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Sunday, December 16, 2018

MPC Missile Carrier

Another of MPC's iconic Little Green Army Men toys is their Missile Carrier based on...? Their imagination I guess. It doesn't matter really, it's only a toy and a cool one at that. It shares that same hard-edged, clunky, sharp-angled look as their Personnel Carrier and sports the same launcher and missile as the stand-alone missile launch pad. The sample shown here in OD is the most common although I believe some of MPC's space sets had red and possibly blue missile carriers. The launcher and missile each came in a variety of colors. The missiles were launched via a rubber band which attached to the front of the launcher and was stretched back and attached to the rear of the missile. One carefully lifted up on the tail of the missile freeing it from the launcher and it was supposed to launch. Sometimes it worked pretty good, other times not so much. My photos don't show any rubber band because, ummm, we don't use them at the house! Yup, I know, sounds funny but we really have very little use for them and they end up drying out and going brittle in this dry desert air. You may also notice as we run through this series of MPC toys that many of them have gone crooked and wonky through the years. That is the bane of plastic toy collector's and we pretty much just have to live with it. The launcher measures 7 1/2" (19.05cm) L x 3 3/4" (9.52cm) W x 2 7/8" (7.30cm) H to top of hull. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina



















8 comments:

  1. ..I have seen some of the vintage MPC vehicles re-issued, including the tank, weasel and APC, but I haven't seen the missile carrier re-issued. Is that because the mold no longer exists?

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    1. That's a good question! I don't know. After reading a lot about other vintage toys, I know sometimes the original molds were found but were in such bad shape they couldn't be cleaned up and re-used. I believe the guys who make the repos are in the same fb groups that we are and may be able to answer the question.

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  2. You could shoot that missile quite a ways. Hooking up the rubberband to the launcher is a bit of a trick, but it worked. 3 or 4 rubber bands could hurl that thing some distance.
    I think it wasn't re-issued becuase the rocket might "put your eye out".

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    1. MPC had a lot of "poke your eye out" fun. They had missiles and rockets galore and put them on nearly everything! LOL

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  3. Just found a photo of me as a kid in 1966 with this toy. It took a little searching to identify it -- these close-up photos are great.

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    1. Cool! I have no photos of me with my MPC stuff, but they were some of the most fondly remembered toys of my youth!

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  4. Can I purchase this? I have them in all the colors except this one.

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    1. It's not for sale. Just keep checking eBay. Combine a blue launch rack from a missile launcher and put it on the common and readily available launch vehicle.

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