MPC USAF Missile-Rocket Command Playset - Out of The Box and Playing

With a little 'me' time the other day, I was able to take the MPC USAF Missile-Rocket Command Playset pieces I recently posted and set them up on the airfield shelf display and have a little photo fun. It's nice to do photo essays but sometimes I like to see how these look in more of a play setting. The scenario here is that the country is on high alert, the jets have scrambled, and airfield defenses are being deployed. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

MPC Mobile Missile Vehicle with Multi-Rocket Launcher - Olive Green

What do you get when you have the Multi-Rocket launcher mated to the Mobile Missile Vehicle chassis? One bad-ass toy! :-) This rig is ready to r-u-u-u-u-m-b-l-e. I took these photos last August before taking stock of all my MPC gear. I could actually have placed four yellow rockets in the standby tubes but what the hey, it is what it is. Let's pretend one of the rockets was already launched! The springs in the upper launch tubes will hurl these a pretty good distance, unfortunately they tend to miss-fire. The force of the spring combined with the slippery plastic, and just moving the toy around will cause the rocket to slowly rotate within the tube and fire - as I found out the hard way when I got boinked in the noggin' while taking photos! hahahaha. If I want to, I can mount any of the rocket launchers or any of the missile towers on any of the different colored Mobile Missile Vehicles I have and just have a field day taking photos. And therein lies the problem. I could actually be there all day just taking pics of the different color combinations: naw - ain't gonna do it! Sooo, let's call it a day with this series of photos and we'll move on to another toy in the next couple of days. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

MPC Orbital Missile and Gantry Tower - SP Blue Gantry

Let's get spacey with MPC. I've got some more straight-up military stuff from MPC to post but really, I'm itching to get to my space toys and I have a bunch from MPC. Then I'll follow up with other brands. In the middle of all this I have a special Train Time project to start posting and odds-&-ends of other toys. 

On that note, let's get started. Many people simply call this the rocket gantry or missile gantry or rocket tower or whatever, but the MPC instruction sheets I have call it an "Orbital Missile Gantry and Tower". So, okay, that's what I'll call it in my posts. The assembly consists of a tower with a spring-loaded missile. The missile has small tabs on the bottom that, when the missile is pushed down over the spring, lock into notches in the gantry base. Twist the missile and it flies quite nicely into the air. It has more of a robust launch action than the rubber-band powered missiles/rockets on some of MPC's other units. Over the years I've gotten a couple of different missile designs with these towers, one tall and one short. The missile shown here is the short version and it fits and works just fine but may in fact be Marx. My sample is missing the spring, which is a very common occurrence in these things. In future posts I hope to have a complete unit to photograph. The gantry measures 6 1/8" (15.55cm) H x 2 1/2" (6.35cm) W x 2 3/4" (6.98cm) D. The 'short' missile shown here is 6 3/8" (16.19cm) H. Like many of MPC's toys, these came in multiple color combinations. The one shown here has an all blue tower assembly, but I have towers with red bases and blue tops.We'll be bringing you a couple of variations over the next few posts. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

MPC Rocket Boat From Set No. 345 - 1960s RED SP

I thought this was a cool boat when I saw it last year and was lucky enough to have snagged it. It's another great MPC ringhand related toy. I photographed this Rocket Boat exactly the way I received it but I have since learned that the dual machine gun is not the right armament for it. After seeing a picture of a MIB set in Playset Magazine the boat evidently had a single machine gun (the type that came with MPC's personnel carriers) on either side of the hull and an American flag attached to the top of the cabin as well as a second life ring. The missile itself would have 'launched' via a rubber band attached to the front of the launch rail, pulled back and then attached to the rear of the missile. Simply lifting the missiles' rear end would cause it to come off the rail and fly forward. When I posted a pic of this on the fb groups there was a lot of amused speculation about the damage that big ol' missile would have done to the crew and boat! The boat measures 9 1/2" (24.13cm) L x 4" (10.16cm) W x 3" (7.62cm) H. Gotta love toy designers LOL Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina