Rogues' Roundup: From Space Guys to Astronauts

 

With this post, I'm starting another "short" week. I decided it was time to catch up on some backlogged material, and that in turn offered me a chance to expand on some ideas and terminology. In writing about Marx figures, I've referred to certain figures as "space guys". What that has meant to me is the 1950s style of space figures, characterized by leathery flight suits and removable helmets that looked like either fish bowls or water tanks. (See my 3 inch space guys revisit.) In using this term, there's never been a question in my mind that this would not apply to the Marx "Apollo" figure set, nor to the later Galaxy Laser Team astronauts (though I realized I have used it offhandedly). What I never settled in my own mind is when the transition occurred. To begin with, here's a recent acquisition that was literally handed to me, an Archer space figure, and boy is he a "space guy". Here he is with the Mexican evil space guys for comparison.

This figure stood out as my first hard plastic space figure, which puts him squarely in the 1950s. He's about 3 inches tall, comparable to the 3 in/ 70mm Marx figures but a lot more robust. There's a quite distinct sound when tapped, almost like porcelain. He is intact apart from a missing water-tank helmet, despite the appearance of the weird gadget. However, there's a hairline fracture in the hose, which is very often missing in figures for sale. Exactly what he's doing isn't clear, maybe surrendering to the space police while holding a blow dryer? The main thing to be learned is that even in the "space guy" era, Marx was far ahead of the competition.

Meanwhile, what was clear was that the transition from space guy to astronaut happened in the 1960s. Over a few different online orders, I built up a modest sample of the line that did the most to bridge the gap, the MPC astronauts. The MPC spacemen are most noteworthy as the longest-lived of "vintage" figures to originate from an American manufacturer. They were first made in the early to mid-1960s, and remained in production until as late as the 1980s, long after Marx and Timmee had moved on or gone belly up. They were notable for combining the "space guy" suits with more modern helmets, and also for retaining weapons for a good part of their run.  Here's a lineup of the lot, I'm sure spanning a wide period of time.

Unfortunately, what really stood out to me once I had a good sample is that they are absolutely terrible, in ways I couldn't appreciate until I had some in my hands. The sampling I gathered are highly varied in condition and evident composition, but every one of them looks and feels cheap. Here's a closeup of the best one, featured in the center above, and another of the same sculpt, sometimes called "pistol and lunchbox". I'm sure the former figure is a little larger than the others, but it was hart to prove that photographically. 

Looking ahead, the figures that set the standard for "realistic" astronauts were certainly Marx's astronauts, dated 1970 and available in both 60mm and nominal 6-inch scale. I continue to see debate about the exact timing of the release of the small figures, with a number of sources persistently reporting that they were not available until the late '70s. What I find noteworthy is that they are in what I consider "pseudorealistic" style, highly detailed but not that close to the suits that were actually used. Here's a lineup of a group I acquired some time ago, representing 9 out of 12 sculpts. Note Scooper, the Commander and the Stepping Guy in the center.

All of this inevitably brought me back to the Timmee astronauts. For completeness, I decided to do a comparison shot of the large GLT commander and the 6-inch version of his Marx counterpart. The differences in style, as well as certain similarities, should be especially apparent at this scale.

As previously recounted, the GLT astronauts originated as miniature figures included with Timmee/ Processed Plastic rockets. Having done some further research and correspondence, I'm now satisfied that these date no earlier or later than the 1970s. (See Steve Nyland's channel for the latest and most complete analysis.) What has intrigued me is that the GLT helmets are evidently based on the Gemini space suit, retired by 1968. I have long noted a tendency for toys to retain dated or anachronistic features, especially knockoffs/ bootlegs (witness the whole convoluted history of the patchisaurs), but this seemed a bit different. In fact, the more I thought about it, they seemed familiar, and that was my "eureka" moment.

Here is a foreign poster for The Green Slime, one of the first and still among the earliest films I roasted for Space 1979. Here, you can see a very accurate depiction of the costumes and props from the film, and they are clearly Gemini-style space suits. While I won't go so far as to suggest that this particular movie was the source for the Timmee design (particularly considering how egregiously it ripped off other films), it certainly establishes science fiction cinema as a possible and even likely influence. More importantly, it presents a clear "trickledown" point, where even low-budget films aimed at (horrifyingly) young audiences were trading in leather suits and fishbowls for "real" spacesuits.

And to wind things down, here's a lineup of my odds and ends. Front and center are a couple "Hing Fat" astronauts in 2 different sizes, which have long since made MPC look like quitters. I have had a set of them since before I started this blog, but I definitely won't be taking the time to look at them here and now. There's also two copies of a guy that came with some of the MPC astronauts and a Marx stego. I thought might be a "ground control" figure from the "space guy" era. I'm now satisfied it's an MPC police figure, but the similarity remains unmistakable. Then there's two girl/ lady "civilian" figures I ended up with, because why not?

Finally, as a bonus, here's a copy/ possible bootleg of the Marx 35mm alien that came in one of these literal mixed bags. He's a bit bigger and of a different material, with a stand that's definitely not part of the original. But who can say no to shiny?

With that, I'm wrapping this up. I had a bit more that will need to wait for another day, but at least I have a good part of my backlog out of the way. That's all, more to come!