Axel Mulligan

## Axel Mulligan(a.k.a. Action Axel)

* Axel
* Action Axel

Click here to see quotes from Axel Mulligan.
**Axel Mulligan** is the one of the protagonists of *Power Players*. With the Power Bandz, Axel transforms into the superhero **Action Axel** ("**Super Axel**" in the French version), a living action figure and gaining the power to stop Madcap from taking over the world with his army of evil toys. He is also the leader of the Power Players team.

### Physical appearance

Axel wears a light-blue shirt with the Power Players team logo, a red sleeveless vest, blue jeans with a black leather belt with a silver buckle in the middle, and a pair of red-and-white shoes on his feet.

### As Action Axel

When he transforms into Action Axel, height shrinks down to about 6 inches tall or half a foot. He is in a black robotic exoskeleton. He wears a red helmet with a black v-shaped comforter liner, yellow chinstrap, and yellow comfort sides. Over his black robotic exoskeleton, he has numerous robotic body parts that have red, yellow, and blue colors. On his robotic chest, he has the Power Players team insignia.

*For more of Axel's outfits and designs, see Axel Mulligan/Designs.*
## Personality

Axel is a mischievous, adventurous, optimistic, and energetic kid. As the newest leader of the Power Players, he is also confident, brave, and at times responsible. Axel looks after his smart-toy friends and often watches over them under his care to avoid having them get into trouble since he's the one who accidentally reactivated them after he found them in Uncle Andrew's lab. He is a very helpful person who's willing to help anyone in need whether that person is a human or a toy. Whenever there's an argument within his teammates, he often acts as a mediator to help find an alternative solution for their problem before the conflict gets worse. However, since Axel is still a kid, he can be a bit lazy and reckless at times who would rather spend every minute of every single day playing instead of doing his chores at home. He is also very curious and likes to discover something new, even though his curiosity would often lead to trouble for him. He also doesn't seem to understand the concept of toy collecting and believes toys are made to play with instead of being set aside as shelf decorations.

As Action Axel, Axel retains most of his personality traits such as his undying loyalty, trustworthiness, and curiosity. However, he is much more cautious, careful, and responsible in his superhero alter ego with his confidence and bravery coming out more prominently despite his occasional stubbornness at times. Since he is the one who accidentally unleashed Madcap and the Power Players out of the Toy Box because of his curiosity, Action Axel feels it's his responsibility to stop Madcap and his army whenever they're terrorizing the city he lives in to protect the people he knows and is close to from their attacks. He is very cautious about his superhero life and the existence of living toys that he strives to keep them a secret from everyone, especially Uncle Andrew, to protect himself from being punished by his uncle if anyone finds out. He also has to keep the house as clean as possible whenever his uncle isn't home to cover up any trace that the toys were the ones making a mess during their fights against Madcap and his army, often scolding his teammates whenever they make a huge mess outside his room. But no matter the difficulty of his tasks, Axel does everything in his power to set things right in whatever alter ego he's in to protect everyone he knows and loves from the harms of Madcap and his army.

While working with the other members of the Power Players as team leader, Axel doesn't see them as just toys but as friends and extremely values their support and help. He is also great at giving advice to others when they need it. And as the team leader, he learns to take suggestions, ideas, and to follow the lead of others when the situation calls for it.

## Abilities

### As Action Axel

Axel has the ability to transform himself into Action Axel, a living toy-sized action figure, by using the Power Bandz. As an action figure, he has much more enhanced skills, such as speed, agility, and strength. These abilities allow him to react to and evade light-based attacks, as well as jump and leap several times his height and length. His near-invulnerability and great durability to physical damage allow him to jump off and land without issue and survive to fall off of one, as well as seemingly survive to fall at a height of at least several stories.

He has a remarkable talent with wielding his Power Sword and Power Shield as his weapons, as well as activating either his Power Drone or his rocket boots so he can hover in the air.

