This is a guide of both general information and estimation of current collectivity of Major Matt Mason action figures and accessories, which are currently enjoying a resurgence in interest and are appearing regularly at auction. It is hoped this guide will assist bidders to more accurately determine condition and relative worth before bidding.

Major Matt Mason was a popular Mattel toy in the late 1960's to the early 1970's, a collection of both hard speculative science and whimsical science-fiction condensed into six-inch rubber figures and scaled equipment. Some equipment, (the Moon Suit and the Space Crawler, for example), are almost verbatim copies of equipment that were undergoing testing as part of the "race to the Moon" NASA was involved with at the time. There are even photographs of suit tests that are more than a little suggestive of the Major and his friends.

The figures started to appear around 1966-67, along with various accessories and vehicles, and were frequently the envy of other kids. Mine certainly were. The imposing Space Station, with its blue "solar panels" and red-orange girders, provided the home for the astronauts, and the stars in many kids eyes.The Major, in his dapper white suit, Sgt. Storm in blaze red, and his teammates that followed later, Doug Davis, the civilian "tech-rep"; (science/radiation), in bright yellow, and Lt. Jeff Long, the scientist in rocketry, in bright blue, (who incidentally was African-American, decades before Guion Bluford flew in the Space Shuttle). Its an amazing coincidence that Lt. Long and Col. Bluford were involved in the same thing; aerospace engineering.

About mid-way through the product cycle, the MMM line began to move away from pure exploration in space, and started to introduce characters and equipment more from science fiction than hard science. Callisto, the green alien from Jovian (Jupiter) space, with his green translucent head and enhanced mental powers, Captain Lazer, (the hard plastic gun-toting giant figure, with Star Trek's Spock-like features and glowing chest and eyes), and the most enigmatic and elusive figure of all, the insectoid Scorpio and his Styrofoam ball launcher. Even equipment for our intrepid band was changing, with the Firebolt Space Cannon, the Star Seeker capsule, the energy weapons, (laser pistols, and the Roto-Jet rifle, a direct take on the full-sized Lost in Space Roto-Jet convertible rifle available around the same time), and the various launchers of satellites, rockets, and probes, some using the stick-on single caps Mattel sold at the time to add even more excitement with a bang here and there.

Alas, the fun came to an end almost as fast as it arrived. Scorpio was introduced with very little fanfare, almost no Matt Mason tie-in, and disappeared almost as quickly. The Major and his team were done. Everyone climbed into their XRG-1 re-entry gliders and went home.

Now its forty years later, and we fifty-somethings are cleaning out old closets and shopping around old rummage stores and flea markets, and we find a Major Matt, grimy from all those days exploring that dusty backyard, scuffs in the white paint of his suit that show the black rubber body through, and usually without a helmet and with a broken limb wire or two. Suddenly, we're eight again, and we remember the Apollo book reports we did in school with Matt providing the play-by-play for our discussions, whether or not Callisto was a good guy or a bad one, and watching our Space Station blinking in our room at night as we fell asleep.

We want him back.

Here's how to do it:

FIGURES:

There are a total of seven, when the aliens are counted in. Four are human, (Mason, Storm, Davis, Long), two are similar to the humans, (Callisto and Scorpio), and the odd man out is Lazer, the hard plastic giant.

The flexible figures will usually be dirty, have missing suit paint, and a broken wire or two. There are many guides on the 'Net for restoration, from painting to re-wiring, but you should follow the guides offered by Toycatacomb.com and others, referred to as the "C-Scale", to help you more accurately rate the condition of a figure or an accessory.

Most will be in the C6.5 to C7.5 range. After all, they were played with, at least I hope so. If you are collecting to either re-establish your childhood toys or replace missing ones, a little judicious shopping on your part can usually get you a figure in the 20 to 40 dollar range that you can be happy with, or restore to similar condition as your others. Both Long and Scorpio will be more rare than the others, with Scorpio being almost impossible, and priced accordingly.

You can occasionally come across C8 and C9 quality. Expect to pay more. But be a little more wary; unscrupulous people can spend a little time with an airbrush and paint, and make a figure or accessory look very new, but hide flaws and imperfections. Be VERY cautious about carded items, (those that appear to be unopened). Forgeries abound everywhere. It usually takes an expert to detect those, someone very familiar with Mattel's manufacturing and packaging standards.

If the figure comes with its original parts, like helmets and such, congratulations! Sourcing those can be arduous tasks in themselves. Rate items down if damaged, missing parts, broken, or non-functional. Use the C-Guide, and ask the seller to rate their items accordingly.

