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| Where's the Patent Info? |
Inspired by a post in the MMM Facebook groups I thought I'd clarify a few things regarding the patent and copyright info on the back of the astronaut figures, and also offer up some opinions. There are a few variations and I have some thoughts (below) regarding the timeline.
A group member had the figure (above) and was asking about a variation without patent info on the back. I expressed my opinion that the info was there, only obscured by the heavy paint. I then volunteered to examine my figures and show the variations:
Prototype Test Shots
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| Prototype Test Shots Front L-R Painted, Blue and Gray) |
The very first MMM figures were of Major Matt Mason and could be found as Prototype Test Shots - these are early samples that were made at the factory and sent back to Mattel for approval. There are probably about a dozen of these in the hands of collectors and they can be found in various colored rubber compounds, all with the earlier "skinny" MMM head. I own the three shown above. Note that the patent info was "scratched" into the metal injection mold so it shows up as hand-lettered embossed text.
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| Prototype Test Shots Back Patent Detail |
1st Production Release - White Rubber Major MATT MASON
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| White Rubber Matt Figure (wrong helmet) |
The First version - let's call it MMM-V1 - was made of white rubber. These initial figures all had "© 1966 MATTEL, INC." and "U.S. PATENT PENDING" molded in tiny letters on their backs, and "HONG KONG" molded on the right calf. There are two versions of this figure - the first had silver painted cuffs and the second black painted cuffs - this latter variation appears to be extremely rare (I've owned two and have only seen a couple of others come up for sale).
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| MMM-V1-Black Cuff |
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| MMM-V1-Black Cuff Detail |
Note that the very small patent lettering made sense as the figure only had details painted-in for the straps, bellows, etc.
2nd Production Release - Black Rubber Major MATT MASON
At some point the figures were changed over to black-rubber with white paint - normally there's a base coat - sort of like primer, added to the figure first, then a second coat added to represent the shinier surface of the space suit. Rarely you'll find a figure that only has the primer coat - they appear dull/flat finished and you can tell that the paint is very thin.
The first black-rubber, painted Major Matt Mason (let's call if MMM-V2) continues with the tiny patent lettering and for most figures this is fine although a bit more difficult to see:
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| MMM-V2 Figure |
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| MMM-V2 Figure Detail |
Occasionally the paint is applied fairly thickly - I've only seen this on the V2 "fat" head (some time in 1968 Mattel introduced a second head sculpt - it's been speculated that this was to allow Mattel to double production and they made a sloppily sculpted head mold but it's my opinion that it was introduced to provide a second Matt figure, probably around the same time as Sgt. Storm's release, as both Matt heads would continue to be produced until the end of the line. In any case, these figures with thick paint obscure the patent info to the point where you can't see it through the paint (it's probably a thick primer coat) - note the size of the "breather" hole at the belt line (and also of the figure in question at the top of the page) and compare it with the white rubber figure - you can tell that the paint is applied very thickly as the hole is nearly filled:
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| MMM-V2 No Patent Info |
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| MMM-V2 No Patent Info Detail |
Now it's speculated that for some reason Mattel made this figure without the patent info, which really doesn't make much sense to me as a new master would have to be tooled (the molds were made of metal cast around a master then worked with tools to remove imperfections) - Mattel went so far as to make sure the patent info was part of the Test Shots, so why would they make a new set of molds that lack the patent info at all? Now it's possible that as the original molds were used the embossing started to wear down thus making it easy to obscure with thick paint, but so far, in my experience, it exists on all figures, even if it's not apparent through the figure paint. Another note - if you look at the better repaints on the earlier figure the patent info is often completely missing from the new, thicker paints being used.
Once you scrape off the paint you'll find that the patent info is there under the thick paint layers:
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| MMM-V2 No Paint |
Note that I had offered to scrape off the paint on a figure in my possession but hesitate to do so as both of the figures I own have really good paint and unbroken wires - it would be a shame to damage either of them. I will do this, however - if someone has a figure that doesn't show the patent info and is willing to scrape off the paint on video, and the info isn't there underneath the paint, I'd be happy to give up this figure to the person who does so for free. That way it would be a win-win as we'll confirm that a "no patent" figure was definitely made for some reason (extending our knowledge) and the figure would be replaced for free with a pretty nice one.
3rd Production Release - Black Rubber Major MATT MASON with larger Patent Info
The astronaut figure at some point (probably towards the end of 1968 or possibly the beginning of 1969, was retooled with much larger patent info ( "© 1966 MATTEL, INC." and "U.S. AND FOREIGN PATENTS PENDING") - Doug Davis, Jeff Long and both Major Matt Mason and Sgt. Storm transitioned to the larger type, right around when the straps turned black (transition figures do exist, as these were all running changes so just about any variation is possible).
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| MMM-V3 Black Strap |
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| MMM-V3 Black Strap Detail |
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