Christmas morning, 1969. I was five years old. NASA's Apollo program was in full swing, and I, like many young boys in America, dreamed of being an astronaut and walking on the moon. Eyes wide in wonder I un-wrapped the large, colorful package that Santa had left under the tree. Major Matt Mason, Mattel's Man in Space, had landed in our home.

Major Matt Mason's "bend-able" rubber spacesuit was based on real NASA designs, and his removable helmet featured a working retractable visor. Although standing only 6 inches; tall, the white-suited Matt Mason was a very cool toy! Major Matt Mason had a space station, with blue-tinted radiation screens, and a flashing radar beacon. The Mattel Mission Space Team also had a huge number of accessories and fantastic vehicles for adventures throughout the Galaxy.

The first Major Matt Mason toys arrived on store shelves in 1966, in the midst of NASA's efforts to reach the moon. Mattel's timing was perfect. Simple, yet highly adaptable to the whims of our imagination, Major Matt Mason represented the aspirations of a generation, the dream of the Apollo missions, the dawn of our inevitable journey to the stars.

By the end of 1970, the dream was over. The Apollo program had faded from glory and Mattel had ceased production of the entire Space Mission Team. Major Matt Mason quickly fell into obscurity, becoming lost toys. Some 35 years later, with the rise of eBay and national Sci-Fi conventions, Major Matt Mason has once again become recognized as a very cool toy! He has captured the interest of both action figure collectors and those who fondly remember the short lived Apollo program and our successful first missions to the moon.

The Space Mission Team:

Sgt Storm(RED)

"Major Matt Mason's Space Buddy, Sgt Storm...Ready and able to tackle any space job on his cat trac."

Doug Davis(YELLOW)

"Major Matt Mason's Space Buddy, Doug Davis, Space Scientist-Radiology...Rides his lunar trac- Researches areas of cosmic ray penetration."

Jeff Long(BLUE)

"Major Matt Mason's Space Buddy, Jeff Long, Space Scientist-Rocketry...Rides his lunar trac- Searches for rocket launch sites."

Callisto(ALIEN)

Callisto was Major Matt Mason's friend from Jupiter. "Callisto's transparent skull reveals a highly developed humanoid brain endowed with superior mental powers."

Here are links to a few good Major Matt Mason sites:

Randy R. Havener's Major Matt Mason site:
http://www.snowcrest.net/fox/mm.html

John Eaton's Major Matt Mason site:
http://www.wildtoys.com/MMMPage/index.asp

A Collector's Guide to Major Matt Mason, Mighty Zeroid Robots and Colorforms Outer Space Men. Veteran collector and author James Gillam details the story of toys inspired by NASA ventures into space.

SPACE TOYS OF THE 60's could have been the Major Matt Mason collector's dream come true. However, be warned that the quality of the paper and the image quality of the photos is not very good. I wish the publisher had done a much better job and creating some high quality images that I would want to look at over and over again. Looking at these pictures, as a substitute for expanding my collection, is not fullfilling.

All in all though, being the ONLY book out there right now with any information on Major Matt Mason, this is a pretty good book. At leaset it has photos of all of Mattel's Major Matt Mason - Man in Space figures, vehicles and buildings with detailed descriptions, construction and instruction sheets, product catalogs, collector's reminiscences, prototype information, and company histories.

If you can find a used copy for around $5 it's worth adding to the library as a reference.