The Captain Action Flicker Button was produced by Pictorial Productions Inc. in Mt. Vernon, N.Y, USA in 1967. The button is based on the Captain Action flicker ring set containing a Vari-Vue lenticular image, with the Phantom found amongst a collection of other comic book characters including Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Captain America, Flash Gordon, Steve Canyon, The Lone Ranger, Tonto, Buck Rogers, Spider Man, The Green Hornet and Sgt. Fury.
Lenticular images date back to the 1930’s, with the USA based company Vari-Vue establishing the name ‘lenticular’ to describe it’s newly created product, an image with a thin layer of plastic on the surface, giving the effect that the image is changing or moving as it’s viewed from a different angle.
Other terms commonly associated with lenticular images include ‘flickers’, ‘winkies’, ‘wiggle pictures’ or ’tilt cards’. The trademarks ‘Vari-Vue’ and ‘Magic Motion’ are often used for lenticular images, without regard to the actual manufacturer.
Vari-Vue became well known in the late 1940s, producing lenticular image products by the millions, including gumball machine toys, postcards, trading cards, framed wall hangings, greeting cards, advertisements, children’s toys and so much more.
In the 1950s and 1960s, a large number of buttons were produced featuring lenticular images, with a variety of themes seen including for political campaigns, music identities such as The Beetles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley, Disneyland and Disney characters, product merchandising such as Coca Cola, and many more. By this time, Vari-Vue was licensing it’s lenticular image production technique to other companies.
The Captain Action Flicker Button measures 2.5” in diameter, with the Vari-Vue lenticular image housed in a red tin casing and a pin at the rear of the button made of brass. Also at the rear of the button, we see the producers name, ‘Pictorial Productions Inc.’ and their location, ‘Mt. Vernon, N.Y.’. We also see that it’s registered with Vari-Vue, with a patent number of 2,818,310 present, which is found across a variety of Pictorial Productions Inc. produced buttons.
The Phantom/Captain Action lenticular image is seen on the button on the second row of comic book characters, in the fourth image across.
The Captain Action Flicker Button is actually an uncut sheet of images produced by Veri-Vue for the the Captain Action toy rings which were found with the Captain Action figure, released by the Ideal Toy Corporation in Canada in 1967. An example of the Phantom/Captain Action toy ring containing the lenticular image as found on the button can be seen below.
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