Soooo, since the 22nd of February I've been posting a series of nifty Cold War toys by MPC. Just like I did with MPC's 'Battle Front' playset, I dangled the carrot in front of the horse by posting the set contents one at a time before finally revealing what set they all went to. That brings us to today. This set was one of many space-themed playsets by MPC - some large, some small - utilizing their iconic ringhand figures and a host of cool toys.
Comparing the kit contents as listed on the box cover, the box artwork, and the instruction sheet, leaves the collector with some unanswered questions. First of all, as I've said in the past, there never seems to be mint-in-box unopened large MPC sets for collector's to peruse and take notes on. That leaves us with sets that have been picked over, added to, or taken from. My set included all of the main vehicles but was missing the 'astronauts' and gear, but who knows whether they were original to this box.
Comparing the kit contents as listed on the box cover, the box artwork, and the instruction sheet, leaves the collector with some unanswered questions. First of all, as I've said in the past, there never seems to be mint-in-box unopened large MPC sets for collector's to peruse and take notes on. That leaves us with sets that have been picked over, added to, or taken from. My set included all of the main vehicles but was missing the 'astronauts' and gear, but who knows whether they were original to this box.
Before we go any further let's take a look at the set contents as listed on the box:
CONTENTS LISTED ON BOX
-Multi-Rocket Firing Skysweeper
-Mobile Rocket Launcher & Missile
-Rocket Firing Commander Missile and Carrier
-Flying Helicopter & Automatic Spring Powered Helicopter Launching Station
-3 Shooting Orbital Missiles and Gantry's
-2 Shooting Multi-Rocket Launchers & Rockets
-Command Jeep
-Astronauts and Missile Men
DISCONNECTS
The major set components are featured quite nicely on the box artwork which helps in set breakdown but there are definite omissions and vagueness which proves that the artists simply took their artistic license with the box art or they simply weren't provided with the correct set contents by the marketing guys.
-Multi-Rocket Firing Skysweeper: What the heck is this??? MPC's instructions sheets refer to this as a "MPC Mobile Missile Vehicle with Multi-Rocket Launcher"
-Mobile Rocket Launcher & Missile: Another 'What-the'heck"? Again, MPC's instructions refer to this as "MPC Mobile Missile Vehicle with Orbital Missile Gantry & Tower
-Rocket Firing Commander Missile and Carrier. In other sets this was referred to as a "Missile Carrier" on the box cover while the instruction sheets referred to it as a "Rocket Carrier". The instruction sheet in this playset refers to it as a "Rocket Carrier" and was a staple of space and Little Green Army Men playsets.
-Flying Helicopter & Automatic Spring Powered Helicopter Launching Station: We're good here! (yay!) ALTHOUGH, while the box art clearly shows the helicopter, the launching station is obscured in the background.
-3 Shooting Orbital Missiles and Gantry's: Good here too!
-2 Shooting Multi-Rocket Launchers & Rockets: Good here as well!
-Command Jeep: This piece is totally left out of the artwork
-Astronauts and Missile Men: Arrrgh! I hate it it when they do this. First of all, the figure count is not listed anywhere, either on the box or the instruction sheets. It is somewhat implied in the artwork but as you'll notice only a couple figures actually look like something - the rest are meaningless blobs.
Sooo, here's my take on it. The artwork appears to show 3 ringhand astronauts wearing the specialized gear made for them. Okay, fine. IF I surmise (assume, guess, imply, whatever...) that MPC put a 'standard' count of 12 figures in their sets (absolutely, totally arbitrary figure count on my part) that would leave 9 'Missile Men' - aka ringhand figures with the standard G.I. gear. As for colors? Heck, your guess is as good as mine. I favor the gold colored ringhands for astronauts so that's what I photographed but they could have been any color. In fact all 12 figures could have been OD with two different sets of accessories, one set for the astronauts, one set for the G.I.'s/Missile men. I hope you've liked our coverage of this lesser known MPC playset.
Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
