The Outer Space Men!

The Outer Space Men!
Synopsis of Toy

In 1968, the Colorform company made a bold attempt at cracking the action figure market with a set of seven bendable rubber "Outer Space Men," each named after a different planet in Earth's solar system. Although the toy line was not initially successful, the innovative and fantastical design made lasting impressions on those children who owned them. Much like Star Trek, their popularity only grew after cancellation, and Colorform Aliens are now one of the more expensive toys to collect, a fact made even more acute because of the toy’s somewhat fragile elements.

Encased in the rubber at the limbs and neck, Colorform Aliens were fitted with stiff lead wires that allowed for a semi-permanent articulation of the figure's body. Unfortunately, as many sad, sad children discovered, the more posing effected on the figure, the more the internal wires had a tendency to bend out of shape or, worse yet, break—rendering the Outer Space Man a hopeless, gimpy mess.

The design of Colorform Aliens both on the packaging and the figure itself was indisputably one of their coolest features. Colorful, space age motifs combined with the tantalizing elements of mythology, science fiction and obscured lines of good vs. evil (who was to say which Alien was the hero and which was the villain?) made for an especially alluring toy. Several of the figures, such as Alpha 7 The Man From Mars, had permanently fixed colored plastic bubble space helmets around their heads, which instantly and mysteriously made them highly coveted. That is, with the exception of Commander Comet—the only human looking figure in the bunch—who was apparently just too white bread to be cool. Even with the space helmet.

Many kids spent fruitless hours trying to complete their collection of Colorform Aliens. Several of the original sets of figures were produced in such low quantities as to make them nearly impossible to attain. These were invariably the best figures and the ones that only your most hated schoolyard enemies owned. Of course, this made it necessary for you to humiliate yourself by making alliances with kids whom you normally feared and despised, just to get your hands on their sweet, sweet Colorform Aliens.

Colorform planned a second set of figures called The World of the Future, which was unfortunately never mass produced and now only exists in the hands of collectors rich or crazy enough to pay the exorbitant prices these rare prototype units fetch. Instead of more figures, the company produced a few puzzles and a traditional Colorform set based on both the original figures and the never-produced second line of aliens. The Colorform set is worth having just to look at the hauntingly rad images of the figures you could never buy.

Although Colorform Aliens were innovative and eventually enjoyed a nearly pagan-like popularity among those who owned them at one time or another, the Colorform company never again tried to make action figures.
Release History of Toy
1968 - The Outer Space Men
Alpha 7 The Man from Mars with Laser Pistol and Helmet
Astro-Nautilus The Man from Neptune with Trident
Electron+ The Man from Pluto with Laser Pistol and Helmet
Colossus Rex The Man from Jupiter with Mace
Commander Comet The Man from Venus with Crossbow, Wings and Helmet
Orbitron The Man from Uranus with Weapon
Xodiac The Man from Saturn with Weapon

Unreleased - The World of the Future
Cyclops Giant from Beyond the Milky Way with Weapons, Helmet and Armor
Gamma-X The Man from the 4th Dimension with Weapon
Gemini The Man from Twin Star Algol with Helmet, Septre and Weapon
Inferno The Flame Man of Mercury with Weapon
Metamorpho The Man from Alpha Centauri with Accessories
Mystron The Man from Hollow Earth with Septre and Helmet

Related Accessories
1977 - Set of Four 250 Pc. Space Warriors Puzzles
1977 - Colorforms Space Warriors Adventure Set
Multiple Series of Minatures

Everyone always speaks with a hint of jealous when talking about the youth of the 60s. All this carefree, promiscuous sex. All those carefree, who-cares-if-they-kill-me drugs. For a dramatic twist, all the riots, dangerous protests and war woes are romanticized, but rest assured, there's been no teen generation since who didn't wish they could grow up in that decade. Still, it wasn't just the teens and twenty-something who got to enjoy such beautiful and bohemian experiences back then. Even the kids were having fun. They weren't taking drugs or fucking each other, but they had some of the coolest toys of the whole damn century.

