Captain Action the 9-Lives-In-One Action Hero!

The Original Captain Action, 1967. Captain Action, TM & © Captain Action Enterprises.

Captain Action was frankly, the world’s coolest action figure of the ‘60s, even with all the competition. He was a comics lover dream who could change into Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger (and Tonto, but you need two Caps to have the set!), Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt Fury, Steve Canyon and the Green Hornet (whew!). Cap was Ideal Toys’ answer to GI Joe and in fact, had the same guy behind him; an unsung idea man named Stan Weston. It was Stan who first came to Hasbro's Creative Director Don Levine in 1963 with the idea of an articulated soldier figure. Don and his Hasbro team took the concept and ran with it, making a huge splash in the toy pool with GI Joe. Merrill Hassenfeld the Hasbro CEO offered Stan a choice; he could take a lump sum of 75,000 upfront, or a 1% royalty on the Joe line. At this time, the life of the average toy line was only a few years, then it was off to the warehouses, basements, and attics of forgotten amusements. Weston thought 75,000 was an odd figure. He countered with a 100,000. The deal was done. Turns out, Stan probably missed out on millions.

Stan took his settlement and started his own licensing company, representing DC Comics (then known as National Periodical Publications), Marvel Comics, and King Features.

Stan's company, Leisure Concepts, took the idea of a new 12 in articulated action figure (NOT a doll, thank you) to Ideal, who was looking for an answer to GI Joe. Stan proposed Captain Magic, a many-in-one hero, who could adopt the guise of several heroes (all of whom, it just so happened to turn out, were represented by Leisure Concepts!) The name was changed to Captain Action (to point out the potential ACTION inherent in the toy). The figure hit the market in 1966, part of a wave trying to get some of that ‘Joe’ magic.

Cap had a rather sad and worried expression (looking a little like George H.W. Bush) and more detailed musculature than Joe. The original wave included Cap in his blue and black uniform, with a lightning sword, and ray gun, and separate Superman, Batman, Lone Ranger, Phantom, Flash Gordon, Captain America, Sgt Fury, Steve Canyon, and Aquaman costumes (with assorted accessories), the next wave added Buck Rogers, Green Hornet, and Tonto, with a Blue Lone Ranger variation (collect them all!),

Cap proved popular enough to come back the next year in an expanded line, this time with a sidekick, Action Boy, and a mortal enemy, the blue-skinned, exposed-brain Nehru jacket-wearing bug-eyed alien Dr. Evil. He also picked up a sweet ride in the Silver Streak, a two-foot-long amphibian car with missile launchers! Added to the line as well were several sets meant to be used by Captain Action in his Captain Action identity. Cap got a four-foot working parachute, a jet mortar, a jet pack, weapons arsenal, and a Chic Stone drawn comic. This signaled an attempt by Ideal to build the line and focus on Cap as a hero in his own right, rather than a base figure for other heroes.

DC Comics also caught the wave, putting out five issues of Captain Action, by Jim Shooter, Gil Kane, and Wally Wood. They named him ‘Clive Arno’ (one of the more unusual alter-ego names) and completely dropped the many-in-one concept. It was a fun, well-drawn, and written book (Gil Kane was very proud of his work on it), but didn’t outlive the toy line.

The line declined in sales into 1968 when Ideal shut it down. It was a confusing second wave; was Caption Action meant to be his own hero? When why the disguises? It was a two-and-a-half-year run (not that bad in the world of toys), but Captain Action, Action Boy, and the evil Doctor Evil are among the most fondly remembered (and expensive!) action figures of the 1960s

Funny, though, you could still find the good Captain popping up all through the 70s. The leftover uniforms and boots would turn up on cheap knockoff figures from China (where the original Cap was cast and assembled) and Ideal used the original body molds once again to rush a Star Wars ‘inspired’ toy to the market, The Knights of Darkness. Cap collectors bought the figure (cast in black plastic) and used the hands to replace the often-missing hands of the vintage figures. Oh, and complained about what a rip-off the new figure was. George Lucas sued btw but lost because the figure was made up of previously released parts.

Captain Action was revived in 1998 by retro toy company Playing Mantis. Captain Action returned as the Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Green Hornet, and Kato (finally!) once again on the shelves as well as Dr. Evil as, Dr. Evil (and Ming the Merciless). The line met lackluster sales, and a retooling had the costumes issued separately with vintage-style long boxes and a revived Action Boy (now called ‘Kid Action’) and the addition of retro long box packaging. It made little difference. The second coming of Captain Action went in 2000.

But wait, there’s more!

You can’t keep a good Captain down. In 2005, Cap fans Joe Ahern and Ed Catto bought the rights and formed Captain Action Enterprises. Since picking up the license, Joe and Ed have issued a redesigned Cap figure (making him look a bit less worried) with new Marvel costumes and new variants like Arctic Adventure Captain Action, with even smaller versions of the classic version of Cap and Dr. Evil, also with variants. That’s not counting a new comic book series from Moonstone Comics, a series of novels, a card game, and special exclusive offers made to the Captain Action list.

The Captain and Kid Action are ready to launch themselves back into action at any second. They’re just waiting for the call.