## Relationships

### Sarge Charge

Like the rest of the Power Players, Axel first met Sarge on his fifth day at the Toy Store after he accidentally reawoke Madcap from the Toy Box when he applies him with Minergy from the Power Bandz. When Axel was searching for Madcap after he escapes from the secret lab, he encounters the Power Players who all mistakenly thought he and Madcap made a deal because of Sarge jumping into conclusion at the secret lab despite they all just met Axel and the toys all attacked him, assuming the kid is a "big bad" who deliberately let Madcap free. After Axel clears up the misunderstanding in his room when the Power Players confront him by telling them that he's the nephew of Andrew and what he did was completely an accident, Sarge welcomes him into the team as a way to forgive him and Action Axel becomes excited for "joining the rank" with the other Power Players.

Since then, Axel sees Sarge as his second-in-command and he holds respect to him since Sarge was originally the de-facto leader of the team before Axel moves in with his uncle. Whenever the Power Players are in a battle against Madcap's army, Action Axel would often follow Sarge's plan that he always hatch out so they could take down the villains in a strategic way possible.

### Bearbarian

Like the rest of the Power Players, Axel first met Bearbarian on his fifth day at the Toy Store after he accidentally reawoke Madcap from the Toy Box when he applies him with Minergy from the Power Bandz. But because Sarge mistakenly assumes that Axel was a "big bad" who made a deal with Madcap after deliberately set him free, Bearbarian attacks Axel while the latter was searching for Madcap after he escapes from the secret lab. During the fight on the second floor and when Axel grows back into his normal height after he accidentally shrunk himself for the first time, he catches Bearbarian in the kitchen when he's about to attack him again. At first, Axel didn't take Bearbarian seriously and was very surprised to see that he's a living teddy bear. He compliments Bearbarian that "bears aren't barbarians [and] they're too soft" after Bearbarian introduces himself, but only to get attacked by the teddy bear who summons a blast from his World Breaker when he took the compliment as an insult. When Axel tried to clear up the misunderstanding to him and the rest of the Power Players in his room, Bearbarian didn't believe him at first and assumed he's a liar, but it wasn't until Axel tells them that he's actually Andrew's nephew and what he did was accidental that Bearbarian found out he's actually telling the truth and the two become friends. Later during the fight at the secret lab between the Power Players against Madcap and his newly-founded henchmen Orangutank and Porcupunk, Bearbarian is the first of the Power Players that Action Axel gets to correctly know their name.

Axel and Bearbarian get along pretty well despite Bearbarian's aggressiveness and toughness. For instance, in "Savage Axel" when Action Axel believed that he lost a race in the living room against his teammates because of how he relies so much on technology despite he obviously cheated by asking for Slobot's help, he turned to Bearbarian for help to learn how to use his primal instincts against his opponents. Because of Bearbarian's pride for being "the tough guy in the gang", Axel often encourages him that he is really tough despite he's a teddy bear who's made to be soft and cuddly. He also tells Bearbarian that he didn't have to prove anything about his personal weaknesses, such as his fear of the dark since everyone has their own fears as well, as seen in "Gathering Dark".

### Masko

Like the rest of the Power Players, Axel first met Masko on his fifth day at the Toy Store after he accidentally reawoke Madcap from the Toy Box when he applies him with Minergy from the Power Bandz. Axel and Masko both get along well because of Masko's friendliness and kind-hearted personality. Although Axel tends to get annoyed by Masko's eagerness of wanting to wrestle with him despite Axel's lack of wrestling skills and sees it as Masko's specialty, he often encourages and supports him whenever Masko hosts a wrestling match against his teammates.

In "Masko", Action Axel states that Masko is an "always-cheerful and always-ready-for-action toy" as well as amazing, full of surprises, and elastorific. When Masko gets upset that he thought none of his teammates want to wrestle with him and they're afraid of him, Action Axel tries to cheer him up by telling him that he's not always the most gentle toy around because of his love for wrestling at the worst possible time when neither of his teammates knows how to wrestle and tells him that their friends should instead benefit from his special stretchable skills.