Colorforms, the company best known today for their colossal army of scenic cardboard backdrops and paper-thin plastic cartoon character dolls, tried to stake a claim in the era's action figure boom. Toy lines like G.I. Joe spawned a seemingly endless spinoff string of boy-version Barbie dolls, all of which needed to come equipped either with a rifle, a bayonet, or one of those extra-cool man-killing weapons that combined a rifle and a bayonet together. There were few 'pansy' boy toys back then. The only way a male child was gonna own any pink action figures is if the toys' painted-on blood lightened in the sunlight. All the toys seemed almost 'macho.' I guess it took a few decades for the men in the world to become in touch with their feminine side just enough to allow their sons to play with action figures that didn't have any connotations to murder, boxing, or the armed forces. Though Colorforms' figures fit the stereotype, I have to admit that they're way more fun than Sweet Secrets dolls.





Written/Created by: Matt
Originally posted on 1/23/03.

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Everyone always speaks with a hint of jealous when talking about the youth of the 60s. All this carefree, promiscuous sex. All those carefree, who-cares-if-they-kill-me drugs. For a dramatic twist, all the riots, dangerous protests and war woes are romanticized, but rest assured, there's been no teen generation since who didn't wish they could grow up in that decade. Still, it wasn't just the teens and twenty-something who got to enjoy such beautiful and bohemian experiences back then. Even the kids were having fun. They weren't taking drugs or fucking each other, but they had some of the coolest toys of the whole damn century.

Colorforms, the company best known today for their colossal army of scenic cardboard backdrops and paper-thin plastic cartoon character dolls, tried to stake a claim in the era's action figure boom. Toy lines like G.I. Joe spawned a seemingly endless spinoff string of boy-version Barbie dolls, all of which needed to come equipped either with a rifle, a bayonet, or one of those extra-cool man-killing weapons that combined a rifle and a bayonet together. There were few 'pansy' boy toys back then. The only way a male child was gonna own any pink action figures is if the toys' painted-on blood lightened in the sunlight. All the toys seemed almost 'macho.' I guess it took a few decades for the men in the world to become in touch with their feminine side just enough to allow their sons to play with action figures that didn't have any connotations to murder, boxing, or the armed forces. Though Colorforms' figures fit the stereotype, I have to admit that they're way more fun than Sweet Secrets dolls.

They were called The Outer Space Men, a line of truly inspired and very unique alien characters each representing a different planet in our solar system. We're not talking about you're typical little green men with bulging black eyes. The Outer Space Men featured characters that were half-octopus, characters with two heads, characters with ape faces, and even characters from the fourth dimension. This was serious stuff. I honestly have no idea how rare these guys are today, but considering the time frame and how highly sought figures of this type generally are, I'd bet that they cost somewhere in the realm of sixty-five trillion dollars a piece. And double that if packaged. So, while none of us who were born too late to experience them the first time can afford to try it out now, at least we can look at the pretty pictures and wonder what it would've been like to chew their tiny plastic fingers off one by one like Larry Drake from Darkman.

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So, before I go off into a fifth preliminary paragraph, which is rather pointless since 88% of you probably skip all this 'hi how are you' bullshit and move right towards the paragraphs under a colorful picture, today's article is my tribute to all thirteen figures created for Colorforms' The Outer Space Men series. I'd promise not to play favorites, but I'm a sucker for Saturn. And I've got a thing for Uranus. OH HO HO HAAAAA. Uranus jokes are so retro.

Though I scanned the packaged-toy pics, I should thank this fansite for some of the other pics and loads of great info on the line. If you like what you see here, go there next. And then after that, ride a pony.


COMMANDER COMET: There's two things about Commander Comet that makes me believe he's the closest thing to the line's hero character. First and most obviously, he received the 'commander' moniker. It's hard to argue with concrete salutations like that. More importantly though, Commander Comet is the only one in the set who's even remotely close to looking human. I mean sure, he's got his head stuck in a fishbowl and he flies around using angel wings, but other than that this guy could've been your next door neighbor. Unfortunately, Commander Comet doesn't represent Earth - none of the figures do. No, apparently, this guy's the heavenly ambassador from Venus. Comet comes dressed in a gold spacesuit, and the figure appears to be sucking in its stomach to hide its beer gut during the promotional photo shoot. Colorforms maintains that Commander Comet is a direct descendent of Zeus, but offers no proof to support such claims.


