Show and Tell > Lego Minifig Astronaut

By googum

His helmet is cracked, and his head slips off now and then.  He hasn’t been mint condition in over thirty years, when some errant bug spray on a camping trip faded his logo and one eye.  (His teammates didn’t fare as well.)  He wasn’t even on display for almost fifteen years, which he spent occasionally playing with new kids.  I would have to say he’s semi-retired now.

He was one of Lego’s first astronaut minifigs, and I was probably seven or eight when I got him; doubtless for Christmas or a birthday.  I don’t remember what set it was–one of the larger ones, with the classic space insignia and grey moonscape base–but I rarely stuck to the plans.  He flew thousands of missions, on hundreds of ships; from Apollo-era buckets to Enterprise style cruisers to X-wings and giant robots.  And he fought TIE Fighters and Saucer Animals and Klingons and all sorts of monsters and creatures; defeating them all (and boredom, on a lot of long drives.)

He is probably the best argument for ‘generic’ action figures, that kids can make their own and make their own adventures for, that I’ll ever see.  Even though he only had the one helmet (which he never removed) he wore a lot of hats:  he was Luke Skywalker.  He was Orion Quest.  He was Buck Rogers, Captain Kirk, Charlie Pizer, Steve Austin, and more.  He was me.   He was under two inches tall, and a giant.

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9 Comments

  1. Wow, man. This was really nice. Kind of touching, even.

  2. It was Off, but it was like seventies Off; which means it's probably considered a biohazard now. I was like seven when I used it, and I'm lucky it didn't give me retroactive birth defects. (That I know of…)

    Said Off did eat the faces off two other astronauts. I'm not ashamed to admit I cried like a wee girl. OK, maybe a little ashamed.

    Thanks a lot, Poe, for the chance to reminisce about an old favorite!

  3. DrNightmare

    Dude, that's some sick-ass bug-spray! What brand was it, maybe it'll finally be enough to kill all the critters around my place!

  4. Mark

    @Mario, I remember those Playmobil figures…never owned any but used to play with them at Primary school, they had loads of them.

    Alsoback to lego, I actually still have my big bucket of Lego and a massive Castle still with its box.

  5. PrfktTear

    I used to play with Legos all the time. I'd either have my own Lego adventures, or I'd use the bricks to make forts and hideouts for my action figures. I had some playsets, like a pirate island, a spaceship and a robot. My biggest regret was going to a yardsale once and finding a huge box full of Legos, sets, parts, pieces, people, etc. for $15, but I had to convince Mumma PKTear to buy it for me, and by the time I did, someone else picked it up!!! I was so mad!

  6. Mario

    Man this takes me back… I had so much fun with this guy, & his other colored counterparts. It made me so happy to see Lego go somewhere beyond "regular" people.

    Also, because this Show & Tell reminds me of them so much, but does anyone remember the Playmobil Native American figs that McDonalds had for a brief period in like '82. Did I ever kill it with those bad boys!

  7. Motorthing

    Amen Googum – this figure/concept/lego is about the coolest thing EVER and probably got the heaviest play of any toy I ever had as a kid. Best Show and ….so far.

  8. Mark

    I had a load of these figures.

    Lego was amazing…..you literally could build what ever you wanted…if you had enough parts. I remember using one of these figures, in a white suit, and building many a robot, space ship, vehicle and HQ. I also used them for Ghostbusters (even though I had the figures, probably cause I built a Lego Ecto-1) and Star Wars (didn't have many Star Wars figures when I was younger).

    I actually built a really cool robot out of Lego, called him Biotron (back then didn't know about the Micronaut robot with the same name) man he was cool, I had so much fun with him.

    This is an excellent show and tell, brought back so many memories.

  9. Fengschwing

    Possibly the best show and tell yet.

    Excellent.

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