwan" at lower right, though some of the loose Marx swoppets in my stash are marked Hong Kong. No date.

And again, Not My Collection, with the same notation at lower right. 

With loose examples which I believe were manufactured by the same entity. Flash Bulb guy is a Marx original - check the white on his foot pods - included to help illustrate what's in the bag. Check my other posts for more Swoppetology. Never had any as a kid but encountered them at a friend's house and they bugged the living hell out of me. Now fascinated by them, and no two figures in my collection are exactly the same.