Captain Action Figures
Captain Action was an action figure from 1966, that came with separate costumes that allowed the doll to change into Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger (and Tonto), Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon and the Green Hornet. Captain Action was Ideal Toy Company's answer to Hasbros' GI Joe, and had the same person behind him, toy and idea man Stan Weston.
Toy developer Stan Weston came to Hasbro's Don Levine with the idea of an articulated doll in the form of a solider, a basic figure and with a chance for limitless accessories. Levine and his Hasbro team took the concept, making it into GI Joe, the first modern action figure for boys (and the first to carry that name, an attempt to take the term'dall' away from a toy meant for boys). Weston took his money from GI Joe and started his own licensing company, representing DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and King Features Syndicate.
After the success of GI Joe, Stan Weston's company, Leisure Concepts, then took the idea of a new 12" articulated action figure to Ideal Toys, who were looking for an answer to GI Joe to remain competitive in the market. Weston proposed Captain Magic, a many-in-one hero, who could adopt the guise of several heroes (all of whom represented by Leisure Concepts). The name was changed to Captain Action, first marketed in 1966.
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The earliest toys were made from materials found in nature, such as rocks, sticks, and clay. Thousands of years ago, Egyptian children played with dolls that had wigs and movable limbs which were made from stone, pottery, and wood. In Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, children played with dolls made of wax or terra cotta, sticks, bows and arrows, and yo-yos. When Greek children, especially girls, came of age it was customary for them to sacrifice the toys of their childhood to the gods. On the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a rite of passage into adulthood.
As technology changed and civilization progressed, toys also changed. Whereas ancient toys were made from materials found in nature like stone, wood, and grass modern toys are often made from plastic, cloth, and synthentic materials. Ancient toys were often made by the parents and family of the children who used them, or by the children themselves. Modern toys, in contrast, are often mass-produced and sold in stores.
This change in the nature of toys is exemplified by the changes that have taken place in one of the oldest and most universal of human toys; dolls. The earliest and most primitive dolls were simple wooden carvings and bundles of grass. Egyptian dolls were sometimes jointed so that their limbs could move realistically. By the early 1800s there were dolls that could say "mama". Today there are dolls that can recognize and identify objects, the voice of their owner, and choose among hundreds of pre-programed phrases with which to respond. The materials that toys are made from have changed, what toys can do has changed, but the fact that children play with toys has not changed.
