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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Captain Action Ad - 1968

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It's Captain Action, everyone's favorite license-hopping superhero!

In an age where DC and Marvel toys are completely segregated, its neat to recall a time when you could have Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Sgt. Fury, Captain America, The Phantom, Flash Gordon, The Lone Ranger, and Steve Canyon all mixed together like this.

And while this ad for Captain Action and all his various identities is nicely put together, I think Ideal might have done better if they hired Gil Kane, who delivered some gangbuster covers for the DC tie-in series.


By the way--Captain Action is back, in both comic and toy form, which you can learn more about here.

Also, the good Captain is spearheading a voter registration drive, which I think is a fine cause, which you can learn about here. Voter registration is something I bet all the guys--Superman, Batman, Aquaman, The Phantom, Steve Canyon, etc.--would get behind (well, maybe not Steve Canyon).

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just FYI, the art on this one is by Kurt Schaffenberger. He did the art on all the CA comic ads. Murphy Anderson created most of the packaging artwork, Chic Stone drew the mini-comic that came with some toys, and Gil Kane and Wally Wood handled the art chores on the comic. CA had quite an artistic lineage!

The only reason I know all this is Michael Eury's fantastic book "Captain Action:The Original Super Hero Action Figure". It's a great read!

SHAMELESS PLUG DEPT: And if you like Captain Action and Megos, be sure to check out Castaway's CA and Doctor Eville (notice the new spelling. Thanks Mike Myers!) figures. I had a small hand in these, drawing artwork for and designing the packages. They are truely fantastic figures. The Castaway guys have outdone themselves, recreating the duo in the classic Mego 8" scale.

www.castawaytoys.com

Anonymous said...

And a great job you - and David, and Jason, et al. - did, Chris!

(Of course, speaking as a guy who spanned both the classic GI JOE and MEGO eras, it's nice to remember that more inches is better - in a nice way, I mean!)

The CA Yahoo Group is one of the best gangs online:
captainaction@yahoogroups.com

Best,
-(Old Man) Craig W.

Paul Kupperberg said...

I had the original CA when it was out, along with the Superman, Phantom and Captain America costumes (which also fit GI Joe). I wish I still had 'em...

But at least now I get to play with CA in the comic books! I wrote a couple of back-up stories for the new Moonstone Comic title, both set in the early-1960s.

Anonymous said...

I came across a Captain Action Lone Ranger figure MIB about six months ago at a garage sale and my eyes nearly popped out of my head! Then I calmed down some when I realized it was a Playing Mantis version from the 90s(?), and not the original from the 60s. It still looked cool, though.

misterperturbed said...

I just realized I've been following Captain Action on Twitter, Gosh

The Irredeemable Shag said...

Check out this great Captain Action costume from DragonCon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onceuponageek/2827196016/in/set-72157607100094632/

The Irredeemable Shag
http://onceuponageek.com

Doug Hazlewood said...

Aquaman was the first costume set I bought when I got my Capt. Action (my parents told me I could only get one right then...I think it was my birthday). So, out of all of the 'first wave' of characters I chose to get that one.

Ended up with Capt. America, Superman, Batman, Sgt. Fury and had to buy Spidey via the Sears catalog. Sold them all when I was in college. I hated how the accessories melted onto each other (being the rather obsessive type).

Naturally, now I wish I had kept them, but have scrounged up a few odds and ends and lucked out and got a loose doll at a neighborhood garage sale. Got a pretty nice Dr. Evil cheap at an antique store and one off of eBay.