MActionAnimation.action == 511 ???

Hi all!

i have a custom player geometry i'm trying to use in stock 1.4. as far as i know i have all required joints, and base animations. when i load, i crash because when i get here, mActionAnimation.action == 511. if i wrap the code in an if as below, no prob of course. but what am i missing to cause mActionAnimation.action to be at its max value when ->actionCount == 9 ?? am i missing some base animations?

//if(mActionAnimation.action < mDataBlock->actionCount){
          S32 seq = mDataBlock->actionList[mActionAnimation.action].sequence;               
                  
           F32 pos = mShapeInstance->getPos(mActionAnimation.thread);

           mShapeInstance->setTimeScale(mActionAnimation.thread, -sLandReverseScale);
                  
            mShapeInstance->transitionToSequence(mActionAnimation.thread,
                                                    seq, pos, sAnimationTransitionTime, true);
               
 //}

any ideas?

thanks,

j