So, is the Round 2 Captain Action line officially dead?

[enyawd72]

At this point I'm assuming no more Marvel sets are coming and DC is never going to happen. Is that correct?

[MIB41]

The ONLY 1/6th scale figure the company is actively promoting is the $200 Barbie doll in tights, " Lady Action". That's on pre-order. As far as Captain Action, they continue to work with their unsold overstock and repackage him in different boxes and then charge you more than double the last retail price for the effort (see link below). I know they're working with Go Hero and Executive Replicas to try and make a high-end variation of him as well. But no, the line as we know it is currently dead.

http://www.stewartsattic.com/catalog/page2.cfm?categoryid=15&subcategoryid=108&prodsubtitle=New%20Action%20Figures

[The Batman Professor]

Deader than Julius Caesar. Sad, but at least we got IRON MAN, something I've wanted since 1967.

[PNGwynne]

It breaks my heart how this line was mis-managed--I would have been in for the long haul and deeply wanted more foes & DC characters.

Even Playing mantis fared better IMO, I suppose I was more partial to their retro style.

[Robin NY]

Have they announced that they will no longer produce the retro style line?? I spoke with them at NYCC and they said they weren't giving up and might just do direct sales. If the line is dead Im disappointed since I think they did some terrific stuff with Thor and Iron-Man, would have love to have seen their take on a sixties style Doc Doom

[drquest]

I feel Round 2 is out of the Captain Action business, but CAE is still moving forward with premium 1/6 scale and 4" and other interests with other manufacturers but those are geared towards the core Captain Action figures rather than the costumes it seems.

Sad the DC licenses were never produced.

[MIB41]

I think this last venture really proved two things - One, the modern consumer has no interest (nor completely understands) dressing up a generic figure that is not the actual secret identity of popular heroes in comics and movies; and two, as much as CAE wants to make the Captain his own brand, there's even less interest and understanding for that. Captain Action is very much a generational concept.

When this figure originally came out, there was only one market for action figures and that was GI JOE. Ideal took that idea of dress up and simply converted it to superhero costumes. But where GI Joe got it's business done by being BOTH figure AND adventure gear, the Captain really was overshadowed by the popular licensed costumes. Ideal never really flushed him out conceptually to make sense outside of just being a glorified host for these popular heroes, so kids really only wanted the costumes. And to be honest, that's how Ideal marketed the figure. The "9 in 1" figure pretty much summed up the generic angle of Captain Action (if not his name as well). He was ONE figure who could become ALL of these heroes. THAT was the gimmick, so it was hard to argue his relevance when he became Batman, Superman, or even the Phantom by a simple costume switch.

Ultimately I think that's the lesson that keeps getting replayed in each generation that has re-experienced him. We live in a marketplace that gives us these superheroes in high-end detail or cheaper retro fashion for that push of figures that came after Ideal mothballed Captain Action. So there's not really any kind of pent up demand for something that was barely a blip on the map when it was introduced. And I believe the initial popularity it received really came from the licensed costumes, since there was no other company feeding that demand for superhero figures (Mego took care of that a few years later). I lived through those years so I understand it pretty well.

And I get the people who liked him on his own merits. I liked him too, and like him still (but as a nostalgic toy from my childhood). It goes without saying, we're a very small group of consumers. And this idea of making costumes for 1/6th scale figures that MUST meet proportional scales exactly is a total waste of time these days. That's not really possible based on the original idea, so it's a hard sell for modern audiences that have an expectation well beyond what kids of the 60's had. So while I admire they determination to go ahead and take a last stab by making him a high-end figure, we all know that concept is dead on arrival. For all my love of the Captain, even I won't pay a $200 price tag on something that at the $20.00 price point was suppose to already have a body influenced by that upper echelon of figures. If people were scratching their heads at $20.00, I think they'll be completely baffled at the $200 asking price. Conceptually it's a dog that keeps chasing it's own tail. The makers want Captain Action to stand on his own in a way his history has shown just doesn't translate.

[drquest]

I'm with you, and even though Barbie can seem to support the dressing up concept, it's probably a 1960's thing. It's hard to get past the "here's the costume and you still need to buy a figure" conversation with parents and kids of today.

[MIB41]

I'm with you, and even though Barbie can seem to support the dressing up concept, it's probably a 1960's thing. It's hard to get past the "here's the costume and you still need to buy a figure" conversation with parents and kids of today.

Well said. That also underscores the biggest contradiction this last effort couldn't get around - Buying a figure for EVERY costume. The heritage of Captain Action never supported that idea since he was originally the "9 in 1 hero". And with the new era of 1/6th scale bodies stacked up by other endless figure lines, too many consumers simply bought the costumes and bypassed the pricey Captain entirely. Can you imagine anything different occurring if CAE tries to make elaborate hero costumes for their $200 version? The incentive to stay away will be even greater. So it's a concept with a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[jacoblb]

Saw a new item today at the Action Figure Insider website. I look forward to to the reveal. http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/t...on-footlocker/

[rche]

My son uses an old Joe footlocker to hold his CA stuff in. Not a bad idea; might be a little late, tho.

[enyawd72]

Saw a new item today at the Action Figure Insider website. I look forward to to the reveal. http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/t...on-footlocker/

Wow. Talk about a day late and a dollar short.
Here's a wood box painted blue with Captain Action's picture on it to hold all the great costume sets we're never gonna make!
I still can't believe they paid for the DC license and never even used it.

[thunderbolt]

like that's ever going to get to production. Besides, Hasbro's lawyers might have fun with that.

[enyawd72]

like that's ever going to get to production.

I can just see these guys standing in line at Pat Catan's with a cartload of wooden craft boxes and blue paint. Then it's off to Staples to get some color copies made that they can glue to the box top. VIOLA! New product!

[thunderbolt]

and then who's buying it? They can't sell off the old stock of Loki and Dr. Evil sets. I seriously want to know if Hasbro has a patent on that design and format anyway.