### Bobbie Blobby

Like the rest of the Power Players, Axel first met Bobbie on his fifth day at the Toy Store after he accidentally reawoke Madcap from the Toy Box when he applies him with Minergy from the Power Bandz. But because Sarge mistakenly assumes that Axel was a "big bad" who made a deal with Madcap after deliberately set him free, Bobbie attacks Axel while the latter was searching for Madcap after he escapes from the secret lab. When the Power Players all comfort Axel in his room, Bobbie fires out clay from her mecha-suit's clay cannon to handcuff him and she's about to attack him again while Axel tries to clear up the misunderstanding to her and the other Power Players. After Action Axel reveals to them that he's Andrew's nephew and what he did was an accident, he forgives Bobbie for almost attacking him in his room and they become friends. Later during the fight at the secret lab between the Power Players against Madcap and his newly-founded henchmen Orangutank and Porcupunk, Action Axel mistakenly calls Bobbie "Clay Girl" which she corrected him since he didn't know her name and he apologizes to her about it before the Power Players all charge to the villains.

Axel and Bobbie mostly get along okay despite Bobbie's sarcasm and bluntness when she actually wants her friends to know that she does care for them without having to show it because of her toughness. In "The Other Side", when Bobbie feels that her friends didn't care for her after she insensitively took her bluntness remark too far that she decided to join the villain side because of Porcupunk's manipulation, Axel immediately starts searching for Bobbie when she went missing in his room. And after he found out Porcupunk's quill is left attached to his balcony, he assumes that Bobbie got kidnapped by the villains and he's the only one who left his house to rescue her after the rest of the Power Players believed that Bobbie isn't really kidnapped and took it as a prank. Upon arriving at Madcap's warehouse, Action Axel assumes the worst after realizing that Bobbie does indeed "betray" the team but he doesn't want to give up on her and tries to talk her down into rethinking about her decision since she belongs to the Power Players and she's one of his friends. After Bobbie realized how destructive her so-called villain "friends" are and she helped Action Axel take them down, he forgives her for her actions and they both return back to Axel's room so she could apologize to her teammates and real friends. During Bobbie's apology, Axel tells her that while being harsh is kinda her thing, it doesn't mean she's not their friend and he's glad how Bobbie never changes when she denies a group hug for her reunion with the team.

### Galileo

Like the rest of the Power Players, Axel first met Galileo on his fifth day at the Toy Store after he accidentally reawoke Madcap from the Toy Box when he applies him with Minergy from the Power Bandz. But because Sarge mistakenly assumes that Axel was a "big bad" who made a deal with Madcap after deliberately set him free, Galileo attacks Axel while the latter was searching for Madcap after he escapes from the secret lab. After Axel accidentally transforms back into a living action figure while in his room, he reveals to the toys that he's the nephew of Andrew which clears up the misunderstanding between them and it's allowed Galileo to start trusting him. During the fight between the Power Players and the villain at the secret lab, Galileo reveals to Action Axel that he has a sword in his suit by pressing a button on his right leg which allows Action Axel to access his Power Sword for the first time. And before the villains' escape from the house, Action Axel correctly guesses Galileo's name when the Power Players are about to charge at them.
Axel is aware that Galileo is a prototype of an upgrade figure from the *Junior Genetic Spy Lizards* toyline and that he's never officially released since he never made it out of the production line. However, Axel is very caring about Galileo's pride and ego of pretending to be a "famous" star because of his insecurity about being the only known Galileo in existence and he doesn't want to mention about it out loud to him to avoid hurting his feelings. In "Sand Trap", when Bobbie harshly told Galileo that his prototype never even reached the production line, Action Axel scolds at her for her lack of understanding about Galileo's insecurity before trying to keep Galileo's spirits up by saying that he's still "special" to the team. When Galileo was "brainwashed" by Madcap at the latter's sand hideout because of Madcap's manipulation to Galileo into offering him the chance to "reclaim the fame", Action Axel tries to talk Galileo down about choosing popularity over their friendship and he has to fight against Madcap's control. He also tells Galileo that he doesn't need a big suit to be popular and he's better than the other lizard toys who're released to the public instead of him.

