Mpc Spacemen

[Blechroboter]

A nice addition to my collection are these Spaceman made by MPC.

The astronauts are 13cm tall - an impressive size for plastic figures.

The small accessories are missing as almost.

I wonder how it can happened that they found their way to Germany :blink: .

It is Interesting that some of them are formed like test pilots. So I presume

the date of production was in the early 60s, the same time the Mercury Programm started. ToyMemories?

[ToyMemories]

Hey, Blech!

Yes, I think the large MPC (aka Multiple Toymakers) spacemen are very cool too, congratulations on a nice addition (and some nice colors also)!

Also cool that they did make their way to Germany! :)

Though MPC didn't make too many large scale figures (they also made Soldiers, Cowboys, Indians and Weird figures), the spacemen are pretty impressive, and also a decent sized set (10 different, original vintage test-shots shown below). As you can see in the pictures, the accessories originally came "attached" to the figures, and nowadays can be pretty difficult to locate.

MPC's figures are somewhat static when compared to Marx figures, but in this case Marx's large (6") astronauts (series of 6) were kind of boring, and I like MPC's variety better.

I have an original Mold information sheet which is dated 1963, so that makes sense about their first appearance.

Also this mold still exists, and a company was producing them a few years ago (I have no affiliation with them, and I'm not sure what colors were being made, or how much they were charging)

Are you going to try and get all of the figures in all of the colors? That would be pretty neat... (but difficult) ;)

[Blechroboter]

Hi ToyMemories,

Thank you for your answer. I don´t belief that I will see some more of the MPC astronauts here in Germany. But who knows?

1963 makes sense. The Mercury Programm started in 61 and toy companies need 1 or 2 years of time to realise a new toy line.

I got the astronauts together with each 3 cowboys and indians in the same size.

Take a look at your white astronaut right below. It is the same as my green one without the helmet. But the left arm has another direction.

[ToyMemories]

Hey Blech,

You're very welcome, thanks for asking! :)

Well, you never know; 40 years or so of those guys floating around in space, I'm sure more must have landed in Germany for you to find!

For the arm position difference, it could be something like the plastic wasn't fully cooled when one of them came out of the mold, and it "moved"... I have other examples of the smaller MPC figures that has happened to (they weren't the best at quality control) including a few figures that are actually bent forward near the waist which kind of looks intentional to make a new pose, but I know it was more of "oops! hope no one notices THAT guy..." :blink: