We interviewed veteran producer Michael Polis at San Diego Comic-Con about the new character being added to the Captain Action pantheon, and also got an update on Captain Action animation and uniform licensing.
The Captain Action character line-up is being updated by LBO (Let’s Be Onyx), a new company formed by veteran industry creatives Michael Polis of Atomic Toybox Entertainment, Steve Forde of GoHero, Kwame, Acori Honzo and LaWanda Shepherd of House of Honzo, and Scott Kuenzli of Disburst. The group is designing the look of a planned line of high-end 1/6-scale action figures and collectibles.
The new character is Major Action, one of three figure prototypes displayed at the convention (the other two were Captain Action and Dr. Evil, see the Gallery below).
Michael Polis
We talked to veteran producer Michael Polis (Yo Gabba Gabba!), who’s also a partner in Captain Action Enterprises (see “Polis Buys Into Captain Action“), and whose Atomic Toybox Entertainment has the rights for Captain Action film and TV production and associated merchandising about the new collectible line and other plans for the property. He explained the genesis of the new figure line.
“In the last year, we’ve decided to invest a lot of time and energy in taking the Captain Action character and really developing him a lot further and adding new characters,” Polis told us. “As opposed to just strictly Captain Action, we’re adding another character called Major Action. We have a revamp of Dr. Evil; he’s a little bit more sinister looking.”
“Part of the idea is incorporating this company called Let’s Be Onyx, or LBO, to help us redesign and interpret these characters so that they are more, I would say, relevant but also representative of our culture,” he continued. For example, if we were to do a Black Panther uniform set, we really need to have a representative from the Black community as a character. You can’t have the old Captain Action underneath that uniform. That’s one piece. It not only expands the lore of the Captain Action property, but it also expands our ability for storytelling as well as gadgets and characters that we can play with.”
The company plans to launch the 1/6-scale figure line in the Fall of 2024. Of course, the history of the character raises the question of licensed uniform sets. “We’re in negotiations right now with a couple of different majors about that,” Polis revealed. I don’t have anything to announce yet.”
We also asked about the status of animation for the property, which has been in development for some time but now appears to have new momentum. “I have a deal in place that we’re going to announce in September, with a production company, my production company, Atomic, as well as another production company,” Polis said. “I’ve got financing in place for a portion. I just need to finish out the financing deals. We’re looking at doing both short form content to start and then a longer form piece that hopefully we’ll announce in the fall, but I can’t promise on that yet. I’ve been developing it for about a couple years now and have a full script that I’ve just submitted to a director who’s reviewing right now.”
Click Gallery below for full-size prototype images of the new line.
Source: ICv2
