Wellll, I finally had a little 'me' time and was able to photograph some MPC ringhand figures and outfit them as astronauts. As you know I've posted about every MPC ringhand figure starting in Dec 2018. Nearly all of those were of the OD/olive green variety with only the odd color (like yellow, grass green, orange) thrown in when I didn't have an OD/OG sample to photograph. But now I can at least show a few astronauts. On some of their Cold War space themed sets, MPC listed 'astronauts' and 'missile men' on their playset boxtops. Inside was a sprue of accessories with a very definite set of 'spacey' helmets, guns, and other gear to go with their ringhand figures.
From here it gets murky. A lot of folks like me will remember the astronauts as being gold or perhaps yellow. These figures were also sold in smaller sets available as mail-order in comic book adds. Now, as I have not yet seen a mint-in-box example of any of these sets, the question is: what color ringhands did MPC include in their set? Did they just toss in whatever was available on the assembly line? Did they make a conscious effort to distinguish astronauts from the others by including different colors? Who knows? Anywho, below is a small compilation of the accessories I have available and we'll look at figure MP126 all decked out for space duty! Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
The ring antenna is meant to be removable from the belt. It's hard to see in the photo, but the belt (far right) has a hole in it between the two canisters to accept the peg on the antenna
I just came across some of these accessories, and a bunch of different colored ring hands. I like these accessories with the gold men. Are they worth anything?
ReplyDeleteThe golden MPC astronaut accessories tend to go for more money than the regular G.I. ringhand accessories. A lot depends on when you're actually looking for them - right now they're a bit scarce and are selling for $8+ for a single accessory. Other times there's plenty that come up in job lots for cheap.
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