ALPHA 7: Alpha 7, the man from Mars, is the only one of the Outer Space Men who really looks the part. Almost all accounts of alien abductions taken from trailer whores and X-Files fan clubs paint a picture of extraterrestrial like appearing not unlike Alpha 7. The only real difference is that Alpha is much shorter, almost like a prepubescent baby alien who doesn't even know how to administer alien ass probe tests yet. The figure looks cool, but it's just way too much smaller than the others to be a favorite. I understand the need to mix things up a bit, but we're talking about a pretty big size difference here - some of the others are nearly three times Alpha's size. It seems like a gyp, but now I'm remembering that all action figures cost like thirty-nine cents each back then anyway. Who gives a shit? He was still a good deal. Like Comet Commander, Alpha 7 subscribes to the theory that you're not an alien unless you've got a goldfish tank on your head.


COLOSSUS REX: Colossus Rex hails from Jupiter, and shares his home planet's penchant for being really, really large. Looking sort of like an android version of that nasty Creature from the Black Lagoon, Colossus' bio-card mentions that he's an explorer, not a conqueror. I'm not sure I believe that, though. Shoulders don't get that broad unless someone's planning to start some trouble. The biography also mentions that he's invincible - totally impervious to pain. He's obviously never been forced to sit through that episode of Coach where the doctor tells Hayden that all those post-game whirlpool baths did a serious number on his sperm count.


XODIAC: I'm not sure how you pronounce that. Is it like 'Zodiac,' or maybe 'Chrisodiac?' See, that's why this line should've had an accompanying cartoon. They could've staged an intergalactic phone conversation between Commander Comet and Xodiac so the toy-buying public would know how to pronounce the guy's name when asking the staff if he was in stock. Xodiac represents my favorite planet, Saturn. His bio-card is marred by ridiculously obscure vocabulary words that were discontinued in the late-70s, but I think they were trying to say that he was the smartest of the Outer Space Men. I hope that's true, because he ain't gonna win any trophies with that physique. Xodiac is pencil thin throughout his entire body, with the only thing retaining a width larger than a tenth of a centimeter being his huge, red, ghastly head. I don't get the impression that Xodiac was one of the top players, which saddens me. Saturn deserved someone a little cooler. Why couldn't the gold lifeguard with the angel wings come from here instead of Venus? It ain't fair.


ORBITRON: Orbitron looks a lot like the famous Meluna Mutant, in fact seemingly too much so to be a coincidence. Then again, maybe it's not such a stretch for two completely different minds to hatch up an alien character with brains on the outside of their skulls. Orbitron comes from Uranus. You know, in typing that last sentence, I'm really starting to see the benefits in doing audiotape versions of these articles. As a figure, Orbitron is rather boring. He's got a skinny, bland body free of any creative juice, and a head that makes him look more like an inside-out pimp than something truly otherworldly. On the plus side, he might have the best name out of all the figures. But cool names won't win you any hearts unless you're currently looking for that special someone on the Love@AOL message boards. Orbitron sucks, just like a man from Uranus should.


ASTRO-NAUTILUS: Astro-Nautilus is probably the most inspired figure in the series. Admittedly, it wasn't a huge leap of faith to create an ocean-inspired monster coming from the planet Neptune, but it's so rare that the world becomes graced with the presence of action figures that are half-astronaut, half-octopus. No, it's actually even better than that. While a first glance suggests this guy as an octopus, he's really based on an even neater sea creature, the nautilus. What a shock, right? I mean, the only preliminary clue about that was the fact that they repeat the word 'nautilus' in its entirety in the character's name. I apologize for my temporary fall from grace, it's been a long night. According to his bio, Nautilus is one of the 'Triton people,' who secretly landed on Earth to inhabit its oceans. For further validity on that, I remember reading the same thing in my sixth grade social studies textbook.


