Multiple Toymakers No. 3054 Moon Base Playset 1977

It had been five years, 1972, since the last Moon walk. The Cold War Space Race was sort of winding down in favor of the Americans.: the Soviets talked a big talk but ultimately never sent a man to the Moon. In 1977 the Space Shuttle Enterprise rolls out. Flown uncrewed from the back of a modified 747 until August of that year but the first launch wouldn't be until 1981. The Voyager space probes were launched to the outer planets. And the look and feel of space toys were to change forever because in 1977...

...Star Wars was released!

And so too was this last gasp Moon Base Playset No. 3054 from Multiple Toymakers. Carry-all playsets had become the norm by the mid-'70s and Marx, MPC / Multiple Toymakers, Ideal all offered portable playsets. Some large, some small, some cardboard, some soft case, some tin-litho. Today's featured set was a cardboard carry-all. It had an unusual design with a compact playing field but the components were a re-hash of what MPC/Multiple had been spitting out for years. Mundane by now and certainly not in keeping with the changing times. Multiple Toymakers was a division of Miner Industries and by 1979 - a short two years after the release of this playset -  Miner had declared bankruptcy

This box really isn't as informative as other's from the same company. It says that it opens up into a 24" (60.96cm)  x 20" (50.8cm) Lunar Control Base. That's it. No list of what's included inside and I don't have original instructions which may have helped - or not. All I have to go by was what was included in my set and the pictures on the outside of the box. The 'diorama' base inside is a nicely done green, blue, and white Lunar surface with a vista backdrop of outer space. The exterior photos show what appear to be 14 or 15 Astronauts (is there 2 or 3 in the Command Center? - hard to tell). The Command Center itself is just a floor from the U.S. Orbital Lab playset put out seven years earlier in 1970. There's a rather cheap printed cardboard 'quasi-dome' held up by one of the ladders also reutilized from the Orbital Lab. Then there's the Mobile Missile Carrier and the Multi-Rocket Launcher: more re-runs (I had to fill these in with pieces from my collection as my set didn't have them any more). BUT...

...I noticed something quite interesting when looking at the box photos. Look at the Mobile Missile Carrier parked in the front of the base. You see where the tabs from the tracks protrude through the hull? It looks to me like the vehicle they used for the cover pic was painted and the paint has chipped off around the hole in the hull! I have yet to come across a white one of these and I speculate that they are quite hard to find. The white MG mounted on the top of the Missile Carrier did in fact come with my set. Anywho, this playset is an interesting example from the waning days of a company in peril and a holdover example from the days when the Space Race was hot and heavy. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Is that paint chipping from around the holes where the tabs protrude?

I do like the green - nice and colorful -  but geez, didn't the guys over at Multiple realize the Moon is gray? 

Nicely done backdrop