Ever wondered what it would be like to have your own action figure? Former Beverly resident Harold Chin now knows.

He's featured as a small plastic pirate on the Empress Captain Sao Feng and Crew box set fashioned after his character in the third "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie "At World's End." Chin, 55, was grouped with more than 50 Asian actors picked to play Singapore pirates on the Empress ship. However, only he and one other were crafted into toys.

"It was a total shock," Chin said.

He was Christmas shopping at Target after Dec. 4, when the "At World's End" DVD came out, and saw a flier advertising action figures based on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" film series, a trio of swashbuckling tales inspired by the Disney theme park attraction.

The store was closing in a couple of minutes, but Chin booked it to the toy section and grabbed all three box sets having to do with the third movie. It wasn't until he got to the checkout line that he started looking at them, and one pirate in particular stood out.

"I said, 'Hey, that looks like my helmet. And that looks like my belt. That's me!' What's really distinguishing is my mustache," Chin said.

Chin's mustache, both in real life and on his miniature replica, has a small space in the middle.

Though Chin has scored minor parts in shows like "Everybody Hates Chris" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," as well as small roles in upcoming movies like "Bachelor No. 2" and "The Pink Panther 2," the fact he made it onto merchandise confirms his theory about "his look."

For most of his life he was clean-shaven, but when the salesman left Beverly six years ago to pursue an acting career, he grew a goatee and mustache. He believes the image has helped significantly in landing roles, and it was definitely a factor when the toy company Zizzle was deciding which pirates to feature.

"We chose the figures we used in that assortment, and all of our figure assortments, based upon who we knew, or were told by Disney, would have the most significant parts in the movie," said company representative Scott Goldberg, "and for whom we had the best reference to develop accurate likenesses in our figures." That is, the more distinctive or recognizable a character's look, the more likely he was to be immortalized in plastic.

However, Chin doesn't want to rely on his look alone.

"This is one step in the journey," he said. "I'm starting out. The look is distinguishable, and Hollywood loves it. But to stand out and have a look is only one part of the equation. The craft is very important."

In the movie, Chin is in a beginning bathhouse scene. He's sleeping in a reclining bamboo chair with an opium pipe in his mouth, about three feet from where Orlando Bloom's character, Will Turner, is taking a bath. Captain Sao Feng approaches Turner and asks him angrily what he's doing in the bathhouse. It turns into a big battle, one that involved a stunt double for Chin, when his character was thrown overboard.

With his character's untimely end, Chin never expected he would then be featured in a box set with Empress Captain Sao Feng, another main pirate Tai Huang, and another supporting Singapore pirate.

"You grow up, and you're playing with toys," he said. "To think you could be one is totally incomprehensible and an unbelievable feeling."