Power Players (team)

The **Power Players** is a superhero team of toys. Their current purpose is to defeat Madcap and his army, and prevent him from taking the Power Bandz. The heroes also have to prevent any of Madcap's minions from terrorizing the city and turn it into their own playground. They all serve as the main protagonists of *Power Players*.

## History

### Pre-Season 1

Each of the original six members (Sarge Charge, Bearbarian, Galileo, Bobbie Blobby, Masko, and Slobot) are consisted of toys from various different toy lines a man named Andrew have owned prior to the events of the series. When Andrew tried his first experiment on Minergy, he used a toy named Might Master as his test subject. But as Might Master discovered what it meant to be played with, he took offense and have started his path to villainy, rechristening himself as Madcap. But while it's currently unknown what was the full origin of the Power Players, it's heavily implied that Andrew was forced to used Minergy to make the six toys come to life to form a team so that they could defeat Madcap. Eventually after Madcap's defeat and he was put in a dormant state, the Power Players were later get put in a dormant state too, and the seven toys were all put in the Toy Box in Andrew's secret lab that's located in the basement of the Toy Store.

### Season 1

Five days before the events of "Unboxing Part 1", a young human boy named Axel Mulligan moves in with his uncle while his parents are away on a diplomatic mission. During his fifth day at the Toy Store, he accidentally broke one of the toys Andrew is trying to fix named Orangutank while playing with him and Porcupunk. Feeling guilty, Axel asks his uncle to get some pizzas for dinner while he secretly ventures down the basement to find a screwdriver to fix Orangutank. However, after Axel accidentally drops the screwdriver and it rolls to Andrew's secret lab, the young boy enters the lab and finds the Power Bandz, a pair of gloves that Andrew created to store some amount of Minergy, underneath a desk and he accidentally zaps Minergy at the Toy Box, reawakening Madcap in the process. Madcap easily manipulated Axel into opening the Toy Box where he trapped inside and he sucks the Minergy from the Power Bandz, gaining him powers and he escapes from the lab. During the fight between Axel and Madcap, Axel accidentally zaps Minergy at the Power Players team while he's running after the escaped Madcap, reawakening them too.

While Axel is trying to prevent Madcap from escaping the house, a misunderstanding occurs when the Power Players all believed that Axel is working for Madcap since he has the Power Bandz and has let the villain escaped. And during the first half of "Unboxing Part 2", the Power Players, with the exception of Slobot, all revealed themselves to Axel and they all tried to attack him, indirectly causes Axel to discovered the powers of the Power Bandz after he accidentally shrinks himself into a living action figure. It wasn't until when the Power Players are in Axel's room when Axel clears up the misunderstanding by explaining to them that he's Andrew's nephew and what he did earlier was an accident and he didn't mean to do it. The Power Players all stop attacking him and Sarge Charge, the de-facto leader of the team, makes him a member to help them defeat Madcap and Axel accepts the offer, calling himself "Action Axel". After Madcap escapes from Axel's room to venture down the basement to search for the Minergy battery, the Power Players are accidentally seen in front of a young girl named Zoe who's Axel's next-door neighbor and she was visiting his house on that night. Zoe lets herself in on the secret anyway and helps the team by telling them that Andrew stores the Minergy battery in his workshop in the basement. The Power Players all quickly venture down the basement to fight with Madcap, who have awakened both Orangutank and Porcupunk by using the Minergy battery and forced the two into joining his side. But when Andrew gets home after ordering pizzas for Axel and Zoe, Madcap escapes from the house with the Minergy battery, along with Porcupunk and Orangutank. With Madcap's escape, Axel now has to keep the Power Players' existence a secret from Andrew as the toys are now staying in Axel's room, awaiting for Madcap's next strike against the team.

After Axel joined the team and he becomes the new leader, he now has to watch over the Power Players as they continued to fight against Madcap and any toys he has forced them into joining his army whenever they invaded his house before Andrew get home. Some notable events include Zoe almost joining the team but she later changes her mind to continue being their ally in "Side Kicked", Madcap being forced to turn to the team for help to defeat Porcupunk in "Porcupunk Rock", Bobbie Blobby being persuaded by Porcupunk to join Madcap's side in "The Other Side", and Joyride, who was formerly part of Madcap's army, redeeming himself and become friends with the Power Players.

## Members

* Axel Mulligan/Action Axel — A young boy who's the nephew to Andrew. With the power of the Power Bandz, Axel can transform himself into Action Axel, a living toy-sized action figure. Axel is the new leader of the Power Players team.
* Sarge Charge — A military-themed action figure who was initially the de-facto leader of the team before Axel joins the team. He is now the second-in-command of the team.
* Bearbarian — A plush teddy bear with a barbarian theme. Despite his toughness, he's the heart of the team.
* Bobbie Blobby — A small toy who uses her mecha-suit to fire out clay. She serves as the commando of the team.
* Masko — A toy from a line of stretchable figures designed in a tradition of a luchador.
* Galileo — A flamboyant toy lizard who's from an in-universe toyline called *Junior Genetic Spy Lizards*. He also serves as an actual spy for the team.
* Slobot — A toy robot from a build-your-own-bot kit. He serves as the technician and handyman of the team despite his deliberate slow speed because of his missing parts.

## Allies

### Civilians

* Zoe — A young human girl who's Axel's next-door neighbor. She is the only human who's aware of the Power Players are secretly living toys after she sees them interacting with Action Axel in "Unboxing Part 2" and she lets herself in on the secret. Despite lacking any superpowers herself, she wants to join the team to help them during their missions, but after realizing how much work it is to be a superhero after saving the team from Pyrant and his army in "Side Kicked", Zoe changes her mind about joining the team and decided to stay being their ally instead.

