ToyFare Magazine No. 75 November 2003

ToyFare Magazine No. 75 November 2003 Cover

ToyFare Magazine No. 75, published November 2003 has a small image of Scorpio on page 46 in a list of "100 Most Valuable Toys Ever!" Transcript below.

ToyFare Magazine No. 75 November 2003

47 SCORPIO

$1,700 (Major Matt Mason, Mattel, 1970)
The rarest Major Matt Mason figure, and Marshall explains why: "Scorpio was shipped in his own case assortment, so that if a retailer didn't care for him, he didn't order any. Period. Talk about a recipe for rarity!"

John's Take:

I see the same statement propagated through all the price guides regarding Scorpio - that due to his being packaged as cases of only the single figure, he's rare. Never mind that Capt. Lazer and Callisto could also be purchased as a case of the single figure. The statement makes an assumption to explain why Scorpio is scarce - I think the explanation is much simpler. Scorpio was released towards the end of the Major Matt Mason toy line as the final figure produced - Mattel was offering fewer items and retailers were ordering fewer items so there weren't as many made. That's my theory anyway.

Most recently the price of a nice packaged Scorpio has normalized and come down a bit, while packaged astronauts and the other aliens have increased. Seems there's more of Scorpio available in the market than previously assumed.

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