In the web series, Action Axel and Galileo both produced a series of interviews of themselves, their friends, and Madcap to get to know them better.

Although Axel often tolerates Galileo's egotistical personality, he can't stand it whenever Galileo pull pranks on him and their friends which Axel didn't find Galileo's jokes amusing in both "Boo!" and "Joke's On You, Bro!", and he usually wants to get him back.

### Slobot

Slobot is the last member of the Power Players Action Axel met in "Unboxing Part 2". They both met right after Madcap, Orangutank, and Porcupunk all escape from the house, which Bobbie introduces him as "the other member of the team" since Slobot was unable to move fast enough to get out of the Toy Box to help his teammates. Axel is shown to at least tolerate Slobot's lack of pace because of his missing parts and he often asks for Slobot's help whenever there's something wrong with his Power Drone and/or his armor. However, Axel tends to lack patience and often dismisses Slobot at times when the robot tries to tell him something important while the Power Players have to fight against a villain inside the house.

When Slobot felt belittled about himself after mistakenly thought his teammates are laughing at him for his lack of skill, strength, and stamina, that he build three giant robots and took out his anger on his teammates in "That Slobot is No Bot of Mine", Action Axel manages to tell Slobot that his teammates are all actually proud of him and they're all his friends despite his flaws. Even though Slobot builds three giant robots to prove to them that he could be stronger, faster, and more skillful this way, Action Axel tells him that Slobot lost what makes himself a nice and kind toy which manages to get Slobot to realize the error of his ways.

### Uncle Andrew

When Axel's parents have to leave for a diplomatic mission, he was forced to move in with Uncle Andrew at the Toy Store. Whenever he is with his uncle, Axel is shown to love him and views him as a substitute father figure to him. Sometimes, Axel is willing to take responsibility for the household whenever his uncle isn't home by cleaning it up, even though Axel isn't always like to clean and rather play video games instead. On the fifth day of his stay, he found out from Zoe that Uncle Andrew used to be a toy inventor who created "revolutionary toys" before he opened the Toy Store to repair toys instead. And while sneaking into the workshop to fix a toy he accidentally broke later that day, Axel also found out that the "revolutionary toys" Zoe talked about are actually smart-toys, toys that can come to life by using the Minergy battery Uncle Andrew invented. But because Axel accidentally awoke the Power Players and Madcap in "Unboxing Part 1" when his uncle isn't home, he is forced to hide their existence and his superhero alter-ego from his uncle, out of fear of being punished by him when he finds out. Axel also has to watch over the Power Players team and protect the house from Madcap and/or his minions whenever they come to attack it to steal Axel's Power Bandz before Andrew gets home.

In "Countdown", Action Axel mentioned that if his uncle ever finds out about any living toys under his roof and that it is his nephew who's responsible for their outbreak, Andrew would definitely kick him out of the house. Later when Andrew tells Axel that he thought a number of his antique toys have suddenly sprung to life (when it's really Galileo who's at the workshop to try to distract Andrew long enough while the team fight against Orangutank in the living room), Axel pretends that the existence of living toys is "not possible" to prevent any suspicions.

### Zoe

Before Axel become a member of the Power Players team, he has known Zoe for five days after he moved in with Uncle Andrew and they befriend each other, as revealed in "Unboxing Part 1". Since then, Zoe and Axel have been best friends, often hanging out with each other or helping each other out. Although Axel and Zoe both tend to argue with each other because of their differences, they both tolerate each other's flaws and get along pretty well. Since Zoe is the only one who's aware of Axel's secret identity and the existence of living toys, Axel cares deeply to Zoe and he supports her as the team's ally despite lacking any superpowers herself. He's also willing to follow Zoe's advice that she would often give to him and his teammates which helps guide them on their missions.

