One and Two

Spacepods one and two.

Space Pod One

A nod to Major Matt Mason's moon suit the Space Pod is an inspection tool for the crew.

Meet the Martians

Two Martians made for under $6.00. I don't know if these creatures will end up in the final movie but I had fun making them out of items I found at the dollar store.

Project Orion with Orion Capsule

Here is an ugly sketch of the near future Orion Capsule that I want to be the lifeboat of the Atomic Toy Spaceship.

Is this a science fiction movie?

The above photo is a group photo of all the action figures I've bought so far. The play set is from Swine Trek of the Muppet Show. Everything in the photo is just raw material for the construction of props for the movie.

Is this going to be a science fiction movie or a family drama with science fiction as set design?

A New Playground

The above photo shows the scale of the Atomic Toy Spaceship as Major Matt Mason stands in front of a cardboard barrel that will become the engine of the over sized toy.

Every movie project is a new playground. I've already spent too much of my own money on this production or should I say the concept stage of a movie. I don't know if this concept will work but doing something different is what I'm all about.

A father and son dealing with grief by creating a strange oversize toy.

Atomic secrets.

The dream of going to Mars.

Bullying both in the adult world and the child's world.

I push forward with four books as a guide.

1. Mars on Earth by Robert Zubrin
2. Project Orion by George Dyson
3. The Millennial Project by Marshall T. Savage
4. Floating to Space by John Powell

The Return of Major Matt Mason

Today I received my second Major Matt Mason figure. My collection will soon be complete but this lone figure without a helmet has some meaning for me as I try to recapture my childhood.

My collection will be a modest one and by complete I mean enough MMM toys to build the props I need for my movie projects.

The above scan shows the good Major as he arrived back into my life all wrapped in bubble wrap.

The Third Piece of my Childhood

Still in the bubble wrap here is the second blue window in my MMM collection.

Father and Son Astronauts

Two figures from Action Products fill in as the father and son of the crew.

Both figures will be upscaled and combined with other action figures.

I've decided the smaller figure will be an Asimo size robot instead of a child astronaut.

Mission to Mars

The above drawing is based on the illustration on page 242 of the book Project Orion by George Dyson.

All the drawings on this blog are going to be crude free hand sketches. I am building the Atomic Toy Spaceship as a prop for a movie I'm writing about bullying. I want to finish this prop as soon as possible and not waste too much time drawing it.

This is a drawing of the Mars Atomic Spaceship designed by General Atomic for NASA in 1963-64.

My entire Major Matt Mason collection

I lost big on ebay but here is two parts of the moon base that I won.

I have one more window on the way, so that will make three vintage parts of the atomic spaceship made out of Major Matt Mason space station (Moon Base) parts.

The Lady and the Robot

The lady is from Kansas and the robot is from Missouri.

The Second Crew Member

Little is know about the second crew member. I found him on a shelf in my garage.

I believe he came in a bag of construction toys from a thrift store in the late 1980's.

I dub him Robonaut One and he'll be getting a new face.

John Eaton of http://www.wildtoys.com fame has identified the above toy as a Mattel Tog'l Fireman.

The Third Childhood

My favorite toy was as a young boy was Major Matt Mason. After I became addicted to ebay and seeing all of the toys of my childhood for sell, I decided to collect a few toys to feed my third childhood.

My first childhood I played with Major Matt Mason toys on the plains of imaginary moonscapes.

My second childhood was the joy of being a father to two sons.

My third childhood began with the birth of my two grandchildren, seven weeks apart.

When my first childhood was coming to an end I read in a magazine about an atomic powered spaceship that was designed by a company called General Atomic for NASA in 1963-64.
I wrote to NASA asking them to send me information on the spaceship fueled by atomic bombs.
I didn't know the Orion Project had been cancelled by the time I wrote NASA. I was sent some general information about the Apollo Program.

After seeing what the prices were for Major Matt Mason toys on ebay I knew with my limited budget that my collection wouldn't be very impressive. I decided to have a single theme for my Major Matt Mason collection. After looking at different modified Major Matt Mason toys, I set my theme on building a Project Orion space ship to scale of the MMM figures.

After losing several bids to buy MMM vintage toys I decided to use other action figures as the eight person crew. At the time of the writing of this post I had lost a bid for a Moon Base.
The core of my spaceship was going to be based on that toy moon base. Now I'm going to scratch build most of the ship.

The above photo is of a MMM orange girder from the moon base and the first member of the crew, Selphie Tilmitt age; 17, Hieght; 5'2", Birthday July 16. This Final Fantasy VIII figure will get a new paint job and have her arms put to her side.