ELECTRON-X: Pluto's entry into The Outer Space Men is one of my faves, mixing elements from classic aliens to The Wizard of Oz's Tin Man. Research reveals that Electron-X and others of his kind are actually made up of pure energy. That means he's the only toy in history who can keep up with the trendsetting, ultra-quick breakbeats in Darren's Dance Grooves. I'm more concerned with his cool purple head and that weird button in the middle of his chest which probably makes him explode. For added mystique, Electron-X comes with a gun so perfectly shaped like a dick that I can't believe it's not meant to be just that. Come on, it's not impossible that the guys on other worlds have removable dicks. And let's not discount the benefits of that, either. I know I'd take mine off before going to a funeral, because god forbid you get hard at one of those things. There's just no way to justify it no matter how much you try. I'm jealous of Electron-X. I have removable-penis envy.

That's the first series of Outer Space Men figures, and the only ones who ever hit the toy stores. The second series could be viewed on the packaging and in catalogs, but they never made it onto the shelves. Still, they're really interesting characters and since there's enough info out there to confirm their existence, I'm including them with this tribute. Just keep in mind that there's no way you could actually buy these figures. I love crushing your spirit.


INFERNO: Finally, someone from Mercury. The hottest planet gets the hottest figure, as Inferno was said to be composed of living fire that burned forever. Of course, the dumb idiot conceals all that cool stuff with a dumb gray spacesuit. If I was made of fire, I wouldn't hide it with all that crap. That's the kind of thing you'd want to show off. Inferno was to be released with a light-up head, and was surrounded by a background 'mane' of plastic flames. Now that all the planets besides Earth were covered, the remaining figures represented odder corners of the universe...


CYCLOPS: You'll love this one - a giant, one-eyed troll from the Milky Way. Cyclops seems to be the godlike entity of the series, supposedly the most powerful of all the figures. Too bad he's got one eye. That decreases his property value more than having a neighbor who paints daily greetings to the street on the side of his house using dark brown liquefied horse shit. The figure would've came with various extra sets of armor, and he ended up having more accessories than anyone else in the set. I guess Colorforms didn't think a one-eyed bull-man was enough to inspire sales on its own. They underestimate us.


GEMINI: If Gemini would've been released, I'm positive he'd have been every kid's favorite. Coming from the 'twin star Algol' or some shit, Gemini is the only figure that had two heads. And best of all, they're really great heads. Elongated, bulgy green heads. He would've had the coolest torso area even with one of those heads, but with two? He's a pure treasure. They so should license these guys out for a re-release. Even if they just sold a few hundred thousand in comic book stores with inflated prices, I think they'd do pretty well. If there was Gemini figure laying out in the middle of the street, I don't believe there's a person in the world who wouldn't pick him up and take him home after coming across it. Gemini figures could've easily replaced those collision ball sets as the desk toy of the century.


GAMMA-X: Gamma-X comes from the 'fourth dimension,' and they tried to illustrate that by affixing translucent plastic parts on the figure, making it look like it's JUMPIN' RIGHT OFF THE PACKAGE AND INTO YOUR MIND. The bio-cards for the would-be second series were somehow even more ridiculous than the first set. When referring to Gamma-X's powers of switching between the 3rd and 4th dimensions, they use terminology that makes a Sly Stallone interview read like Grover's There's A Monster At The End Of This Book. Gamma-X's super power was said to be the ability to walk through walls and other solid objects. I still don't think that's anywhere near as cool as Commander Comet's angel wings. But in Gamma-X's defense, I really don't think anything is as cool as Commander Comet's angel wings. They remind me of the first time I received the Body of Christ. I thought it tasted like those containers McDonald's shoves their breakfast value meals into.


