The "A" Is for "Action"!

The multicolored piece of cloth in my ten-year-old-or-so hand was unfamiliar to me.

I was in the basement of the family that lived across the alley from the apartment building my family lived in at the time. They were a pretty large family with a penchant for giving all their children, male or female, names that began with the letter D--Donnie, Desi, David and so on. All the kids in the neighborhood played games in the alley--from field hockey (I was an awesome goalie) to tag to "pinners," a modified version of baseball that substituted a solid (usually brick) wall for the batter. The alley was the common area, from which we'd migrate into each other's yards, garages or, in this instance, basement.

Their basement was a typical one for the neighborhood--long, narrow, dark, musty, cluttered. There were probably things in the shadows that would have scarred me for life; I was wise not to seek them out. Instead, I stayed on the more brightly lit end of the basement nearest the staircase leading up into the house.

That's where I was with a couple of the younger kids, rummaging through a box of childhood odds and ends, when I ran across the aforementioned piece of cloth. It appeared to be an outfit for an action figure--something the size of the original 12-inch G.I. Joes. It looked more like it belonged to a superhero, though: A unitard with black arms and trunk, and dark blue torso and leggings. There was also an emblem in the midle of the suit's chest: An inverted triangle with red, yellow and green sides, a black center and the letters "CA" in white.

The younger kids had no idea what character the outfit belonged to, so they asked me. I didn't know either, but like most kids, I tried to act like I had a clue--more of a clue than the other kids, anyway. I said that the suit belonged to somebody named Captain Action, and that the suit itself had powers, making its wearer super-strong, bulletproof, capable of flight, etc. I made up stories about the suit and the man inside it (assuming it was a man--could have been a superpowered Barbie for all I knew). He saved children from burning buildings. Held back flood waters with his mighty hands. Soared with eagles and swam with dolphins. You know--superhero stuff.

It was the first time I can recall being asked to tell stories. In that sense, that afternoon in the neighbors' basement was my first outing as a writer--and, given that the little ones seemed fascinated by the adventures and antics of the character who occupied the piece of cloth in my hand, it was more or less a success.

It wasn't until years later that I found out the suit really did belong to a character named Captain Action, only he wasn't a Superman knockoff (as my decade-old mind had envisioned him) as much as an outgrowth of the popularity of G.I. Joe. Instead of being a tradition military man, though, Captain Action was more of a cross between a superhero and a spy, who fought the good fight by disguising himself as various other characters from comic books (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man), comic strips (The Phantom, Flash Gordon) and TV (The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet). Ideal sold the figures dressed as Captain Action and the outfits for the other licensed characters separately. Thus, because most kids tore the suit off the figure and dressed him up like Sgt. Fury or Aquaman, the good Captain became something of an afterthought in the action figure line bearing his name.

Hence, the abandoned suit in the basement.

Even after I discovered the origin of the colorful piece of cloth, I didn't own a vintage captain Action figure until this week, when I received a package from an eBay seller. I had bought two Captain Action figures--one dressed as Captain America, the other as Buck Rogers--along with a ZipLock bag full of assorted accessories. Both outfits were in rough shape and the Buck Rogers was nowhere near complete, so I sorted the accessories in the bag to see how (or even if) I could spruce up my two new acquisitions. I found boots, a hat, a pistol, a pretty wicked looking sword/knife...and a very familiar colorful piece of cloth with an inverted triangle in the middle of the chest.

I had everything I needed to dress Captain Action as...Captain Action!

Today, he stands on my desk at work--this is Bring Your Action Figure to Work Day, after all. My co-workers are quite impressed with the good Captain. And so they should be.