DID NEIL ARMSTRONG KILL THE OUTER SPACE MEN?

On May 25, 1961, Prsident John F. Kennedy made an impassioned speech to the US Congress. The purpose of this dramatic speech was to announce his ambitious proposal to land an American man on the moon. American morale had been usnusually low after being beaten into space by the Soviets four years earlier. Kennedy was also hoping to recover from the embarassing Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, which had been a disastrous failure just days earlier.

In the speech, Kennedy said, "First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. "

The speech captured the imagination of the American people. More importantly, America's children began crying out for a realistic space-toy to take their collective imagination to the moon. Enter MAJOR MATT MASON - MATTEL'S MAN IN SPACE. This imaginative toyline hit the scene in 1966 an was an immediate success. The high demand for Matt Mason and space-toys led Colorforms toy guru, Mel Birnkrant, to design an innovative toy to be played alongside Major Matt. THE OUTER SPACE MEN were crafted to scale and with the same rubber-bendy material as Mattel's popular toyline. Even down to the accordian-like joints. In the case of THE OUTER SPACE MEN however, the child was given ultimate control to decide whethter THE OSM were friend of foe to Major Matt. In 1968, the first shipment of 200,000 OUTER SPACE MEN landed in the US. Sales were brisk, and another 300,000 were being manufactured in Honk Kong to be released in the summer of 1969. Mel Birnkrant was also busily working on a Second Series of OSM. That's when Neil Armstrong and the crew of Apollo 11 took their first steps on the moon. The brave astronauts emerged from the Lunar Lander to find....nothing. No life, no footprints, no alien base, no air....nothing. How are kids going to play out in their snadbox with their atronauts, if there's nothing but sand? And due to shipping delays, there weren't even any OUTER SPACE MEN. Seemingly overnight, "space" became a dirty word in the toy industry. Even with Major Matt as one of its top sellers, Mattel pulled the plug on manufacturing this popular line. Colorforms renamed THE OUTER SPACE MEN, "THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE." But it was too late. Space toys were declared dead. It took almost ten years and a young Jedi by the name of Luke Skywalker to get kids interested in anything space related again. By that time, if you lived on the East Coast, you could probably find a dusty OUTER SPACE MEN on the shelf of some discount department store. So, if your looking for a villain in the interesting life(and death) of THE OUTER SPACE MEN, I suggest you look to Neil Armstrong. American hero, and THE OUTER SPACE MEN "murderer."

MONDO OUTER SPACE MEN!

One thing my New York Comic Con '09 experience taught me, was that OUTER SPACE MEN collectors come in all shapes and sizes. OSM enthusiast Gary Schaeffer boasts the finest collection of "Museum Quality" OUTER SPACE MEN in the world. An ex-Wall-Streeter, Gary befriended OSM creator Mel Birnkrant at the Atlantique City Toy Show in 1991, and an obsession was reborn. Gary's collection can be viewed at the Official Website of the OSM.

Toy Collector, Steve Fink, discusses his OUTER SPACE MEN collector experiences on the popular toy site Lee's Toy Review. These types of story's are not uncommon when you're dealing with a toy that had such an lasting impact on the lives of so many young children. But the real reason for me to post this blog, is to share the following video. We get to see some OSM collectors in moving pictures! Enjoy the OSM goodness!

Tom Hanks to star as MAJOR MATT MASON.

According to Variety, Tom Hanks, has agreed to star in a live action feature film based on the 1960's icon Major Matt Mason - Mattel's Man in Space. Graham Yost has been hired to write the screenplay. Yost has history with both sci-fi(Mission to Mars) and action-adventure(Speed.) He also has a working relationship with Hanks(Band of Brothers and From Earth to the Moon.)

Major Matt was an attempt by Mattel to capitalize on NASA's race to the moon. Major Matt and his astronaut buddies were stationed on the moon and were modeled after images seen in aviation periodicals. This toy line was hugely successful for Mattel and inspired Mel Birnkrant, then working for Colorforms, to create THE OUTER SPACE MEN. Ulitmately, space toys all suffered the same fate when Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon in '69. When no man-eating aliens devoured the unsuspecting astronauts. And the Apollo 11 missioned was deemed a monumental success, space toys were declared dead. That is, until Luke Skywalker blew up the Death Star in '77.

With Hollywood interest in retro toys being adapted into films, what does this mean for THE OSM? If Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is able to match the success of its predessor and GI Joe goes box office Boffo, will THE OUTER SPACE MEN be next? Let's speculate as to the format and casting of a big-budget OSM film. I'm thinking about a combination of CGI and live acting. Dolph Lundgren to play Venusian Commander Comet? Last year's Hulk proved that a total CGI character can carry a film. Is this what the Jovian Giant Colossus Rex will become? What about a "motion capture" technique? Ala Andy Serkis(LOTR and King Kong.)

Forget about Stretch Armstong or Etch-a-Sketch films! Contact your local Congressman, and demand that the next retro toy movie adaptation be THE OUTER SPACE MEN!