(still bad ass after all these years)
The Maxx was comic book series created
by Sam Kieth and published originally monthly by Image Comics and now
collected in trade paperback collections from DC Comic's Wildstorm
entertainment. The comic book spawned an animated series that aired
on the MTV's liquid television (along with Aeon Flux and other great
forgotten classics). The first appearance of The Maxx was in Primer,
issue five published by Comico Comics in the early 90's to the best
of my knowledge.
(the reason I became a junior high school insomniac)
The series follows the adventures of
the titular hero in the real world and in an alternate reality,
referred to as The Outback. In the real world the Maxx is a vagrant
living in a box while in the Outback he is the powerful protector of
the Jungle Queen. The Jungle Queen is similar to the Maxx in that she
also exists in the real world as Julie Winters, a freelance social
worker who often bails the Maxx out of jail. While the Maxx is aware
of the Outback, Julie unfortunately is not, though it is integral to
both of their stories arcs.
(homeless people, now in purple flavor)
McFarlane Toys' release of the Maxx
action figure as a total surprise to 15 year old Tom Khayos. I had
been a big fan of the cartoon and quickly started collecting the
comic books from the local shop's discount bins. I never got a full
set of the comics but I had recorded every episode of the Maxx from
MTV's late night programming block. The show was creepy, confusing
and damned cool; the very notion of having a figure of the main
character was exciting. Before I even knew this was happening I had
already taken a Toy Biz Hulk figure and painted it purple and
sculpted Izs in art class at school.
(WARNING: the prototypes always look 10 times cooler than the actual product)
Anyways, McFarlane Toys was coming out
with about 6 new, highly desired figures every couple of months and
this became a problem with my wallet. I eventually had to start
picking and choosing which figures to pursue and which to hope to
pick up on clearance or at the flea market because working part time
stock at KB Toys just wasn't covering my toy expenses. Even only
buying two or three figures per line I had accumulated a nice display
of Spawn figures; from Spawn and Malbolgia to Violator, Angela and
even the Spawn Alley play set. With series 4 coming out, I had
decided that the Maxx was the only figure I would be buying, mostly
because series 5 was heavy with must haves.
(this is what we got, WHAT THE HELL TODD?)
McFarlane Toys really changed the toy
collecting game by introducing store exclusives, variants and
repaints on a major level. Little did I know McFarlane Toys made
several variants on the Maxx figure along with online and store
exclusives, so simply buying one figure turned into a quest for all
the available releases of the figure. After 4 months and about $80
later (remember, McFarlane Toys were the first figures that retailed
for damn near $10 each) I had every Maxx that was available but had
forgotten to buy one to open! By the time I had realized this, series
4 was no longer available and series 5 was nearly sold out and I had
a veritable army of Maxx figures and couldn't talk myself into
opening a single one of them. It wasn't till several years later when
buying a friend's collection of toys I finally got my loose Maxx
figure.
The McFarlane Toys' Maxx figure was
definitely more impressive in the package than it was out of it.
Nothing at all wrong with the sculpt or the paint job, those were
just fine. My gripe was the scale, the Maxx is supposed to be taller
than a human and nearly as wide chested as the Hulk and this figure
was just a little on the small side. Also, the lack of articulation
hindered the collector on being able to take him out of the crouching
pose he was locked in. The Izs on the other hand were really awesome,
well sculpted with different faces and bendable arms made me wish I
had a Julie Winters figure to torment with them. I guess I was hoping
to more of a deluxe scale figure or maybe something with a little
more articulation. Not a total disappointment but the figure left me
wanting more.
(hey Todd, fuck you man!)
Where McFarlane Toys failed to impress
me, Shocker Toys did nothing but impress me. The Maxx from Shocker
Toys is massive, heavy and gives the collector everything they had
wished for. Not only is the figure finally to scale, but he's nicely
articulated so the collector get decent range of movement without
compromising the sculpt. Not only does The Maxx come with a couple of
Izs, everyone else in the Indie Spotlight line from Shocker Toys
includes at least one Iz and The Maxx comes with an additional head
so he can transition to Outback Maxx. A total must have, no doubt
about it.
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