Around 25 years or more ago, I bought an unopened blister pack of MATTEL's 'Man In Space' MAJOR MATT MASON's Moon Suit from a UK toy dealer. The suit was in pristine condition, never having been played with - so what did I do? I promptly (though carefully) opened it and put it on display, and you've probably seen it in photos I've posted over the years of some of my collection. However, contact with the air gradually decayed the 'rubber' arms until they just dried up and disintegrated, leaving Matt's nifty wee protective space shell bereft of its flexible appendages.
In the past, some enterprising folks have manufactured and sold replacement arms for the Moon Suit, but no one seems to be doing so currently, placing me in the position of having to make my own. I haven't tested them to see if they work like the originals, but I doubt it because the rubber is quite heavy. However, they're mainly for cosmetic purposes so that I can have the suit on display in my room and until I can secure 'proper' replacements. Doesn't look too bad though, does it?
Did you have Matt Mason when you were a kid, readers, and any of his accessories like the Moon Suit? Relive your childhood in the comments section.
Update: Finally managed to track down a pair of replacement arms. That's them below, attached to the same Moon Suit in the first photograph. Nifty, eh? They're not as thin as the originals and don't operate in the same way, but they'll last a lot longer, and are mainly for cosmetic display purposes anyway, not playing with.
Another update: I've since acquired another replacement pair of arms that look and work the same as the originals, though I haven't fitted them yet.
