Parents Never Understand

Back before it was quite so obvious that my beastly size was going to negate any dreams of being an astronaut, before we abandoned the moon for whatever reason, there was one cool toy that taunted me:

I said one toy, but that's misleading. One of the best things was the many supplemental toys, and how very well they were integrated to build your toy adventures. Yeah, the comic ads look okay, but what about the actual toys themselves?
They were actually well designed, detailed, and the TV commercials made them seem even more desirable.

 

Man, we ached for these. Major Matt Mason was the bad ass toy we all wanted, me more than anyone.

I got a Billy BlastOff instead. 

Yeah. No difference there...

Major Matt Mason 2-page ad from Metamorpho #14 (1967)