Cool Stuff: Captain Planet Funko POPs Are Here To Take Pollution Down To Zero

In the 1980s and early 1990s, cartoons often featured positive moral lessons in a PSA style, like the "knowing is half the battle" segments of "G.I. Joe" or the "Sailor Says" endings of "Sailor Moon." Many of these additions were due to the passing of the "Children's Television Act" in 1991, legalizing what so many shows had already been doing — serving the "educational and informational" needs of children. A lot of times, these PSA announcements had something to do with the episode that just played, but sometimes they, like "Sonic Sez" on "The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog," had absolutely nothing to do with the cartoon ... like that time Sonic gave a PSA on sexual harassment. (I'm dead serious.)

Then there was "Captain Planet and the Planeteers," an environmentalist superhero series from Barbara Pyle and Ted Turner that took the PSA requirement and turned it into the premise of the entire show. As LeVar Burton narrates at the start of the show, "Our world is in peril. Gaia, the spirit of the Earth can no longer stand the terrible destruction plaguing our planet." To combat this, Gaia sent five magic rings to teens around the globe: Kwame from Africa with the power of Earth, Wheeler in North America with the power of Fire, Linka from the Soviet Union with the power of Wind, Gi from Asia with the power of Water, and Ma-Ti from South America (and Suchi, the spider monkey) with the power of Heart. When these five combine their powers, they summon Captain Planet, Earth's greatest champion!

Now, the eco-heroes of Captain Planet and the Planeteers, as well as Gaia, have been immortalized in Funko POP form, specifically based on "The New Adventures of Captain Planet."

Captain Planet and the Planeteers are available in a pack of six on Amazon, for $79.99, but each figure is also available individually for $12.99 each. But the big news has to deal with the new exclusives. The two figures include Gaia, who is on sale at Funko for $15, and a POP of Captain Planet flying, that is unfortunately already sold out. The latter is part of their POPs! with Purpose initiative, where proceeds from each purchase go toward charity. In the case of the flying Captain Planet and Gaia, a percentage of the purchase cost will benefit Rivet, an organization that focuses on utilizing the collective economic power of Gen Z to fund youth-led social change. The minimum contribution guaranteed from these sales is $5,000, which is certainly a nice chunk of change for any charity.

Funko

While this is certainly a reputable charity to support, it seems odd that Funko isn't outright partnering with an organization looking to combat climate change or an environmental-specific charity. It's also a weird-as-hell bit of irony to make Captain Planet figures at all, as this is a product coming from the company that dumped over $30 million worth of stock into a landfill earlier this year. The polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used to make the POPs does not degrade in landfills, meaning that all $30 million worth of product will remain in the ground for centuries. But hey, at least now we can all buy a bit of hard plastic to prove to everyone looking at our shelves that we super care about the environment! The power is yours!