Lazer is the Joker of the deck. He requires a lot of accessories to be complete; three distinct attachable items for the gun, (gunbarrel, wand, and shield), a helmet with lots of little antennas and details, and special auxiliary shoes to help him stand upright, one left and one right;  they are mirrors of each other, not one part being used two ways. Toss in the battery backpack to light the eyes, chest plate, and the gun hand, and you can see he can be a bear to deal with. Try to get him as complete as possible, and have the seller test him for function. If you are buying a broken one for the parts to complete your working one, fine, but don't get just any figure, either. The higher his C rating, the better for you. They are a pain to open up and repair internally, and worse to rewire if the batteries leaked and corrosion set in.

SPACE STATIONS:

These are the blue paneled tower homes for the human figures. You will not find very many without any issues, and if you do, get out your wallet. It will be expensive.

Most problems center around the beacon light, (burned out bulbs [GE 401 is the bulb], battery corrosion, broken contacts, de-chroming), command center chairs, (broken feet and arms, usually), blue solar panels, (chips knocked out, broken and/or scratched up), the girders, (bent and broken locking pins), center consoles, (missing, broken, or de-chromed locking levers; cracks in console legs and feet; broken and missing locating pins on the console itself or the roof supports; damaged center cylinder picture film; and damaged helmet shelf). There may be missing console microphones and faucets, and the stickers may be lifting and peeling off. Add yellowing plastic and occasional damaged or missing panel mounting tabs on the bases, and it all adds up to a lot of stuff to keep watch on. If the seller can assemble the thing for a photo, you're about halfway there. Again, ask for full disclosure on the C scale.

Some parts can be missing, and provide a bit of a bargain for you. Locking pins can be had from online sources, as well as the film cylinder, stickers,  the chair, and the helmet shelf. Reproductions can be EXPENSIVE, so watch the prices! You may think you're getting a bargain with some missing parts, but add the replacement costs in before you think you have it made. Buying three different Space Stations to just get one good one can turn you off the hobby quick.

Vehicles:

Matt has some cool stuff to drive around in! Astro-Tracs, Space Crawlers, Firebolt Space Cannons, Uni-Treds, even Space Sleds and Jet Backpacks! Reconojets and XRG-1 re-entry gliders! And the add-ons, like the Space Bubble! WOW!

Keep in mind the C scale, and have the seller test it with new batteries to see if it runs for them. It still may not work, BUT now you know for sure. Some of those issues can be easily fixed, others make the vehicle a pretty paperweight. Sellers should be wanting to help you make a good decision. Some can't figure out how to work the toy; you might want to give those a break. Avoid those that won't try.

SPACE CRAWLERS, that silver plastic monstrosity with the black spider legs is a serious example of cool! Based right off a design that NASA actually tested, it is a lurching, noisy, gear grindy thing with a little winch stuck on the left side. You know the real thing made the operator's stomach turn after about five minutes of that rotating tripod windmill of legs jerking them from side to side, but it has some heavy metal go action as a toy.

Watch Space Crawlers for corrosion, especially by 1960's "D" cells, which were notorious leakers. The liquid seeks out every electrical nook and cranny, eats up motors and contacts, and rusts up shafts. Those are usually DOA; even as parts donors. The early versions were screwed together, and if you know where the pictures are of the guts, you can actually take them apart, fix some kinds of damage, screw them back together, and listen with grinning satisfaction as they whirr back to life. Like mine did.

Pay attention how the thing sits on the table when the picture was taken. If it has the legs sitting in a tripod, two foot pads down on one side, one on the other, that is usually a crawler with no bad leg issues. If two foot pads are down on both sides, one side is usually either disengaged or is broken.

Also, if the previous owner(s) never heeded the warning to shift the poor dear only while running, there may be stripped gears and damaged sliders and forks to contend with. Part donor crawlers may be able to save you, if you are mechanically inclined. If you have the patience and cash, salvaging a crawler is a wonderful thing we should all thank you for. They're not making any new ones.

Online sources exist for winch strings and hooks, as well as the orange tail roller. You can occasionally find the white hitch to hook up the Space Bubble to it.

Don't put the thing on the Space Station, no matter what the instructions say, unless you use an empty gutted one. The plastic is too fragile on Space Stations after 40+ years to operate it that way. Don't take a chance and break your Station. Again, they are NOT making any new ones!

Firebolts, Astro-Tracs, and Uni-Treads work diligently to keep you out of the working guts. Too bad. Make sure they work, and check their C rating. Get the best you can afford, and don't be too surprised if you pay a premium for working equipment.

