Mattel Ad
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.
