Mattel #6325 Major Matt Mason Gulf Oil Promotion

#6325 Major Matt Mason Gulf Oil Promotion Card Front

Originally thought to be a product of myth or rumor, the Gulf Oil Promotion Card is finally presented here in all its glory! Packaged on a card about the size of a Cat Trac card, the Gulf Promo card uses the same blister as the white-blistered Sgt. Storm found in some Firebolt Super Action Sets. Included are MMM with helmet and Jet Propulsion Pak with an MMM catalog folded in half and tucked behind the figure. Also included is a small Gulf Oil Co. Order Form where you can view a list of Major Matt Mason toys that can be ordered directly from Gulf. The only markings identifying the item as a Gulf Promotion are on a small stiff-paper tag. The back of the card has instructions printed on it similar to the Major Matt Mason instruction sheet. 

MMM Astronaut Major MATT MASON

Packaging:

The Card is screen-printed with red, blue, yellow, black and white and is 9 1/2" x 6" x 1 1/8" Copyright is 1968. As mentioned above, the bubble was also used for the white-carded Sgt Storm variation found in some Firebolt Space Cannon Super Action Sets (Mattel Stock Number #6341).

Gulf Oil Co. Order Form

Mattel Catalog Specifications:

Unknown. This item was not available in the normal Spring or Fall Mattel dealer catalogs, it was probably offered on some type of tear-sheet to Gulf Oil Stations which has yet to surface. I've now seen two examples with the square paper tag above so I believe it was common.

Variations:

N/A

John's Notes:

As mentioned above, this is an extremely rare item that was probably used as a test market campaign in a very specific region. Very little information is known about this piece and little or no collateral information or advertising has been found in reference to the campaign.

Thanks (and much unabashed jealousy) to Alec Peters for allowing me to photograph and post the Gulf Tag. Since I originally wrote this description about 4 of these have turned up (one on an opened card, one on an open and resealed card and two other sealed cards) - one is now in my possession and is photographed for the  main image at the top of the page. These are indeed rare.

At one point I had reached out to a Gulf collecting organization for more information and got a "Oh I remember seeming something about that, let me see if I can find further info."). It's been years and after a number of apparently annoying inquiries I've given up on finding more info.

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