Major Matt Mason Collecting Hobby Press

Over many years of collecting you will find yourself in an odd position of not really knowing the value of the items you're buying - this is most evident at the start of your collecting journey and crops up as you come across obscure items even years later. In the early days (mid-90's) of my own journey, I would rarely find any Major Matt Mason items for sale, even at toy shows. The most reliable market was the now defunct Toy Shop Magazine - this was a tabloid sized newspaper that was published bi-weekly and later monthly, along the lines of Goldmine (for vinyl records). MMM items would show up there - not many - but at times there might be as many as 5 ads in an occasional issue. The problem was that the prices were all over the place and in many cases quite exorbitant - how does one know if he's overpaying, especially if new to the collecting world?

The solution was to purchase one of the several then available price-guides for toys, but this was also fraught with its own dangers. The guides were often filled with poor and/or minimal descriptions that would often not match up with a toy's features - it was all a bit arbitrary. At some point in the very early 90's action figures began to become legitimate collectibles and dedicated price guides and collecting publications began appearing. Of course I bought anything I could find that contained Major Matt Mason. Below are the publications that I own - each links to images of the articles within the publication and my notes, if any. They're in order by date with the oldest at the top and the newest at the bottom.

Starlog Photo Guidebook Science Fiction Toys & Models Vol. 1

Published: 1980

Page 19 "Mattel sends up its own astronaut" with images from the photoshoot used for the cover of the 1967 Mattel "Toyfair" Catalog.

Toys of the Sixties A Pictorial Guide by Bill Bruegman

Published: 1991

Half-page regarding Major Matt Mason with 7 Mattel products with short descriptions and value estimates.

Tomart's Price Guide to Action Figure Collectibles by Carol Markowski & Bill Sikora

Published: 1991

I believe this was the first Action Figure price guide, containing two pages of Major Matt Mason with a handful of black-and-white images.

Tomart's Action Figure Digest Vol. 1, No. 2

Published: 1991

15 pages of Major Matt Mason (14 are reprinted from Mattel Retailer catalogs).

Baby Boomer Collectibles November 1993 Vol. 1 No. 2

Published: 1993

6 pages of Major Matt Mason including two Joe Ferreira (aka Joe King) ads and an article by John Michlig "Can you hear me Major Matt?"

Toy Collector and Price Guide February 1996

Published: February 1996

6 page article "Space Toys - The Universe of Major Matt Mason" with several interior pages with text and toys provided for photos by my old friend Ray Kolasa.

Tomart's Action Figure Digest No. 31

Published: June/July 1996

5 page price-guide oriented article with a focus on "variations ...Then and Now"

Boys' Toys of the Fifties &anp; Sixties by Thomas Holland

Published: 1997

The book basically selects toys from Sears Catalog Wishbooks starting at 1950 and ending at 1969 - the two Major Matt Mason pages are on 184-185.

Return of Figure King No. 2 (World Mook 110)

Published: 1997

4 page article regarding Major Matt Mason releases with images of Japanese language instructions.

Eyewitness Space Exploration

Published: 2010 (revised edition)

Page 24 has an image of Sgt Storm for a section on "Astronaut fashion" describing various space suit designs

Go Figure! No. 3 Feb/Mar 1998

Published: February/March 1998

3 page article regarding "Major Matt Mason" by Ryan Brookhart

Figure King no.21 (World Mook 208)

Published: 1998

Two page section on Major Matt Mason insert catalogs/folders with color images and release dates.

Space Toys of the 60's by James H. Gillam

Published: 1999

78 of 160 pages dedicated to Major Matt Mason with many color images, also contains Colorform's Outer Space Men and Zeroids.

ToyFare Magazine No. 19 March 1999

Published: March 1999

John Michlig's "Conspiracy Theory" on 5 pages questioning why the Major Matt Mason line was ended.

ToyFare Magazine No. 75 November 2003

Published: November 2003

Scorpio (MIB) listed on page 46 in a list of "100 Most Valuable Toys Ever!" with an image

Jouets cultes by Pascal Pinteau

Published: 2008

Coffee table sized book containing 41 pages of Major Matt Mason with exceptional color photography.

 

John's Notes:

These publications are rather subjective - the pricing information and really, even the general information can be somewhat misleading - enjoy them for what they are, a snapshot of perceived values based on very little information at the time they were published.

If you're looking for better pricing information, look at sold eBay auctions - it's the most reliable. I resumed posting sales on a monthly basis (I had done this previously but took an extended break). Note that I usually only post "significant" sales - usually based on item rarity. It's the very small thing that matters the most - was it played with or still sealed in package? Is it complete, etc. The quality of most auction ads is fairly weak (meaning one has to look carefully at images to determine condition, completeness, etc) so buyer beware.

All Mattel images and captions are copyright Mattel and used without permission. All other content, including images and editorial, is Copyright © 1997-2024 John Eaton and/or contributors unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton.