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 strains can function fertile grounds for a wide range of partaking Hollywood initiatives leaning into classic mental properties.
With Mattel ramping up their very own movie manufacturing efforts and toy-to-screen endeavors after monumental success with “The Barbie Film” and hi-octane plans for Sizzling Wheels motion pictures rolling into theaters, the toys-to-silver display craze reveals no signal of slowing down. What may very well be subsequent? We expect there’s an ideal alternative hiding within the Mattel goldmine which may simply turn into the following massive factor.
We’re after all speaking about Main Matt Mason, that Plastisol astronaut motion determine and children’ playset product line from the Sixties, which is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this 12 months.
Born within the Sixties, in the course of the warmth of America’s area race with NASA’s Apollo program aiming for the lunar touchdown by the tip of the last decade, Mattel’s design mastermind’s discovered inspiration in visionary area idea artists’ wild goals 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 retailers and shops throughout the nation in 1966.
Capitalizing on the every day information tales of Gemini missions and Apollo moon-walking goals, this spacefaring fellow and his astronaut buddies let children in every single 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 Lovely 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 challenge 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 supplied an entire universe to create your individual area outpost and ramped lunar headquarters, alongside accent autos, moon gear, expansive playsets, and Matt’s “allies from the celebrities”: A purple-and-pink creature known as Scorpio, and a green-skinned pleasant Jovian alien known as Callisto.
With the Vietnam Struggle raging in Southeast Asia and televised on the nightly information, Main Matt Mason blasted into Sears and JCPenney catalogs when soldier motion figures have been dropping their attraction.
He wasn’t a gun-toting commando however a heroic explorer “prepared and ready to deal with any area job or fierce hazard.” Along with the motion figures and peripheral playsets, Matt Mason turned a popular culture phenomenon together with his personal board sport, coloring books, lunch packing 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. A number of the toys’ far-out designs have been taken straight out of NASA conceptual artwork and prototypes seen within the pages of Common Mechanics, Life, and Nationwide Geographic magazines.
However, most people is troublesome to please for any prolonged time frame and following the Apollo 11 moon touchdown in July of 1969, area toys pale in curiosity. Only one 12 months later, Main Matt Mason was no extra, destined solely to be coveted many years later as collectors objects .
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 challenge for a unbelievable, retro-styled Main Matt Mason film or TV collection?
It is actually a greater concept than a Matchbox film.
