Mike Bellon, founder of Action Sports Toys, LLC, was inspired while surfing to create a toy that would allow children to mimic his moves on the water, reports The Village News.
“I was riding a wave at Mission Beach when I decided I wanted to be innovative. I looked at electronics and computers, but I thought that toys would be the perfect outlet for me to focus on. I wanted to make a surfer that would ride the waves and could be controlled by wires,” said Bellon, a licensed general contractor, who renovated and remodeled custom homes for a living.
However, Bellon’s original concept for creating a miniature surfer wouldn’t come to fruition. Instead, Bellon turned to focusing on the plastic action figure in order to create a new, fun toy that children of all ages would enjoy. His goal was to put action into action figures.
“Action figures don’t really do anything,” said Bellon. “They are in a stiff, static state.”
To put more movement into his new figurine prototype, Bellon disassembled a 12-inch action figure and placed springs in between the joints and wires inside the plastic limbs. While the prototype had more movement, it was easily broken.
“In order to allow the figure to flip and spin a skateboard, I had to control it straight from through the top of the toy,” explained Bellon. “From here, I have the most control.”
With this slight modification, Bellon’s figure could do skater tricks that couldn’t be easily done with toys before.