MYSTRON: Mystron is from Hollow Earth, which is a lot like Regular Earth, only hollow. I guess that Hollow Earth's mantle is made up of packing peanuts, with the crust being a huge mass of crinkled-up newspaper. As a figure, Mystron doesn't hold a candle to his compatriots. There's nothing particularly 'special' about him, unless you count the head's vague resemblance to a giant vampire bat. While that's cool, it's not enough to pull him out of the series' Loser Pile. That aside, the back stories of these characters were pretty interesting. I don't think they were based on any existing lore, and it's surprising that they didn't at least try to get a comic book out of the license. Actually, it's pretty surprising that the line itself wasn't more popular than it was. The figures were terrific, and they came out in a time where there was a huge interest in anything having to do with UFOs. I guess Colorforms just didn't know how to market 'em. They should've paid a skywriter to decree their greatness over the football field during the 1970 Superbowl.


METAMORPHO: Metamorpho hails from Alpha Centauri, which I'm pretty sure is located just outside San Diego. His gimmick is the ability to mimic the appearance of any creature he meets, so the figure was able to switch between a few different alien faces. If that wasn't enough for you, he also came with two count 'em two intoxicating laser rayguns. Kind of looks a guy with elephantiasis of the head shoved into a Stormtrooper outfit, but the face-switching feature set the template for many action figures to come.

The Outer Space Men are almost forgotten today, the remaining figures being far too rare for a lot of people to collect. Despite that, I'd have to consider them about as perfect an action figure series as they come, combining every great and necessary element to create one of the most interesting, colorful, and fun series of toys I've ever seen. I've always thought of my generation as the ones who got the really cool toys, but even going back 15-20 years earlier, these were even better. I suppose I'd be more upset about it if I wasn't about to turn 24. I'm practically biting off my Lee Press-Ons with frustration, here.


They were called The Outer Space Men, a line of truly inspired and very unique alien characters each representing a different planet in our solar system. We're not talking about you're typical little green men with bulging black eyes. The Outer Space Men featured characters that were half-octopus, characters with two heads, characters with ape faces, and even characters from the fourth dimension. This was serious stuff. I honestly have no idea how rare these guys are today, but considering the time frame and how highly sought figures of this type generally are, I'd bet that they cost somewhere in the realm of sixty-five trillion dollars a piece. And double that if packaged. So, while none of us who were born too late to experience them the first time can afford to try it out now, at least we can look at the pretty pictures and wonder what it would've been like to chew their tiny plastic fingers off one by one like Larry Drake from Darkman.

When I was a kid there were lots of really cool toys but my favorite was a toy line called The Outer Space Men which was manufactured by Colorforms. I loved those toys… they were bendable action figures and each came from a different planet in our solar system. they were suppsoed to work in conjunction with Major Matt Mason another favorite of mine. My favorite alien was Colossus Rex the Man from Jupiter but Alpha 7 was a close second place too. Below is some stuff I found on the web about them. They don’t make toys like this any more fellas. In fact with video games action figures don’t even really anymore because kids don’t seem to want to have to imagine if they can have it done for them. Sad. In 30 years will there even be people who come up with original materials? Anyway check out The Outer Space Men! Cool stuff!
Alpha 7 The Man From MarsThe smallest of the aliens, he has a clear blue plastic helmet and a pistol. Alpha is the quintessential “little green man” He is finished in blue metallic paint. There are two variations, the dark blue paint seen here, and a lighter blue.Far below the surface of the dying planet Mars, the descendants of a once great race live on. Above them the majestic cities have long since crumbled and the vast canals lie buried beneath a silent sea of rust red sand. With time and water running out, Alpha 7 and the other members of the Martian armada travel the galaxy in search of a suitable planet to make their own. Their frequent reconnaissance missions and landings on our Earth have given rise to what most earth men consider “wild” stories of “flying saucers” and “little green men”.


