Space-Age Playtime: 10 Beloved 1960s Toys That Fueled Kids’ Cosmic Dreams

As America raced the Soviets to the moon, living-room floors turned into launchpads and backyard swing sets into zero-G simulators. Toy companies seized the public’s sky-high imagination, cranking out gadgets and playsets that let junior astronauts run their own missions before bedtime. These ten classics—spinning, glowing, and beeping with futuristic flair—captured the optimism of the Space Age and still spark nostalgia that’s truly out of this world.

Major Matt Mason Action Figure

Introduced by Mattel in 1966, Major Matt Mason arrived in a flexible “space suit” of white vinyl, complete with oxygen pack and tether lines. Rubber-jointed limbs let kids pose him on lunar rovers, jet packs, and a towering Space Crawler accessory. Because NASA advisers helped shape the line, the figure felt scientifically plausible—encouraging children to daydream about real life on the moon rather than Buck Rogers fantasy.

Johnny Astro Gravity Game

Remco’s 1967 Johnny Astro was equal parts toy and tabletop science lesson. A concealed fan beneath the console created an invisible air column that let players “fly” a Styrofoam satellite around cardboard planets. With careful joystick tweaks, kids could slingshot the orb into orbit or land it softly—an elegant demonstration of lift, thrust, and gravitational pull that made after-school physics strangely addictive.

G.I. Joe Mercury Astronaut Edition

Hasbro transformed its rugged soldier into a NASA hero in 1967, swapping fatigues for a silvery Mercury capsule suit. Accessories ranged from oxygen umbilicals to a miniature Friendship 7 capsule, encouraging reenactments of John Glenn’s real-world mission. The pivot kept the franchise fresh and proved that space heroics could be marketed just as boldly as battlefield bravery.

Zeroids Robotic Space Army

Ideal’s battery-powered Zeroids (1967) marched across kitchen linoleum, their clear domes revealing chrome gears that whirred like something straight from Cape Canaveral. Each robot—Zobor, Zintar, and Zerak—boasted a unique tool arm and came packaged with “space debris” obstacles to shove aside. The implicit message: the future belongs to robots, and you, kiddo, get to command them.

Give-A-Show Projector: NASA Slide Packs

The Give-A-Show handheld slide projector had debuted earlier, but its late-’60s NASA expansion packs rocketed popularity. Dim the lights, click through Kodachrome frames of Gemini launches and lunar surface panoramas, and suddenly the bedroom wall became Houston’s Mission Control. Many budding engineers credit those grainy images for their lifelong obsession with rocket science.

Wham-O Air Blaster (a.k.a. “Astro Blaster”)

Released in 1965, Wham-O’s Air Blaster fired invisible doughnut-shaped air rings that could snuff out a candle six feet away. Marketed as the “Astro Blaster” in some catalogs, it let children “shoot” photon torpedoes without leaving plastic darts under the sofa. The silent shock-wave technology felt like genuine sci-fi wizardry—yet all you were really launching was compressed living-room air.

Revell Apollo Saturn V Model Kit

Revell’s 1:144-scale Saturn V kit came out just before Apollo 11’s 1969 launch. Standing three feet tall when assembled, the multipart rocket separated into authentic stages, complete with an LEM tucked inside the third stage. Building and painting the 200-plus pieces gave hobbyists a tactile understanding of how humanity’s most complex machine actually worked.

Marx Moon Base Playset

Louis Marx & Co. unveiled its sprawling Moon Base in 1962, a molded-plastic landscape dotted with domed habitats, rocket gantries, and tiny astronauts wielding “lunar drills.” Unlike many space toys, it arrived in sober grays and whites rather than bright pulp-fiction colors, mirroring NASA’s functional aesthetic and reinforcing a sense of realism over fantasy.

Hoppity Hop “Space Hopper” Ball

More playground than playroom, the Hoppity Hop debuted in 1968 with antenna-like handles and marketing copy promising “moon-bounce fun.” Kids gripping the orange orb’s handles could bound down sidewalks in low-gravity imitation. Parents saw an energy outlet; children felt like Neil Armstrong with each elastic leap.

View-Master Space Exploration Reels

Stereoscopic View-Master reels featuring Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions arrived throughout the decade. Peering into the red plastic viewer, youngsters gazed at 3-D images of astronauts suiting up, boosters roaring skyward, and Earthrise over the moon’s rim. Those tiny Kodachrome frames provided the most immersive look at space before high-definition television existed.