### Luka

Luka and Axel are good friends to each other since they're both neighbors and Luka would often visit Axel's house to play with him. However, despite Luka's kindness and admiration to him, Axel fully knows how Luka often plays with the Power Players very roughly whenever he comes to visit him since Luka is unaware that the Power Players are all actually living toys so Axel would try to do whatever he can to prevent him from playing with them, such as warning Luka that he must only look at his toys and never touch them. Axel also has to prevent Luka from knowing about his secret double life as a superhero and fighting against Madcap's army to protect him, as seen in "From Below" when he have to keep Luka distracted long enough while he and his teammates are fighting against Dr. Nautilus who's attacking the Toy Store.

But despite Luka's rough playtime, the two boys get along pretty well that Axel is willing to pick Luka as his partner for the soapbox derby race in "The Best Team" after Zoe, whom Axel wanted to race with, team-up with Cleo instead. After the boys' derby car crashed because of Madcap's intervention, Axel pretends that he "scrapped" his knee so he could let Luka team-up with Zoe to finish the race for him after Cleo selfishly ditches Zoe while Axel has to deal with Madcap, Porcupunk, and Dynamo.

In "Bear-Knuckle Brawl", Axel is the only one of Luka's friends to ever show up at his sleepover, showing his loyalty to him though it's mainly because he wanted to play *Dungeon Galactic 6* with him.

### Craig

Although Axel isn't seen interacting with Craig much, they are shown to be friends since Craig came to over Axel's house to play dodgeball with him, Luka, and Zoe in "Dodge City".

### Joyride

Axel first met Joyride in his dormant state at a rummage sale at the park in "Joyride". There, he recognizes him as Zoe's childhood favorite toy and bought him as a gift for her. But during his time in Zoe's room, Axel accidentally throws Joyride into the wall while arguing with Zoe about her putting Joyride on her shelf instead of playing with him after she received her gift. And when Madcap brought Joyride to life with Minergy, Joyride targeted Axel out of anger and frustration for the incident. Action Axel, feeling guilty and wants to make Zoe happy again when Joyride proclaims that he doesn't belong to anyone after he was brought to life, journeyed to Madcap's lair to stop Joyride and returns him back to Zoe. During the fight between them, Action Axel manages to talk down Joyride about Zoe actually does love him since he's her favorite childhood toy when Joyride felt he was unloved for being kept on the shelves all his existence, which manages to convince Joyride to change for the better and they becomes friends ever since.

In "Thirst For Power", Joyride and Action Axel both work together along with the rest of the Power Players to stop Dr. Nautilus from flooding the sewers.

### Cleo LeBall

Even though Axel interacts with Cleo a lot, his relationship with her is fully unclear since Cleo is Zoe's athletic rival but they mostly get along. When Axel has trouble with his lack of dodgeball skills in "Dodge City", Cleo arrived at the backyard of his house to help teach him as his dodgeball coach. However, because of Cleo's rivalry with Zoe over who's the best, Axel wants to avoid hurting both her and Zoe's feelings if he chooses one of them is a better coach than the other while they're both teaching him. Later after Axel tricked the girls into thinking he became better at dodgeball and he's only practicing his aim based on everything they both told him, the three kids play a friendly dodgeball game near the end of the episode.

In "Friends War", hen Princess SugarSalt tries to manipulate the Power Players into thinking Axel abandons them with Cleo to destroy the team's friendship, the two kids, who're under Princess SugarSalt's spell, both hang out with each other for a long time before Zoe managed to unknowingly break the spell which snaps Axel out of his trance to rescue his teammates from Orangutank and Princess SugarSalt who're both attacking the park.