### Toys

* Joyride — A warrior action figure that can turn into a tank. He's Zoe's childhood favorite toy who was forced into joining Madcap's side. However, after the events of "Joyride", he redeems himself and he's now an ally to the Power Players.

## Enemies

### Supervillains

* Madcap — Formerly known as Might Master, he's a toy who bent on getting the Power Bandz, in order to obtain absolute power and force every human in the world to "play" with him. By using the Minergy battery he stole from Andrew's lab, he creates and leads his army of toys to try to take down the Power Players.
* Porcupunk — A porcupine-themed toy who likes to rock and cause chaos.
* Orangutank — A cyborg gorilla toy who has a desire to turn the city into a jungle.
* Dynamo — A wind-up toy robot with magnetic powers.
* Ice Crusher — A toy who has the power to produce and manipulate ice and snow.
* Princess SugarSalt — A fairy doll who has uncontrollable mood swings.
* Pyrant — A toy pyramid with the ability to mind-control others.
* Dr. Nautilus — A toy slime-themed monster.

## Trivia

* The only human characters who're aware of the Power Players' existence as living toys are Axel/Action Axel and Zoe. However, there have been cases where one of them has been accidentally heard or noticed by people:
	+ In "All Trick No Treat", Bearbarian accidentally reveals himself and talks to a little trick-or-treater girl but in order to cover up their secret, Axel lies to the girl that Bearbarian and Sarge are both "Halloween pixies".
	+ In "Joke's On You, Bro!", Galileo, mistakenly thought his camouflage mode is broken and is unaware that his friends are pranking him, roams around the city which leads to many civilians notice him and he ended up on the news. However, Axel and Zoe both manage to create a video and trick everyone into thinking that the "living-lizard toy" is a hoax.
	+ Luka overhears Axel's conversation with his toys in "The Best Team". He also heard Bearbarian speaking in "Bear-Knuckle Brawl", but Axel pretends that he's the one who's talking and claims it's him doing ventriloquism.
	+ Andrew overhears Masko singing in both "Knockout" and "Winner Takes All". Although in the former episode Andrew was asleep and didn't notice him, the latter episode has Andrew becoming suspicious and wonders out loud why the song Masko sang sounds familiar to him.
* All of the Power Players, except for Bobbie Blobby, have their team insignia located somewhere on their outfit/accessory.
	+ Before Axel becomes the member of the Power Players, he doesn't have the team insignia on his shirt until near the end of "Unboxing Part 2".
	+ Originally, the team insignia would be a gray letter "P" with a lightning bolt at the end.
* Since the original six members are all toys, Axel is the only member of the team to be a human as well as being the youngest.
* Bearbarian is the only toy of the team to be a stuffed animal.
* Galileo is the only main character to not have blue eyes.
* Before the members of the team are finalized, various concept arts revealed some of the original members during the series' early development.
	+ When the series was pitched as "Super Toys" in 2015, there's a "female" superhero doll.
	+ When the series was pitched to have the toys be animated in CGI behind a live-action background, there was a female military action figure. She is presumably got replaced by Sarge Charge.
	+ As seen in the 2016 ZAG Heroez promotional video, the team originally consisted of a fairy doll, a pirate figure, a red robot, and a blue teddy bear. The red robot would be replaced by Slobot and the blue teddy bear is presumably Bearbarian's original design. However, as seen in a MIFA's 30th Anniversary poster made by Zagtoon, a "female" plush rabbit is seen within the group.
	+ In a 2016 promotional artwork for the series, a "female" ninja action figure is seen in Bobbie Blobby's place and a blue robot is seen in Galileo's place.
* Prior to the series premiere, Masko is the first member of the team to have his name revealed. His name was first revealed from a 2017 motion capture video that was posted on the official ZAG Vimeo channel.
* Every team member has at least one episode and/or webisode with their name in the title:
	+ Axel has "Savage Axel", "King Axel" and "Axel".
	+ Bearbarian has "Bearbarian".
	+ Sarge Charge has "Sarge in Charge" and "Sarge Charge".
	+ Masko has "Saving Private Masko" and "Masko".
	+ Bobbie Blobby has "Bobbie Not Blobby" and "Bobbie Blobby".
	+ Galileo has "Galileo".
	+ Slobot has "That Slobot is No Bot of Mine" and "Slobot".

## Gallery

### Concept art

The original Power Players team, as seen in a footage of the 2016 ZAG Heroez video.Another concept art of the original Power Players team as seen in the MIFA's 30th anniversary poster.A "female" military action figure in an early concept art for the series.An unnamed "female" superhero doll during the time when the series was initially called "Super Toys" in 2015.
## References

1. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/8mrcLqyQ0b/
2. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ4ImA-AEzX/
3. ↑ https://vimeo.com/224058439

Axel Mulligan/Action Axel • Bearbarian • Bobbie Blobby • Galileo • Masko • Sarge Charge • Slobot

Allies
Bot-Guy • Joyride • Thermometron 9000 • The Scratch Pack Cats • Zoe

Dr. Nautilus • Dynamo • Ice Crusher • Madcap • Orangutank • Porcupunk • Princess SugarSalt • Pyramid of Prediction • Pyrant

Other villains
Ice Crusher's clones • Minergy-infused plant • Rufin

Redeemed antagonists
Bot-Guy • Joyride • Luka's teddy bear collection • Madcap's Junior Genetic Spy Lizards army • Thermometron 9000 • The Scratch Pack Cats

Cleo LeBall • Craig • Luka • Zoe

Adults
Mr. and Mrs. Mulligan • Uncle Andrew • Zoe's father • Zoe's mother

Smart-toys
Baby • Sergeant Lacharge

Miscellaneous
Salto

Non-Canon characters
Axel's dog • Axel's grandfather