Any info on 'Captain power', or 'televideo interactive'?

[cheesystick]

I picked up an interesting VHS tape at a local thrift today called "Captian power: and the soldiers of the future". On the box it states that this video is "skill level 3" and "for use with captain power TV interactive accessories."
The copyright date is 1987 and it is made by Mattel. I am completely stumped on what this is, and any info would be appriciated. Thanks,
-crispy

[Raccoon Lad]

If I recall correctly, the Captain power action figures responded to flashes from the TV screen. Not a game, just a toy gimmick.

[ArnoldRimmer83]

Captain Power was a TV show in the 80s. It was live action, with some animated battles thrown in. The gimmick was if you had the toy ships, you could sort of play along with the show as if it was a video game, "dodging" enemy fire and "shooting" back at enemies and such. The ships would react to certain lights that would appear on the screen. It's been a long time so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I think some lights were safe and you could fire at them, and other lights would "damage" your ship if you had it in front of the screen. And if your ship got hit a certain amount of times by harmful lights, the toy would make a loud noise and the cockpit would pop open, ejecting whatever captain power figure you had. (assuming you had one in the ship.) I think the ship also had a score count of some kind, but I don't remember.

Mattel released 3 Captain Power tapes that were just long animated battle sequences. That Skill level 3 tape was one of them. I think I actually still have those things somewhere. It was somewhat interesting at the time, but naturally it would be severely dated today. Plus the show was a pretty shameless way to get kids to shell out money for more toys. If you are also a toy collector, they are a nice novelty.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

An interesting side note: the producers of the Captain Power TV series happened to be J. Michael Straczynski and John Copeland, both of whom constantly struggled to maintain some semblance of quality storytelling in what was, essentially, a half-hour toy commercial. Straczynski was also working on another science fiction project he had been wanting to pursue for many years, and even snuck its name intoa throwaway line in one episode where one character (I believe his name was "Tank") claimed to have born on "genetic engineering colony Babylon 5."

Somewhere I've got a magazine with an interview with Straczynski where he talks about how much of a headache it was to make Captain Power. Apparently once the toys made it into the wild of the consumer market, they seldom, seldom worked - at least not without adjusting the TV to lower the brightness and max out the contrast so the light sensors would have a chance in hell of picking up what was on the screen.

[JaredCenter]

An interesting side note: the producers of the Captain Power TV series happened to be J. Michael Straczynski and John Copeland, both of whom constantly struggled to maintain some semblance of quality storytelling in what was, essentially, a half-hour toy commercial. Straczynski was also working on another science fiction project he had been wanting to pursue for many years, and even snuck its name intoa throwaway line in one episode where one character (I believe his name was "Tank") claimed to have born on "genetic engineering colony Babylon 5."

Somewhere I've got a magazine with an interview with Straczynski where he talks about how much of a headache it was to make Captain Power. Apparently once the toys made it into the wild of the consumer market, they seldom, seldom worked - at least not without adjusting the TV to lower the brightness and max out the contrast so the light sensors would have a chance in hell of picking up what was on the screen.

I remember seeing something years ago on the Canadian Space channel when they had a special on Babylon 5, including an interview with Mr. Straczynski. He talked about Captain Power, and I can recall him mentioning the real problem they had with Captain Power was its whole marketing strategy. They tried to combine adult sci-fi with a Saturday-morning kids show, and it didn't really work at the time. The show's action wasn't enough for the kids, and most kids felt left out because they didn't have the toys on the spot when the show started. With the adults, most attitudes at the time prevented them from viewing any episodes (circa 1987 example: "why should I watch a show made for kids?").

Personally, I thought the show/toy convergence effort to be something of true innovation. For once, Mr. Straczynski took Saturday-morning television into unexplored territory, and he was ahead of his time with Captain Power.

I can also recall Star Trek: TNG having problems around that time as well with captivating viewers, because it was new and there was no Kirk or Spock. Also, The Real Ghostbusters was the hot thing at the time for kids, and this could've been a factor in Captain Power's inability to become mainstream.

[JaredCenter]

An interesting side note (sorry for the double-post):

I remember at the time kids wanting the 8-bit Nintendo more than anything in the world. Captain Power marketed the toys as interactive with the TV shows, but the appeal of what Nintendo, Super Mario, and Zelda had to offer was too great. You had to have the Nintendo more than anything in the world!

[The Unknown Gamer]

Heres an odd little trick I discovered long ago that involves the show and the ship/gun when your about to recieve your recharge pause the tape and your gun will contiune to recieve multipule recharges as long as you want.

[slapdash]

I actually found another Captain Power tape -- with a black sleeve instead of the red ones. I'm not sure if it works with the toys or not because, well, so far I haven't had the amibition to try the toys out.