### Madcap and his army

Axel first met Madcap when he went down to Uncle Andrew's basement to fix Orangutank after he accidentally broke one of his legs. But because Axel wasn't aware of the existence of smart-toys at that time, Madcap manipulates him into opening the Toy Box and he sucks the Minergy from Axel's Power Bandz. Now that Madcap become Axel's greatest enemy, he always works very hard to stop him and his army of evil toys whenever they come to invade his house or terrorizing the city as their own way of "fun", not wanting them to win via taking his Power Bandz and using the Minergy battery to expand his army to take over the world.

## Trivia

* According to an Increditainment's Facebook page, Axel's age is written as "10" instead of "9". This isn't considered a typo anymore since Axel had turned 10 a week after the webisode "Power Chef".
* The name **Axel** means "father of peace", which fits his role as both the leader and peacemaker of the Power Players.
* Before the series premiere, Axel's name was first revealed on February 11, 2019.
* In concept arts, he had a different armor design as Action Axel.
* After the episode "Out Of My Head", Axel has been staying with Andrew and being a member of the Power Players for more than six months.
* Despite Axel's age, Andrew sometimes lets him stay home alone because he feels his nephew is old enough to be in charge of taking care of the house while he's gone, as revealed in "From Below".

* On Jeremy Zag's 33rd birthday, Tarik Hamdine made a drawing of Action Axel as a gift for him.
* So far, Axel's transformation sequence into Action Axel is kept the same with him wearing his regular attire without any variations. This leads to animation errors when he wears a different outfit instead of his regular attire in episodes, such as "All Trick No Treat" (his Dracula costume), "Winner Takes All" (without his vest), and "The Thing in the Wall" (his pajamas).
* Like the rest of the Power Players, Axel has a different Power Players insignia than in the final product. However, one character render of Axel accidentally depicts him with the early insignia design on his shirt.
* According to him and Zoe at the beginning of "Unboxing Part 1", Axel has been living with his uncle for five days before he meets the Power Players and Madcap.
* Before he became the leader of the Power Players, he didn't have the team insignia on his shirt as seen in most of the "Unboxing Special" until near the end of the episode. The insignia also appears on his pajamas.
* In "Gathering Dark", it is revealed Axel is afraid of barbershops.
* Early in production, Axel's last name was originally going to be **Applerod**.
* Axel owns two pairs of the same shoes he wears on a daily basis with the second pair often seen in his room.
* When Axel is playing with Orangutank and Porcupunk in "Unboxing Part 1", he calls himself "Action Axel". After the events of the next episode, he uses that name whenever he transforms himself into a living action figure by the Power Bandz.
* Axel accidentally becomes a villain in "Bring on the Bad Guys" when he gets sick and he sneezes into his armor as Action Axel which causes it to malfunction temporarily. Though, he later gets back to his normal self after the Power Players' fight against Madcap's army at a supermarket.

## References

1. ↑ https://malayvoicescastcollection.blogspot.com/2021/03/power-players.html?m=1
2. ↑ https://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/cns-september-premiers-steven-universe-the-movie-power-players/ "Axel, a 9 year old boy, discovers for the first time the incredible “Power Bandz” that give him the power to transform into a living toy."
3. ↑ PowerPlayers.TV description "Axel is a mischievous, optimistic, and energetic 9-year-old kid."
4. ↑ in Side Kicked when Axel remarks "long enough for me to do what had to be done", Zoe quips "infuriate him with nine-year-old boy logic?"
5. ↑ https://www.powerplayers.tv/
6. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/Increditainment/posts/playmates-toys-proudly-presents-the-power-playersby-mike-stencelmunson1897-playm/1237172506433277/
7. ↑ https://www.licensingmagazine.com/2019/02/11/zag-americas-zag-heroez-power-players-to-debut-on-cartoon-network/?lang=en
8. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgvm4cVnp6z/
9. ↑ https://trello.com/c/w3Vw7Ww6/457-offair-reuni%C3%A3o-pecegueiro-power-players-globr015064

**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