MAC Men

MAC Men
"The Mobile Action Command Rescue Team"
By Euphrates

I get asked about these fellows quite a bit and aside from http://www.strafe.com/mac/ there
is very little information about them on the web. They were made by Matchbox from 1974 to
1978 and were similar in articulation to Star Wars and GI Joe figures.

MAC Men were essentially specialty rescue teams. Each set came carded or boxed with a figure
known as the MAC Commander, a few pieces of equipment and the appropriate rescue vehicle.

The most popular playset is the MAC Mountain, sort of a James Bond hideout with three levels
and multiple exits for the wheeled and winged vehicles. All of the figures and accessories
are hard to come by but a complete MAC Mountain is the hardest.

Partial List of Playsets
Commando Challenge
Mobile Van Headquarters
Military Recon Unit
Fire Fighting Vehicle
Emergency Utility Vehicle
Emergency Medical Vehicle
Air Rescue Vehicle
Sea Rescue Vehicle
Police Patrol Unit
Snow Rescue Vehicle
MAC Oceana
MAC Mountain

(I received this E-MAIL from Doug and thought the additional information would
be useful to collectors. Thanks Doug! - Don Thompson)

Just wanted to say THANK YOU for the info you have about MAC (mobile action command). I found
this site from a reply on a message board that the google.com search engine pulled up. Until
now I was never able to find anything about them at all on the net, aside from auction sites.
I still have a ton of the figures and equipment.

I did want to mention that you have the collection listed as being from 1974-1978 and I have
some pieces in my collection that are dated 1973 and I could swear one was dated as 1972.

In the early-mid 80's at one point the "Kaybee" toy outlet started selling some items from
MAC long after the collection dissapeared. These items were mainly the small helicopters and
jeeps (those weird small "vans" were a guy could fit in with a stretcher in the back
laying down). Some came with figures and some didn't. The items were sold in bags stapled to
a small cardboard header. They did not have the name MAC on them at all. They were around
for a very short time then gone. I'm assuming it may have been a "warehouse find" so to speak
so they shipped what was left to the stores.

- Doug