Action Figure Overview: Secret Wars - Captain America (Mattel, 1984)

Marvel Comics and Mattel Toys team up for The Secret Wars!

By 1984 Mattel had a hit with their Masters of the Universe toy line, but they were looking for the next big thing.  Mego, who had been making action figures of DC and Marvel characters throughout the 70s and early 80s, had gone out of business.  That meant the licenses for DC and Marvel were open to new toy possibilities.  Kenner ended up working with DC for their Super Powers action figure line and corresponding comic book series.  This left Marvel open to work with Mattel.  According to toy legend, a focus group determined that kids like the words "Secret" and "War," so the toy line and corresponding comic book series were called "Secret Wars."

Mattel's 1984 Secret Wars Captain America Leads the Team!

The Secret Wars comic book was a 12-issue mini-series written by Jim Shooter.  The basic premise is that a cosmic being takes a group of heroes and a group of villains, puts them on a planet together, and pretty much tells them to fight it out.  Although not everyone agrees with me, I think the comic book was decent.  I'm not sure that anyone at Mattel read it though, because there were some strange choices made with the toys.  The main one being the toy line's gimmick: Lenticular shields!  Each figure came with a shield that could display different lenticular images.  All of the good guys had a round, red shield and all of the bad guys a square, gray shield (even though in the comic book, Magneto wasn't really one of the 'bad guys,' the figure was listed on the card back as a Super Villain and came with a square, gray 'bad guy' shield).  I can't remember ever seeing most of these characters use a shield in the comics or on cartoons...definitely not in the Secret Wars comic.  I have seen Spider-Man make a shield out of webbing on several occasions, but Mattel didn't give Spider-Man a web-shield.  He just had the same round, red shield as everyone else.  All of this made the shields seem like a dumb idea to me.

Secret Wars Captain America and his Mattel shield.

For the most part, the shields didn't really matter.  I would guess that most kids who didn't like the shields would open the package, throw the shield in a box, and forget about it.  However, it wasn't so easy with Captain America.  As a kid in the 1980s, I always thought of his shield as being his defining characteristic.  Spider-Man had his webs, Iron Man had his suit, Captain America had his shield!  However, this shield didn't look like Captain America's shield and that was just frustrating to me.  The thought process was the same every time, "This shield doesn't look right.  Well, at least it's round and has a red edge...but still, it just doesn't look like Captain America's shield!

Captain America's expression seems to be saying, "Seriously?  This is the shield you're giving me?"

In some instances, I can see the argument that toy designers aren't familiar enough with the character that the toys are based on to get the look exactly right, but come on, this is Captain America!  Even if they knew nothing about him, every image on the lenticular pieces that kids were supposed to put in Cap's shield had a picture of what his shield should have looked like! Even the art on the back of the package showed Captain America with his usual shield (though it does at least show him looking at a secret message on the inside of his shield in one panel).

This comic was printed on the back of Captain America's 1984 Secret Wars package

Aside from his shield, I thought Mattel actually did a pretty good job on this Captain America.  In fact, when it came to the first wave of figures, I thought Mattel did a good job on Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Iron Man too.  I'm not sure why they didn't give Magneto or Dr. Doom their capes and I'm not sure why Kang was included at all.  Then again, with the exception of Spider-Man in his new, black costume, I don't think any of the second wave of Secret Wars figures were in the Secret Wars comic books at all!  Despite their goofy shields, Mattel's Secret Wars line provided kids with the first action figures for many of the characters in the Marvel Universe and aside from Captain America, you really could just toss the shields aside.
  
Captain America's Secret Wars shield doesn't look too bad from the back

What do you think of the Secret Wars toys as a kid?  Did you like the shields or did you prefer to play with the figures without shields?  Tell me below in the comments!

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Comments

  1. IanMarch 20, 2020 at 9:10 AM

    Since this line included the first X-Men characters ever made into figures, I was all in, shields or no shields!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We Had ThatMarch 20, 2020 at 4:03 PM

      Yes! It was the first action figure version of several Marvel characters!

      Delete
  2. Mark MooreApril 10, 2020 at 10:49 AM

    First action figure along with Hobgoblin that I ever got. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We Had ThatApril 10, 2020 at 11:16 PM

      Nice! That sounds like a good pair of figures for your first two!

      Delete

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