We go into a world of retro video gaming, ’80s toys, and tv tradition. By PopSci Staff|Released Apr 10, 2024 4:32 PM EDT SHARE Hey ’80s kids, do you keep in mind Captain Power? If you do, amazing. And if no, it’s not absolutely unexpected. Action figures and toys connected to kids’ home entertainment flourished in the 1980s– Thundercats, GI Joe, He-Man all controlled our toy boxes and our tvs. How did a Gene Siskel-approved sci-fi program with a complementary ground-breaking toy innovation stop working so badly? In the current video for Popular Science, Kevin Lieber dissects the most significant detach in television history. Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future ran for a single season from 1987 to 1988. The 22 episodes followed Captain Jonathan Power (Timothy Dunigan) and a little group of specialized soldiers using power fits to fight the robotic army of Lord Dread. The program included interactive aspects that kids might “shoot” utilizing a toy XT-7 jet that was made by Mattel. Sounds kind of cool? Well, not to countless moms and dads who rallied versus the program for blurring the lines in between kids reveal, warfare, and toy commercials. The entire “shooting your television” thing wasn’t the only issue Captain Power dealt with. The program’s authors insisted they weren’t composing for a kid audience and rather wove complicated stories with significant styles that appealed more to grownups. They wished to make a program for grown-ups to offer toys to kids, which does not rather work. Regardless of the program and toy’s failure, Captain Power showed to have a long lasting impact. It was the very first program to utilize CG-modeled characters as part of the primary cast, might have motivated among the most notorious bad guys on Star Trek, and the group accountable for the program went on to assist specify sci-fi home entertainment for a generation.
The advanced toy innovation of ‘Captain Power’ that time forgot
