MPC Playset No. 4500 Missile Attack Force Instructions

Here's a set I don't have but wish I did: MPC's No. 4500 Missile Attack Force playset. However, I do have the instructions for it so will post them here. Something is better than nothing. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Multiple Toymakers No. 1213 Space Case - 1970

Here's an interesting set from Multiple Toymakers: the No. 1213 Space Case mini-carry-all playset from 1970. By this time more and more toy companies were offering carry-all playsets but I found this one to be a tad unusual in that it utilized the smaller 25mm figures. MPC / Multiple seemed to have largely steered clear of tiny sets although there were several different themes using this same case but with different graphics and figures and accessories. I counted about 30 figures - although it was tough given that so many were hidden from view. You'll notice a Gerry Anderson clone in here as well, the Thunderbird 5 Space Station - although the toy included here has the number '6' on it. The tiny car is a clone of the Billy Blastoff Space Car (Many Thanx to Woodsy over at Moonbase Central for identifying that). When closed the soft vinyl lithographed case only measures 8" (20.32cm) D x 9" (22.86cm) W x 1 3/4" (4.44cm) H. When opened it stretches out to 17 1/2" (44.45cm) D. This is an interesting set, and fleshing it out with some 25mm aliens and some other small space vehicles - let's say from Golden Astronaut or LP - would make this a truly action packed fun little playset. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

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

Multiple Toymakers No. 3004 U.S. Orbital Lab

Now here is one of the most interesting offerings from the Multiple Toymakers / MPC line of Space Race toys, the No. 3004 U.S. Orbital Lab from 1970. This orbital station pre-dated our own real world Skylab by 3 years. Skylab was only occupied for 24 weeks during the period of May '73 to Feb '74 and was much smaller and only three astronauts at a time would man it. Multiple's orbital station on the other hand had three levels and was equipped with many more astronauts. More on that later.

The station is of the soft carry-case vaiety but unlike others of its ilk, it is cylindrical, not boxy and measures 20 1/2" (52.7cm) H x 7" (17.78cm) diameter. There are two latches on the side with the handle sticking through a hole in the opening flap. There are three levels: an upper level Control Observatory, a middle level Navigation/Communications Center, and a lower level Nuclear Power Station. Each level has a central seating area and access from one level to the other is made via ladders which can be positioned at various locations within the craft. There are several shepherd's crook-shaped pieces that serve as lanyard's or life-line's that can be placed on any level and stick out from each floor. You wrap the 'hook' end around a figure and it appears as if they're engaged in a space walk.

The photo below shows all the pieces that came with my set but it's apparent there were extra's like that Space Center observation dome. BTW, that bag of astronaut figures in the front holds 150 of Multiple's astronauts! I don't know how many of those originally came with the set but it does seem excessive. That being said I have seen header bag sets offered with 150 astronauts in them and MPC / Multiple sprayed these suckers on the market like fire retardant on a forest fire. Good Lord why? I don't know. Given that the small Space Control Center playset I posted a few days ago had 50 astronauts in it, it's no strecth to believe this set could've included 100-150. But that's just pure speculation until confirmation comes of a mint example with all the figures and accessories. Ina any case - Enjoy! Opa Fritz

The Control Observatory level left-toright

The Navigation/Communications Center level left-to-right

The Nuclear Power Station level left-to-right

Astronauts 'outside' the station on a space walk