Alpha 7
Astro Nautalis The Man From NeptuneThe rarest of the aliens, he comes with a trident. He appears to be a rough approximation of a squid or octopus, give or take a limb. Deep beneath the stormy seas of Neptune, great cities loom majestically in the shimmering twilight of a vast and beautiful water world. Here the mighty Triton people live. Not content to see the sun as but a glimmer and the stars as tiny ripples floating on the surface of the sea above, Astro Nautilus and his band of Triton mariners venture forth to sail and chart that greater ocean, Outer Space. Often visiting our planet they land, secretly, without all human knowledge, in the very depths of Earth’s great oceans.


Astro Nautalis
Commander Comet The Man From VenusThe only alien with a human appearance, he has a clear pink plastic helmet, white plastic wings and a brown crossbow. The commander is a cross between an astronaut and cupid. He was originally painted gold, but with time fades to a greenish color.From Olympus, largest of the great cloud cities of Venus, the mighty cloud ship Cumulus sets forth. Like a fiery comet it blazes through the blackness of outer space toward Earth. Its captain, Commander Comet, is a direct descendant of the mighty Zeus, leader of the historic first Venusian expedition to Earth, which landed near the Grecian Isles 3,000 years ago. Commander Comet’s present mission is one of routine Earth surveillance, and once within the atmosphere of Earth, his ship will join the great fleet of Venusian craft that float like clouds above our planet night and day, watching undetected over our world.


Commander Comet
Electron + The Man From Pluto1950’s movie style android with clear purple plastic helmet, amber jewel in his chest and sidearm. He has a benign almost angelic expression. He is gray rubber, painted silver.The cold and desolate planet Pluto is too far from the sun to derive its heat and, thus, the very atmosphere lies frozen and life as we know it cannot exist. But there, at the very edge of our solar system, the great Intergalactic Winds that blow between the stars carry with them great masses of cosmic energy. In the beginning, this living energy bombarding the frozen planet did itself freeze to become living matter and, thus, a mighty race of beings began. Created of energy, they can become energy at will and Electron +, from his laboratory in Electra City, can transport himself throughout the universe as a beam of light.


Electron
Orbiron The Man From Uranus (No Jokes, Please)Do you remember the Metaluna Mutant from “This Island Earth”? Orbitron has a clear red pistol. Orange with brown accents.
From the barren mountains of Uranus great waves of thought reach out through the blackness of outer space probing the universe. Thus, Orbitron and the men of Uranus search the stars seeking the lost knowledge of the Ancient Ones. On great ships they travel to the farthest reaches of our galaxy and beyond. Able to read the minds of men, they have collected the learning of a thousand worlds, and yet they go on searching in a never ending quest to learn that which it has been ordained no man shall ever know.


Orbitron
Colossus Rex The Man From Jupiter Large, knurled, and for some reason, aquatic. Comes with translucent purple mace. The mace has a small loop at the end to facilitate his holding it. Green rubber with aqua metallic paint and purple shorts.
From the huge red spot near the equator of the giant planet Jupiter, a great ship travels forth. On board is the mighty warrior, Colossus Rex, strongest of the strong. The colossal strength needed merely to survive the crushing pressure of the atmosphere and enormous force of gravity on his native Jupiter make him a veritable superman on other worlds. Invulnerable to attack, invincible in battle, brute strength alone is his only weapon. Yet no power in the galaxy can defeat him. We hope his mission is merely to explore the universe and not to conquer it.


Colossus Rex
Xodiac The Man From SaturnXodiac has clear orange accessories including a helmet, staff and pistol. The staff is fragile and easily broken. There is a saturn logo on his chest. He is orange fluorescent rubber with dark blue metallic paint.Saturn is the most beautiful of all the planets. Its symmetrical rings give it a matchless grace and there is nothing like them anywhere else in the solar system. Constructed and placed in orbit by the Elders, millenniums ago, they give the people of Saturn complete mastery over the forces of gravity on their planet. Thus, all work is done by perpetual motion and men can fly above their world in great machines tuned to the frequency of the rings. Freed from manual labor, the men of Saturn have developed great wisdom and the wisest among them is Xodiac. It is said of him that he can tune his staff to play upon the great rings; the music of the spheres resounding throughout the universe to be heard by wise men everywhere.

I seem to remember the packages looking different where sold these toys at Renals.