Mystery Monday: The immortal astronaut set!

 

I'm just past the middle of what I planned on as a month of posts every week day, and I definitely needed something quick. I decided it was time for an ace in the hole I have thought about on and off for a while. It's something I acquired a little before I kicked off this blog, and never got back to. As it happened, I had the foresight to take some unboxing pics, and it's just as well, because there's no way I'm ever getting them back in the original packaging. To kick this off, here's the original item, photographed with my phone on the Couch Mark 1.

Now to back up to the "mystery" part, I have been sighting these guys for just about the last 10 years, mainly in a hobby/ craft store. What intrigued and vexed me far more than the usual question of who the Hell made this was where to buy them and how they were getting to merchants in the first place. In the course of my inquiries, I repeatedly found what had to be sets from the same figures and molds, at everything from online merchant sites to the gift shops of actual planetariums and science centers. The bucket was the first I encountered, with the most common alternative being bagged sets with a "landscape" mat. Every time I thought of purchasing a set, I looked to Amazon, but it kept dropping in and out of even their catalog until I finally gave up for a while. Then, toward the end of 2019, I saw the bucket was back, so I ordered it. Here's a shot of what I got for the money.

Of course, what I had figured out by then was that these were from Hing Fat, long since infamous among collectors (see the channel for my lapsed correspondent Steve Nyland). This operation previously came up with the '80s ninjas lineup, and before that got a very brief mention in my "space guys to astronauts" post. From the evidence at hand, this manufacturer and quite possibly multiple imitators have been churning these things out since the early to mid-1970s. What amused me most is how jarringly Earthly their tools look. I've made fun of the Marx astronauts for looking like they're carrying a briefcase and a pooper scooper, but I swear these guys look like they're doing yard work, complete with a garden hose. (See the photo with my good camera up top.) What made this a little more interesting for me were the extras, shown in the following pics.

Aa seen here, the set comes with a pair of moon buggies, a wonky lander apparently based on an unused prototype, a two-stage rocket, a sort of space station, and a couple somewhat anachronistic space shuttles, plus a satellite I'll get to in a moment. I distinctly recall one of these had a sticker that had come off in the the packaging, which I quickly disposed of.  There are nice touches here and there, such as a nose of the rocket that actually detaches and a detail sticker on the lander that I believe I left alone. Here's another pic with the satellite, which definitely looks off scale-wise.

"Something, something/ On a three-hour tour, on a three-hour tour..."

And here's a new pic with a little more detail. Now I'm sure it's the satellite the sticker came off of.

Inevitably, I needed a few new comparison shots. What interested me most was a couple of astronauts I acquired independently. I expected to see major differences, bust what really stood out was that the pair looked less like each other than the bucket astronauts, to the point that I was a little worried if I could keep them separate. Here's a lineup of the separate pair and their bucket counterparts; the latter should be on the left.

Of the pair, the one with the pliers was the most distinctive. It's noticeably "gracile", with a lighter, somehow cheaper-looking shade. This is the one I could believe came from a different manufacturer. The other guy differs mainly in shade and somewhat better casting. (For comparison, note the egregious "flash" on the vacuum/ Geiger counter guy at the top.) I had a few moments of uncertainty, especially when I realized my "reference" differed from a few in the bucket in having the grabber stuck to the base. Still, a good look at the bases calmed my nerves. Here they are, with the bucket astronaut definitely on the left.

And here's the "gracile" guy, just weird.

And the inevitable lineup, with an MPC transitional space guy, a Marx 60mm astronaut, and the Galaxy Laser Team commander.

Finally, one more unboxing pic, with the GLT turtle crab alien!

"Houston, we have a problem... Well, for starters, I seem to be talking to you with a staple gun."

That's all for now, more to come!

Mystery Monday: Eighties ninjas!

 

I've been working ahead for the coming week, but still hadn't come up with anything for today. I had a few ideas, but I knew what I had to do was another installment of mysteries. The thing I've kept coming to in this feature is that there are levels of mystery. First, there is, "What the Hell is this thing?" Then there is, "Who the Hell made this thing?" And finally, assuming all other questions, are answered, there is still, "Why the Hell did they make this thing???" And that is the best introduction to the present lineup, a group of army man-style figures I picked up a while back. Here's a couple pics of the group on the Battle Mountain.

To back things up, I first encountered these guys, like most things that have come up here, in the late 1980s or early '90s, at the peak of a craze that included but was not limited to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I can't recall how I got them, but I'm sure I had at least three, possibly picked up separately. I remember finding them now and then, until their condition deteriorated (a guy with a bow was first to go) and their numbers dwindled. Eventually, it crossed my mind to investigate what they were, and a thorough search turned up exactly one, a guy with two swords. Here he it in closeup with one more.

As I tried to run this down, the first and foremost problem I ran into was that any searches with the obvious terms was invariably dominated by TMNT merchandise and certain other relatively high-profile lines. Nevertheless, I found pics here and there that I knew had to be from the same line, or directly copied from them. My big break was when I found a name, Hing Fat, which is to army man toys what the Cannon Group is to 1980s sci fi movies (see the Space Guys to Astronauts post). It specifically turned out that they were part of a set called Master of Ninja, because this crew isn't any better at grammar than they are at anything else; Vintage Ninja gives a good rundown of the set. With that information, I found a lot online that covered most of the sculpts I remembered. Here's some pics of the group with the original. If the black guy's kusari gama-ish blade looks like something, trust me, it looked a lot clearer on the one I used to have.

"Sorry, but swords beat feet."

"So what if we have no historical attestation, we have swords and cool flail things!"

What should be apparent is that these are a bit smaller and definitely rougher in their look than the original. The differences are a lot more pronounced on actual handling, enough that I initially found them downright loathsome to the touch. With a little time, I got over it. If it comes to that, it's not even that bad compared to what I often encounter in "bootleg copy of copy" toys. What's comparatively impressive is that only two are broken or defective. Here's a pic of one of them.

"I'd rather cut my leg off than wear these pants!"

One thing I noted in casual research was that the size was given as 45mm, definitely small for army man figures. It was only then that I tried comparison with other figures. Sure enough, they were smaller than normal. Here's a reference pic with the Galaxy Laser Team commander.

After unraveling this mystery with relative ease, I looked into things just a little bit further. I confirmed Hing Fat was still in business, which wasn't in much doubt given how long the astronaut sets have stayed in circulation. Moreover, I found their website, and then I wasn't really that surprised to confirm that they were till making these damn things. Then I made one more discovery, they were also offering another set of ninjas I'd acquired far more recently. Here's a lineup of a few of them with the old crew.

Obviously, these little guys are in a very different style than the old ones, which didn't really exist until later. I bought the lot I had long enough ago that I had them at my desk at a job I held through 2016. They're fun, but a little awkward in sculpting, with a tendency to hold weapons at unnatural angles. They are also very prone to breaking, as this lineup will attest.

"Half a nunchuck, only slightly less useful than the whole thing!"

With that, I'm ready to wrap this up. Things like this are truly why I do this blog; it gives me a chance to sort through old memories, and in the process give them the meaning and form that only emerges in hindsight. Or if you don't buy that, I get to write about silly old toys. That's all, more to come!