FIREBOLTS have glued together turrets and a large riveted central pin, which makes repairing very difficult, as getting into the machine is nearly impossible. The Firebolt bulb is accessible, however, and reached by prying the radar screen out of the white console of the turret. BE VERY CAREFUL, they can be fragile! It is best to pry from the right edge near the top, rather than the center, or the top edge. Use a GE 222 for replacement. Remove the bulb cover by squeezing the black bulb holder in the firing lever arm and lifting off the cover. Replacement is the reverse. The marvelous mechanical cams and levers that flash the bulb and light the barrel wear over time. So does the selector lever and the barrel elevation stop, and the wheel axle mounts break. Battery leakage damage is usually confined to the battery box and usually just damages wires and contacts, as the motor is mounted higher in the turret. Usually the most frequent problem is broken and missing radar antennas, which are expensive to source in the aftermarket. Try to get yours in good working condition. The white hitch that attaches to Crawlers for the Space Bubble works on the Firebolt, too.

ASTRO-TRACS are riveted together, and also difficult to get into. The most frequent problem, though, is the foam rear wheels are missing, because the foam deteriorated over time and has long ago disappeared into dust. Wheels are available in the aftermarket, or you can make your own out of gray or black foam. Other issues are broken or damaged wheel hubs, worn steering neck mounts, and a missing white transfer gear on the left side that is driven by the motor pinion gear, and drives the wheel gear. Watch out for Astro-Trac photos that only show the vehicle's right side, the transfer gear may not be there. Leaking batteries have a distance to go to get to the motor, but it does happen, and more frequently, damaged or broken contacts in the battery box. Again, try to get a working one. Remember, the button of the battery faces out, or it'll run in reverse!

UNI- TREADS have difficult bodies, and to top them off, they run an endless loop of tread around the outside, which takes some work to get off without damage! Pop open the battery door; if its corroded inside, pass on it. Contacts on the battery door can be rebuilt or entirely re-made out of sheet brass from the hobby store, and chemically welded in place if the twist-lock keyway pin is missing or damaged, but it takes the right products and skill to do it. Make sure the body, the interbody, (the white part), and the drive sections are all there and hook together properly. Don't be too alarmed about all the clacking and ticking it makes, as long as it moves and climbs properly. The Uni-Tread has gearing that shifts in and out under load, that's what most of that commotion is from.

SPACE BUBBLES have a floating chair that self-rights in the bubble, a yoke that goes around the bubble itself, and a harness that attaches to the Uni Tread directly, or to the white hitch that attaches to the Crawler or Firebolt. The bubble itself has a spring-loaded door that swings out for interior access. Bubbles are usually scratched and hazed from rolling on the ground, but usually not excessively so. Watch for bent or warped yokes and harnesses. Cracked bubbles are from excessive pounding or poor storage.

MOBILE LAUNCHER PADS hitch to the Astro-Trac for towing. The SPACE PROBE and ROCKET LAUNCHER clip to the surface of the Launcher Pad. The Pad is nothing much more than the CAT-TRACS; a plastic tank chassis like a toy tank and two axles with small wheels mostly hidden by the molded tank treads. They are rare, however, and cost accordingly.

SPACE SLEDS and JET PACKS are buddies. The handle of the Space Sled removes just for that purpose; so the string of the pack can pass along the groove and out the front of the sled. The belt comes off the Jet Pack for the same reason, so it can be clipped to the Sled. Jet Packs should have the metal ferrules, (where the strings go in and out the packs), the strings shouldn't be excessively knotted, (take them out if you have the patience), and the windings inside should be laid straight without twists around each other. The Pack has a simple straight screw and nut holding it together; take that out, and the reels are exposed. Run the thing with the orange stop and hook in place. I cheat: I have one Pack with a belt, for the crew to buckle on and use, and I dedicated one latched to a Sled alone.

RECONOJETS are open sledlike frames with a massive engine and rotating antenna on a pylon.They are also on a string, sliding from one end to the other as you raise and lower the string and the jet flies to and from the opposite end. They also have the antenna spin as it moves. C scale still applies. Stickers can be found to fix the look, but you want one that works.The engine nacelle is sealed, and difficult to get into.

There are various other items, like the POWER SUIT, the SUPERNAUT LIMBS, and the previously mentioned ROCKET LAUNCHER, the SPACE PROBE, and the SATELLITE LAUNCHER. Have the items checked for functionality, missing parts, and general condition. They are pretty simple, so if they work and are generally intact, they are usually satisfactory buys.

