Axel

I’ve been watching Power Players on Netflix with my kids. The premise is pretty cool: a kid who lives with his toy-inventor uncle inadvertently unleashes a group of toys who have been animated by a magical energy, and in the process becomes a kind of living toy himself. He can change back and forth from a kid to a toy. So a neat idea, and a few episodes in the show is slick, well crafted, and generally above-par for a kiddie show.

While the main cast of characters isn’t very robot-heavy (there’s a robot on both the good and bad teams, but they’re not too distinctive) all kinds of beautiful mecha populate the show if you look closely. I’m hoping we see more of them. Clearly the designers have an appreciation for Japanese robot design. The characters in the foreground feel very market-tested to check a box for every potential interest, while the toys in the background look like the artists having fun. 

Our protagonist Axel wears a kind of generic Americanized Anime-styled powered armor. I like the design well enough, though I’d like to see the first drafts. The inevitable upgrades could be fun. 

Playmates does “perfectly adequate” as well as anyone, and their Power Players figures are, predictably, “perfectly adequate.” Mediocre mass market stuff, but the character designs are interesting, so here’s some pictures.

Axel has a neon green shield and sword. The sword falls out of his hand if you breathe on it. 

Articulation is bare bones, a little embarrassing for 2020. It sort of looks like a Revoltech-type figure, but it’s all cosmetic. The ankles, for instance, look like ball joints, but only swivel. And since the thing barely stands in the most neutral pose, swiveling he ankle half a degree in any direction brings it crashing down. You can’t do anything with this figure but hold it, fiddle with it, fly it around. Which is all my kids need. So I guess it succeeds as a kids toy, but there’s not much here for an adult to appreciate.