Major Matt Mason (1966)

Major Matt Mason was a line of action figures created by Mattel. Mason was an astronaut who lived and worked on the Moon. When introduced in 1966, the figures were initially based on speculative design information found in Life Magazine, Air Force Magazine, Jane's, and other aviation and space based periodicals. Later the line transitioned into the more fantastical realms of the fantastical.

 

Just a fraction too young and born the wrong side of the Atlantic to have had the pleasure.  Would have loved them though.

Steve

Major Matt Mason colouring book (1968)

A colouring book based on the much loved toy line. Now either  the chap in blue is meant to be a giant or this might just be an early Rob Liefeld.  If any one from across the pond wants to shed any light on this or who the cover artist really is then I'll see you in the comments section later

 

Steve

Grumman Moon Suit (1962)

Come in number 3, your time  is up!

This is, or was, the Grumman Moon Suit as it appeared in Life Magazine, April 1962. Now as goofy and impractical as this appears to be it must have impressed somebody over at NASA because in the November of that same year The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation became the chief contractor working on the Apollo Lunar Module. An equally eccentric yet much more successfully designed piece of space hardware; the ALM genuinely made it all the way to the lunar surface just 6 years and 9 months later. The Grumman Moon Suit, however, only got to pretend, faking it here in the Mojave Desert, California.

And that would have been the end of things except that something very much like this design appeared as part of the very popular and fondly remembered Major Matt Mason toy line.

These space based action figures and accessories waxed and waned in parallel with the general public’s interest in the real moon missions.  So in a way, fuelled by the imaginations of children high on that very first moon landing in July 1969, the Moon Suit most probably fulfilled its destiny any amount of times thereafter..... whilst never actually leaving the living room carpet.

Steve