Not Toying Around: Legend in Plastic Bootsy Collins Talks Toys, New Music

The man who brought funk to the masses is getting ready to hit the road. With a new album, Album of the Year #1 Funkateer, and a West Coast tour, Bootsy Collins is bringing otherworldly funk to the stage. While fans wait to see the legendary music star in their hometown, they can have the stage at home, with three action figures from Super7.

“Bootsy brings intergalactic funk and color,” says Ashley Anderson, Director of Integrated Marketing, Super7. The collectibles company released its black and red 3.75-inch ReAction figure in 2023. A second figure, of the musician in a black and gold suit, followed. Its psychedelic, glow-in-the-dark Wave 3 figure was released in January. “I think it locked in really good,” Collins says, “Back in the day, when we were actually trying to get things made, funk was like a bad word, and so we didn’t get too much mileage out of it that way.”

Collins rose to prominence with James Brown before he joined Parliament-Funkadelic, establishing himself as the leading artist in funk. In 1976, he formed Bootsy’s Rubber Band. The packaging for both figures features his iconic star-shaped, studded sunglasses, which can be punched from the blistered cardback packaging. Both figures are accessorized by a star-shaped bass.

“Things have fallen in place with Super7,” Collins says. “They came up out of the clear blue with this great action figure, and we loved it.” Having a glow-in-the-dark figure didn’t seem possible in the 1970s, he says. “The things that we couldn’t get done back in the day are happening. And that really makes you feel good.”

Today, action figures complement the genre perfectly. “It’s kind of like the perfect condition for the funk, because if you ain’t got no funk then you sunk. So you got to have some fun,” he adds, noting that the ReAction figures give fans the opportunity to recreate his shows and media appearances. “I think it’s the bomb, and I think people are ready for it.”

Collins is open to expanding his likeness to more figures or characters. “I think that would be a great follow-up,” he reflects, noting, “I thought they did an excellent job.”

Action figures help younger generations less familiar with his work — or the funk genre — connect to the music. “Well, a lot of kids coming up now don’t know who in the heck what is a Bootsy,”  he says. “A lot of kids just like toys and people who are superheroes.” With the glow-in-the-dark figure, new album, and future plans, everything is aligned: “I think it’s a perfect time for Bootsy.”

This may be unfair to younger generations. Not only has Collins consistently released music and collaborated with popular musicians across genres, his song “I’d Rather Be With You” was sampled on Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” in 2016; Collins infamously played bass on Deee-Lite’s seminal 1990 hit “Groove Is in the Heart,” which never left the airwaves. Collins appears on Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” and “The Joker,” and he was a member of alternative metal band Praxis with Brain from Primus, Buckethead, and Bernie Worrell, a founding member of Parliament Funkadelic. He is the mastermind of Silk Sonic, an award-winning collaboration between Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. In 2022, Collins appeared in the celebrity guest segment of an episode of The Patrick Star Show, a SpongeBob SquarePants spin-off on Nickelodeon.

“It’s more, I guess, acceptable,” Collins says of funk today. “It’s more embraced now than it was, I think, in the beginning, but most people didn’t know what the heck it was. And nowadays, everybody knows everything because they got a smartphone.”

Thanks to a strong licensing program, Super7’s ReAction Figures aren’t the only Bootsy Collins products on the shelves. Fretboard Brewing, his official beer partner, collaborated with the superstar to brew Bootsy Brewski IPA. He also collaborated with Central Coast Wine Works to create Funkship Chardonnay, Bootzilla Cabernet, and The Power of One, a cabernet. For mornings, the under-caffeinated can drink Bootzilla Blend coffee, a blend of three beans from Latin America with notes of dark chocolate, ripe orange, black cherry, walnut, or Funk Not Fight, an Ethiopian blend with notes of dark chocolate, grapefruit, and crisp flowers. Both blends are from Concerts. Cafe. Or spice up your life instead, with one of three hot sauces from United Sauces: The One, Body Slam, and Bootzilla. The Bootzilla concept alone takes a fan from day to night.

A portion of draft and canned sales benefit the Bootsy Collins Foundation, which aims to inspire children. The Foundation partners with Mercy Health-Clermont Hospital in Batavia, Ohio, and works with The Life Saving endowment, which provides patients with access to antibiotics and education in memory of Kyle Willis, his nephew and a 24-year-old father who died in 2011 as a result of the inability to access health care. Through Bootzilla Productions and Funk University, he mentors young creatives; with Funk Not Fight, founded in 2022, he aims “to stop the tide of violence and unrest in our communities.”

Is Collins going to save the world? The Toy Book asked if he’d be open to a comic book. “We should go ahead and start working on that,” he says with excitement. “We’re working on a book right now, but a comic book, that would definitely be the way to go,” Collins says. The book will be about his life. “How I actually started in the business that I didn’t even think of as a business,” he explains. “I was just having a good time. It was more about self-expression and having a good time and making people happy.” Publication is expected in fall 2026.

Collins writes and records in a studio filled with toys. “I got a whole studio full of stuff that I collect and people give me, I guess because I look like a cartoon or something,” he says. Fans give him alien toys, action figures, and dolls; he loves The 3 Stooges and the characters he enjoyed as a kid, like Roy Rogers. “A lot of the stuff I keep in the studio is inspiration. It’s just hard to find fun now,” he reflects.

As a child, Collins was interested in every toy.  “I started with probably the cowboys on TV,” he says, expressing a fondness for Roy Rogers and Superman. “The comic books introduced me to a whole cast of superheroes that I wanted to be,” he says, noting that it built the foundation to his persona. “I wanted to be this character,” he says, “and I had the opportunity to do it. The kid in me won’t let me grow up.”

Album of the Year #1 Funkateer is out now. Fans can catch Collins in conversation May 30 at the Grammy Museum. The event is moderated by Ice Cube. “That’s going to be pretty exciting,” Collins notes. A West Coast tour, starting in Las Vegas, will follow. Find Collins near you and online at bootsycollins.com.