Major Matt Mason

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lakeroadster

When in doubt... build hell-for-stout!
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I saw this on YouTube and it reminded me of all the cool space toys we had back in the 1960's and 1970's.

The Uni-Tred was geared really low, I ran it in our gravel driveway so much the plastic ball got all scratched and hazed ;-)

I also remember getting a Space Crawler for Christmas too.

How many others here have similar memories?



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Tom Hanks was supposed to do a movie adaptation of Major Matt Mason. The project seems to have stalled however.
 
I didn't have those, but I had one of these. You could try to pick up stuff with a distended hook:

Those were awesome too! I had an old vintage electric toy train set and would put the helicopter in the center. Pickup parts and load the train car with the helicopter.
 
I really loved that toy as a kid growing up. Had a bunch of that stuff. Also the GI Joe Astronaut and capsule. I busted the capsule into a bunch of tiny pieces when I tried to attach a parachute and drop out of my second floor bedroom window. We were finding pieces of plastic weeks later! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
I really loved that toy as a kid growing up. Had a bunch of that stuff. Also the GI Joe Astronaut and capsule. I busted the capsule into a bunch of tiny pieces when I tried to attach a parachute and drop out of my second floor bedroom window. We were finding pieces of plastic weeks later! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
I destroyed a lot of toys, too, that today would be worth hundreds!
 
Between my brother and I, we had the whole set with the moon base, unitread, crawler, etc. If only the actual astronauts weren't soooo fragile. I still look this stuff up on eBay occasionally, but it's a lot of money just to have the grand kids destroy it, like my brother and I did!
 
I had one and those Creepy Crawlers along with the Hot Wheels Fat Track, the Snake and Mongoose front engine dragster set and the Seaview from Remco.
 
My Major Matt Mason had a backpack that you could hook to a taut string tied between two points and he would zip line it. Good memories from one of my favorite toys as a kid.
 
I had the space walker. Plug the orange things into different holes, then switch it on and it would roll about on a pattern determined by the plugs.
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...which is going for $900 on eBay.
 
I had the Evil Knievel motorcycle and ramp, and jumped it over anything that was sitting still. I also had his Winnebago camper thing that he would ride off the top of.

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Later I got something called Bullet-man which was a guy with a bullet shaped hat on, and using the eyelets on his back you could slide him down a long string like he was flying or had been shot out of something. He ended up getting thrown off some very high places onto concrete and died a tragic death.

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My brother and I had Major Matt Mason stuff. We both had a crawler, he had the sand rail like car and I had the Blaster cannon. Like others I have looked on e(vil)bay and thought about buying a few...... Of course Hot Wheels too.
Mom said we weren't allowed to have G.I. Joe.....

True story, my dad was a tool and die maker. He made the master molds for Creepy Crawlers and the plastic stock for the M16 (along with many other projects for Mattel and Kodak).
 
These were great toys. I played with my Space 1999 Eagle for hours.
 
Major Matt Mason was my hero as a boy--and I loved playing with the Space Station, Unitred, Crawler, and more. I keep thinking it would be a fitting tribute to build a HPR rocket that would fit in with the line, and perhaps send the Major (Yes, I still have some figures) along for the ride.

If anyone has every built a MMM themed rocket, I'd love to see it. Sure wish Tom Hanks would get around to making that movie too.

Long live Major Matt Mason!
 
I had almost the entire set! man, I spent endless hours playing with it all. That Crawler was amazingly strong; I'm sure it could break fingers, which is why we don't have cool toys like that anymore (but lots of Darwin Award candidates who learned such lessons the hard way).

My Dad drove tuck, often in construction, and one day he found a big mound of expanded foam where some one had evidently tested his foam gun before heading in to the job. For all the world it looked like the surface of the Moon, so he grabbed it up and brought it home for my Matt Mason set. It was perfect...

Though small, the Major holds a special place of honor.

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I really loved that toy as a kid growing up. Had a bunch of that stuff. Also the GI Joe Astronaut and capsule. I busted the capsule into a bunch of tiny pieces when I tried to attach a parachute and drop out of my second floor bedroom window. We were finding pieces of plastic weeks later! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

I got the GI Joe capsule for my birthday about a month after one of my heroes, Gus Grissom, was killed in he Apollo 1 fire. It was my favorite toy and I almost slept with it like teddy bear. One of my little brothers threw it out a second story window to see if it would fly and it suffered the same fate as your's, Bob. I teased him about it for decades. He made it up to me by finding an original GI Joe Mercury astronaut for me pictured above.
 
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