Next year, kids and collectors can get their hands on SpaceX toys thanks to a recent deal with Mattel.
The global toy brand announced a multi-year deal to produce and market toys and collectibles of the Elon Musk-founded company’s space technology. There are no details yet on what vehicles or rockets will debut, but Mattel said the SpaceX-inspired toys will arrive under its Matchbox brand and collectibles will come from Mattel Creations.
“As space exploration advances more quickly than ever before, we are thrilled to work with SpaceX, and help spark limitless play patterns for the space explorer in every kid,” said Nick Karamanos, SVP Entertainment Partnerships at Mattel, in a release.
The deal is a first for SpaceX, which previously only sold toys and collectibles through its online company store. There, space nerds could buy desktop-sized versions of SpaceX vehicles like the Falcon 9 rocket. The shop doesn’t have any collectibles for sale but is mostly SpaceX-branded clothing and accessories.
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SupportMattel, on the other hand, has been producing space toys for years. One of the company’s most iconic, but short-lived, space products is Major Matt Mason — dubbed Mattel’s Man in Space.
Major Matt Mason was introduced at the height of the space race in 1967. The fictional figure lived and worked on the Moon and sported an astronaut uniform inspired by early NASA designs. Major Matt Mason was joined by a crew of fellow space explorers, several alien figures, and a three-story moon base with various lunar and aerospace vehicles.
Mattel dropped the toy line in the mid-1970s, amid a decline in space exploration interest. But, Major Matt Mason will return to toy shelves soon, starting with his reintroduction at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend.
Around the same time in the mid-1960s, Mattel launched a Miss Astronaut Barbie in its new career Barbie line. Nearly 60 years later in April 2022, Barbie finally made it to space when two dolls flew to the International Space Station for the Mission DreamStar project.
“From launching action figures like Major Matt Mason and astronaut Barbie during the height of the space race — to more recent initiatives like Hot Wheels’ partnership with NASA celebrating the landing of the Perseverance Rover — this week’s news is the latest in a long history of iconic Mattel brands celebrating humankind’s reach for the stars,” Mattel said in an email to Supercluster.
Besides the upcoming SpaceX line, Mattel has also produced other space-themed toys and collectibles under its Hot Wheels and Matchbox brands, including a miniature “Chariot” — NASA’s Space Exploration Vehicle — and toy vehicles for NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rovers.
And, following the historic SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch in February 2018, Hot Wheels came out with a toy car Tesla Roadster with Starman in the front seat, a much smaller version of Musk’s real Roadster, currently in orbit around our Sun.
“Mattel’s ambition in partnering with SpaceX is that the products we create together will, through play, bring out the inner space explorer in all kids,” Mattel said.