As evidenced by Paramount’s live-action “Transformers” motion pictures and the latest “Masters of the Universe” movie launched by Amazon MGM Studios, nostalgic toy traces can function fertile grounds for a wide range of participating Hollywood tasks leaning into classic mental properties.
With Mattel ramping up their very own movie manufacturing efforts and toy-to-screen endeavors after huge success with “The Barbie Film” and hi-octane plans for Scorching Wheels motion pictures rolling into theaters, the toys-to-silver display craze reveals no signal of slowing down. What could possibly be subsequent? We expect there’s an ideal alternative hiding within the Mattel goldmine that may simply turn out to be the following huge factor.
We’re in fact speaking about Main Matt Mason, that Plastisol astronaut motion determine and children’ playset product line from the Nineteen Sixties, which is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this 12 months.
Born within the Nineteen Sixties, in the course of the warmth of America’s area race with NASA’s Apollo program aiming for the lunar touchdown by the top of the last decade, Mattel’s design mastermind’s discovered inspiration in visionary area idea artists’ wild desires of futuristic moon bases, lunar buggies, and area autos.
Main Matt Mason was one of many first critical area toys to exist within the market, first hitting the cabinets of toy outlets and shops throughout the nation in 1966.
Capitalizing on the day by day information tales of Gemini missions and Apollo moon-walking desires, this spacefaring fellow and his astronaut buddies let youngsters all over the place think about colourful cosmic adventures.
Again in 2019, Selection reported that Tom Hanks was connected to star in a Main Matt Mason live-action movie being arrange at Paramount Footage with Akiva Goldsman (“A Stunning Thoughts,” “The Da Vinci Code”) employed to jot down the screenplay.
Hanks is an enthusiastic advocate of NASA historical past after starring in Apollo 13 and co-executive producing the Emmy Award-winning HBO docuseries “From The Earth To The Moon” alongside “Band of Brothers” tremendous producer Graham Yost. Regardless of the heavy hitters connected, momentum has since stalled on the sci-fi venture and it is sadly been shelved for the speedy future.
Matt Mason’s line-up of flexible 6-inch astronaut motion figures was developed as a competitor to Hasbro’s 12-inch G.I. Joe toys that dominated {the marketplace} within the mid-60s.
Together with Matt’s fellow rubberized area buddies — obtainable in a wide range of color-accented spacesuits — Mattel additionally provided a whole universe to create your individual area outpost and ramped lunar headquarters, alongside accent autos, moon gear, expansive playsets, and Matt’s “allies from the celebs”: A purple-and-pink creature known as Scorpio, and a green-skinned pleasant Jovian alien known as Callisto.
With the Vietnam Conflict raging in Southeast Asia and televised on the nightly information, Main Matt Mason blasted into Sears and JCPenney catalogs when soldier motion figures had been dropping their attraction.
He wasn’t a gun-toting commando however a heroic explorer “prepared and in a position to deal with any area process or fierce hazard.” Along with the motion figures and peripheral playsets, Matt Mason grew to become a popular culture phenomenon together with his personal board recreation, coloring books, lunch containers, and puzzles.
Named after Mattel’s co-founder Harold “Matt” Matson, the Matt Mason line carried a sure air of authenticity as a lot of its designers occurred to be former aerospace engineers. Among the toys’ far-out designs had been taken straight out of NASA conceptual artwork and prototypes seen within the pages of Well-liked Mechanics, Life, and Nationwide Geographic magazines.
However, most of the people is tough to please for any prolonged time frame and following the Apollo 11 moon touchdown in July of 1969, area toys light in curiosity. Only one 12 months later, Main Matt Mason was no extra, destined solely to be coveted a long time later as collectors gadgets .
As NASA ramps up their Artemis program with 2027’s Artemis 3 mission, earlier than an Artemis 4 moon touchdown set for 2028, and the area company doubling down on plans for a not too long ago introduced everlasting lunar base, can there be any higher time for Hollywood moguls to resurrect this cool venture for a incredible, retro-styled Main Matt Mason film or TV sequence?
It is definitely a greater thought than a Matchbox film.
