1971 Mattel Sea Devils Catalog
In the 1960s, Mattel had a great deal of success with their “Major Matt Mason” line of toys, but when Neal Armstrong stepped on the moon and discovered nothing, interest in space toys hit new lows.
Mattel logically thought to spin the concept off to a more earth bound concept and created “The Sea Devils” underwater explorers featuring the same bendable body style as Matt had. Leading the expedition was now Commander Chuck Carter and his sidekick Rock Riley as they explored the ocean’s depths.
Sea Devils is something I’ve wanted to feature on PS, mostly because I find it an awesome line of toys and two, it just fell flat on the market and are really hard to find in the secondary market. It’s a shame as they are a great start to what would become a wonderful decade of toys.
More Mattel Action Figures:
I remember having one of these toys when they first came out.If memory serves me right,I had the Chuck Carter figure set. Honestly I had forgotten about them until seeing this post.
Man, I'd never even heard of this line. All I could think was, "They licensed the old Sea Devils DC comic for toys?" But no, it's a separate thing entirely!
I've always been a sucker for underwater toys. Whether it was deep sea diving, treasure hunting, giant octopus or mini subs, if it was bright yellow and went in the water I got it.
These were sadly before my time, my first deep sea toys were the Fisher Price Adventure People. Something you may want to break out and do a spotlight on, since they had a great series of ocean-based toys.
Hey Brian,
I didn't know you had featured the Sea Devils! They are pretty cool. I didn't see these guys or Major Matt Mason when I was a kid, because Matt came out the year I was born and the Sea Devils when I was 5. I discovered them much later via the Internet. Happily, I've gotten 3 Matts in the last few years, and in the last year, I added a Rick Riley. These toys are very cool, and had I had Matt or the Sea Devils when I was a kid, I most certainly would have gone hog-wild over them.
Thanks for featuring them!
Gordon Long
Yeah!!….Sea Devils!!