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Television and toy tie-ins are nothing new, but Mattel took it to the next level with Captain Power. The show was developed with the idea that kids could use their Mattel laser blasters, called the Powerjet XT-7 or the Phantom Striker, and fire directly at the bad guys in the TV show – right at the TV. Your enemies fired right back at you, and if you got hit, your action figure pilot was ejected.

 

Since this interactive part of the show only lasted five minutes, the plot had to maintain itself throughout the rest of the episode. The overall story was that the Earth had been ravaged by the Metal Wars of the future, a war between man and machine, and the machine came out on top. Then, in 2147AD, humans rose up to take their planet back, led by Captain Jonathan Power and the Soldiers of the Future. Jonathan and his team - Tank, Hawk, Scout and Pilot – had special “power suits” that gave them the ability to fight against the evil cyborg Lord Dread and his robot BioDreads.

 

This unique show combined computer animation with live action, and the plots were designed to be complex enough to intrigue adults as well as kids. The program got some bad press due to it’s violent content, but it remained popular. What killed it after one season was Mattel, after the toys sales didn’t live up to expectations. But story editor J. Michael Straczynski went on to create the sci-fi favorite Babylon 5, and show continues to have a cult following.