The MOON SUIT is different. Based on a real design, the body capsule with the flexible arms is a wonderful thing intact, a pain when it isn't. And it usually isn't. The rubber arms are notorious for rotting off, frequently destroying any plastic items they are in contact with through chemical reactions. Most will be found like this. IF you have a damaged figure with intact arms, and IF you are handy, and IF you have a concept of what you are doing, you can use suit arms from a figure with intact arm wires and some ingenuity to make arms that are poseable and useful. But those are modified and can be worthless after modding, no matter how well done. As of this writing, no one is offering replacement or reproduction arms that can be used as direct replacements. Just as an aside; I am looking to create a suit just like that, using figure arms just as I described.

The XRG-1 is a hand launched glider that allows one of the human figures to glide. The glider can have tabs on the wings moved and repositioned to affect its flight characteristics. They can have cracks in the plastic body, and the canopies are usually cracked or missing. Fortunately, the canopies are being reproduced. If you can, get one if its body isn't cracked, even if the canopy is missing. You can add the other things to bring it up to a useful toy.

REPRODUCTIONS and RESTORATIONS:

It HAS been 40+ years now. Parts have been lost, misplaced, and broken over all that time. Sets are incomplete. And all the boxes these toys were stored in have taken their beating, too.

Original parts grouped together are original. If someone finds and puts together all the Space Station parts and sells it, I call that lucky. As long as there is full disclosure; go for it

Got a touch rebuilding Crawlers? THANK YOU! You are steely-eyed missile men, (and women), and we need you! Like a Major Matt Mason, everyone should have one!

One caveat; DON"T ADD ON! Represent repainted figures exactly as such. Don't try to pass repro Astro-Trac tires on a toy off as "all original". Don't put repro stickers on and try to pass it as factory. Represent it truthfully.

If someone puts together all the mechanical parts, and adds a reproduction film cylinder and reproduction stickers? Its not original, but if its a display toy or something you show for the fun, its all good to me. Just tell the truth if you decide to sell it; that it has reproduction parts. You'd be surprised how much of the original value you get back. The new vinyl stickers are far superior to the original paper ones; more fade resistance, less peeling from aging, etc. I have repros in mine; the film cylinder has Hubble images of the Moon and full-color graphics more like 2001: A Space Odyssey than the Mattel setup. I did the console the same way, a realistic QWERTY board and touchpad under the screen position, and added some simulated flat panel displays in the support ladders. I want to light the whole thing in LED, and run a beacon with a very bright purple LED driven off of  a "AA" battery holder inside the beacon body.

But I have the original parts put away if I ever sell it.

Now for an aside: The MADELMAN MARS LANDER and LEADWORKS FIGURES

The Lander is NOT an "official" Mattel Major Matt Mason toy. Manufactured in 2006 in Spain by Madelman, The Mars Lander was originally slated for its own set of figures of roughly approximate scale as Matt Mason. Unfortunately, the figures were never made. But fortunately for MMM, the Lander is close enough in scale to be a vehicle for the human figures and the Callisto/Scorpio pair. It fits nicely in the open niche Mattel forgot to fill; a lander exploration spacecraft. Almost as large as the Space Station itself, it fits two figures comfortably, has its own LED lighting, and has enough hatches, storage bins, and steerable engine nozzle to keep everyone happy. They are usually found new in the box or close to that. They also fit the 5.5 inch space exploration figures frequently found at planetarium gift shops, museums, and science toy stores. Add some US Flags, numbers, and "Space Lander" stickers from an inkjet printer, and you have a surface lander just right for your crew.

And speaking of crew, Leadworks in Japan made some rubber figures almost identical to the Major Matt Mason line. They are SO close, in fact, that the helmets are interchangeable with MMM figures. They were sold for a short time, before Mattel got wind of it and served a Cease and Desist order on Leadworks. The figures do have some features that are less desirable: the head was molded in one piece with the body, as were the boots. The head does not turn on these guys, and the boots are soft and do not lock into the floor plates of the Space Station like the MMM figures do. Also, all the figures I've seen all have Matt Mason-like features; although there are a gamut of ethnic skin tones. There is a positive to all this, though; Leadworks figures spacesuits come in different colors from the MMM ones, and are great background and fill in figures on equipment and vehicles. Values are inconsistent on them; some go for a short song, others get fought over tooth and nail and sell for more than one of the rarest figures, a C9 Major Matt Mason blue strap red dot in first production white rubber. Why? Beats me.