Universal, which is prepping a Stretch Armstrong movie based on the Hasbro toy, has acquired the rights to develop a motion picture based on Mattel’s vintage Major Matt Mason Action Figure line as a star vehicle for Tom Hanks.  According to Variety, Graham Yost is writing the script for the film which is based on the toys, introduced by Mattel in 1966, that featured an astronaut and his crew who lived and worked on the moon.  Although flimsily constructed, the Major Mason figures (and accessories such as the Moon Base/Space Station) were notable for the fact that their designs were closely based on early NASA renderings and realistic “hard” science fiction drawings done for features in Life Magazine.

 

Mattel created a team of four astronauts led by Major Mason.  The figures shared a common body, but featured different paint jobs and different heads.  The other members of the crew (who will likely appear in the film) were Sgt. Storm, who had blond hair and a red suit, Lt. Jeff Long, the first African American in “action figure space,” who had a blue suit, and civilian Doug Davis, who had a yellow suit and brown hair.

 

Mattel created a number of alien friends and antagonists for Major Mason and his crew including the giant Captain Lazer, a figure so large that its tooling was later used to make giant size Battlestar Galactica figures such as the Cylon Centurion, Callisto, a native of Jupiter with a green semi-transparent head, and Scorpio, a battery-powered insect-like alien with a glowing head. Mattel ditched the Major Mason line when interest in the space program began to wane in the 1970s.  No animated or live action shows based on the toys were ever produced—until now—though the success or failure of this summer’s G.I. Joe movie, which is also dripping in action figure nostalgia, could be the determining factor in whether a Major Mason film makes it all the way to the big screen.