Former American sweetheart Tom Hanks has signed on to be a part of Universal's Major Matt Mason, a live-action feature based on the vintage Mattel action figure that will be written by Graham Yost. This is all fine and dandy, except, what the fuck is a Major Matt Mason? It's not even on Wikipedia and a google search revealed very little. I know Mattell is eager to cash in on old toys with movies like Candy Land and Stretch Armstrong, but at least people know what those are. I think Mr. Hanks should stick to Toy Story 3. After some further research I found that Mason was the leader of an astronaut team  that lived and worked on the moon, and fought a few hostile aliens. He was the hottest thing going in the years leading up to NASA’s first trip to the moon and wasn’t retired until the 1970s. Despite being retired for so long, Matt Mason is remembered very fondly. A mint Mason is an “unofficial crewman” on many NASA flights, and one even flew with John Glenn in his final Shuttle flight in 1998.

--Clark Herer

 


Comments

G. Travis

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:38:57

You must be kidding or just very young. When I was a child my Major Matt Mason collection of rovers, space sleds, station and flying craft were just great - spurred my imagination and love for all things space related. Your GOOGLE search must have been done incorrectly - there are great many links - try your search in IMAGES alone. I wish I still had some toys my childhood - they brought great joy. I am looking forward to the movie.

 

Billy

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:34:23

I'm with you, G. Travis. When I was growing up, G.I. Joe and Major Matt Mason were the two major characters in my little world. I derived hours and hours of entertainment from them.

The good thing about Major Matt Mason was that he had a wire skeletal system and a rubberized body so you could do anything you liked, from shooting him out of a sling shot to running over him at full-speed with your Tonka Toys and he would come out of it virtually unscathed. The only bummer was if you moved his limbs too much the wire would eventually break and you would be left with a limp, lifeless limb. :o)

I'd go see the movie.

 



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