Sunday 11 July 2010

#192 of 365 Captain Power Power On

It's rare that toys were made for a TV series (as opposed to a cartoon) in the mid 80s.  I mean, we didn't get Star Trek TNG toys until the 90s, so Mattel went out of the way to made this toy, part of which interacted with the TV show.  How cool was that?

Captain Power and the soldiers of the future features a group of military men who were fighting against this evil doctor type dictator figure in a future world where clones have taken over the world.  Hmm... I kid you not, the basic idea of this was ripped off by Lucas 10 years later for Star Wars, Attack of the Clones, although this idea is an embellishment of Battlestar Galactica (the original one, where Starbuck was a guy).

The good guys were led by Captain Power, who had to power up, Japanese style in a secret headquarters.  Mattel decide to make this toy and also threw in a Captain Power figure with the playset.




The red of the box is reminiscent of Masters of the Universe, although then, MotU had black boxes.  The back of the box reminds me a lot of Mattel's other cartoon property from about the same time, Brave Starr.  The box is solid, as can be expected of an 80s-era box, and the cutout with the clear plastic window showcasing Captain Power himself is a nice touch.  Despite the fact that 20 years has passed, that window is still in great shape!


There's not much inside the big box though - the figure, 3 parts to Power on and some decal sheets and Captain Power's weapon.  Now, the figure and his gun is the same as that which is sold individually, and I've already got that, so this will be my second Captain Power figure.


The assembly of the base is easy, it snaps on as expected (and can be disassembled easily as well) and thanks to the 80s era toy construction rules, it's rather sturdy.  There's a peg on the Power On where a figure (and not just Captain Power) can be plugged in.  That's supposed to light up the figure, but I wasn't too keen to hunt for batteries, so I never tried that out.

The figure has a decent level of articulation for and 80s figure, despite the 3.5-inch scale, and the vac metal just shows off the new tech of the mid-80s in action figures.  The gold on the body though is less yellow than my other figure, and seems a bit more faded, and I'm going to guess that it's a function of its age.  The head sculpt is a lot more cartoony than the actual figure in the show, but I like it.


The figure fits in with the rest of the other toys all right.  I'm not so sure about the Power On though.  Sure, I didn't bother applying the decals, which would have jazzed it up a bit.  But it's still made of unpainted plastic, and the holes for the screws are prominently displayed on the front and it seems not only boring, but out of place either.  I guess, as an accessory (and a big one at that, not to mention, the named accessory on the box), it didn't deserve special treatment.  No wonder there were criticisms that the interactive part of the show, was only to sell toys, if the toys were as poorly designed as this Power On.

5 comments:

  1. Nice, retro-review, Nov. I have no previous knowledge of this dude. It was a live-action show?

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  2. LOL, retro-review. This isn't IAT! This is just a review, I'm not going to jazz it up with the word retro. I'm opening a toy for each day of 2010, and a large chunk of the stuff I've got to open are from the 80s and the 90s.

    Yes, it was a live-action show with blue screen (they weren't green back then) effects. The storyline was written by pretty much the same people who wrote He-Man (JMS, Larry Ditilio, etc.)

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  3. I had most of these figures growing up, including the space/jet/things. Mom and Dad saw they were close enough to G.I. JOE size and just figured "He'll like 'em too." They were right. However, we never actually had the show air on TV around here that I can recall, so I was never able to try any of the features. :(

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  4. I like your mom & dad, LJ! They probably showed up on TV there, but at odd times and not at the usual times you'd expect for such a show.

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  5. That's cool, I like the mix of the older stuff. I hope to get to some soon on my blog.

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