The Maxx- then and now review from McFarlane Toys and Shocker Toys

(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.

La Lunatica of the X-Men 2099 series from Toy Biz

(Holos, now in shockin' flavor)

Toy Biz and Marvel, two companies that were nearly inseparable until 2006 when the license was sold off to Hasbro for a multi-million dollar price tag. During their reign at the top of the toy world, Toy Biz made some really awesome figures with groundbreaking articulation and they also made some of the worst figures I ever set my eyes on. In fact to this date, some of those ghastly figures are still the worst ones I've ever seen my entire life. You can't really be angry with Toy Biz though, their progressive evolution made action figures what they became today. I like to look back and say if there's someone to blame, it must be Marvel comics. Look at some of the artwork they had to deal with to attempt to compose a figure and you might just agree with me by the end of this blog.

(tonight's unfortunate choice. To be honest, I always used her as a female version of Lobo from DC Comics)

X-Men 2099 was one of those series that has simply been pushed into the black hole of collective forgetfulness of comic book readers. I have friends that are huge comic fans and they have never mentioned it in conversation, not even to make fun of it. To be quite honest, I had to go back and read a few issues so I'd have some background for this review. Also, this book came out in the mid 1990's when Marvel couldn't wait for an excuse to flood store shelves with yet another book of a futuristic/ alternate dimensional stories that have loose ties to current continuity. This series was full of a bunch of strange creations( both heroes and villains, and sometimes that line wasn't so clear) with such memorable names as Brimstone Love, Halloween Jack, Shadow Dancer amongst many others ( I won't bore you too much, those of you who continued reading past the mention of X-Men 2099 I personally applaud you.).

(behold, Toy Biz and their shameless attempts to take your hard earned allowance)

The basic card for the X-Men 2099 series was a die-cut backer done in blue, purple and gray with the X-Men 2099 logo at the top of the card. La Lunatica comes packaged with a funky silver colored blade that snaps into her hand and runs along her forearm and..........a futuristic jai-lai ball and catcher? (I'm about as lost as you are right now.) I always thought she should have come with a flight stand or something like that. Unless you read the back of the package or the comic you'd never know she's a vampire. A psychic vampire at that, feeding off of painful memories and turning those memories on them to defend herself ( man, this character kinda blows.) even though she possesses super strength as well. Her outfit has been altered to not be as risque as it is in the comic but the black straps painted on make the figure sexier looking than the bare flesh did. This is a tactic Toy Biz did several times during their reign behind Marvel's toy marketing juggernaut, changing outfits or even names of characters to make them less offensive on toy store shelves. This often confused most readers since they found nothing initially wrong with the characters in the first place. Especially myself, when making a quick run through a toy department and always thinking why someone was taking all the Holocaust figures when unbeknownst to me he had been renamed to Nemesis (really Toy Biz?). I was just looking at the name tags, I never looked at the figures because I had to meet my parents in front of the store by the time they finished shopping if I wanted to get something.

(kind of reminds me of Sindel from Mortal Kombat)

(slight resemblance, or maybe it's just the knockers.....it's the knockers) 

(I want to give the custom figure artist credit for this one, because I don't remember where I found this picture and I didn't know anyone had fond memories of anything related to the 2099 story arc)

X-Men 2099, a toy and comic series long forgotten and probably will never be resurected.

At least we hope not.  

Star Wars Storm Trooper 15 inch bootleg from Mexico

(Star Wars: Episode Dos, Attack of the Hombres)

Mexico; land of great food, awesome professional wrestling and highly sought after bootleg toys. Star Wars bootlegs range from very shoddy constructed hunks of plastic to really well made toys that rival what Hasbro makes. Often these figures are considerably bigger than the originals they are molded from or modeled after. In the toy world, bigger isn't always better. Bigger figures sometimes feel kind of plain due to lack of details or paint applications. This particular figure may be big, but it doesn't disappoint in any way. Bigger than any Storm Trooper that came before it, I give you the Taco Trooper.

(Nooooooooo!)

(Carmen Miranda meets a galaxy far, far away)

I had heard of this particular bootleg several years ago when I started getting into Jumbo Machinders (Shogun Warriors). On several of the message boards, a well known collector and forum contributor posted pictures of the same bootleg I'm talking about today in it's original packaging (a cellophane baggie with a cardboard header, fairly traditional for Mexican bootlegs) standing next to a 3 ¾ inch Storm Trooper from the vintage Kenner line. I was dead set on finding and buying this bootleg but never found it. Years passed by and even though I placed the acquisition of this bootleg very high on my list of must haves, I had never come across one. In the time it took me to find this one piece I moved, got married, bought over 25 collections, four Jumbo Shogun Warriors, a Blue Snaggletooth, 3 Dinosaucers, 3 Tiger Sharks, a whole set of Bandai Tick figures on the card, a complete set of Dune figures and fleshed out my sofubi collection from one shelf to half my living room. The day I received this piece was definitely a day for celebration.

Standing a full 3 inches taller than the 12 inch Storm Trooper, this bootleg is automatically impressive. The plastic used is a little thinner than what you'd find used in a Jumbo Shogun Warrior with a very unfinished, raw texture. The white plastic is detailed with black paint, sloppily spray painted in the right spots. The only other notable thing about the figure is the scaled reproduction blaster that comes rubber banned to the leg. Back when this figure came out, toys like the Gentle Giant large scale Kenner repros were merely a dream and now they are a reality. Was this figure the inspiration for a bigger company to come out with a superior product or was it just a great toy that was forgotten before it's time? I'm rather fond of it and if you found yourself desiring one for your own collection, I wish you lots of luck.

(the next three pics are from www.theswca.com)

Star Wars: Imperial Sentinel from the Expanded Universe collection by Kenner

(Look into the eyes of your impending doom.)

Kenner's Expanded Universe series came too early in the Star Wars figure series. Kenner fully relaunched Star Wars in 1995 and this series only came out three years after that. Only fans that were seriously immersed in the saga would have had any clue who these eight figures were. Hell, most people's first introduction to the Expanded Universe was Shadows of the Empire for N64, which is still in my personal top 5 N64 games of all time. But even the figure series based on Shadows of the Empire didn't make it past the first wave of figures and ships. No Virago ship, no Skyhook space station and no figure of Dash Rendar's faithful co-pilot Leebo (LE-BO2D9). Also, Lucas says only what's in the movies should be considered canon and nothing else. So at any time he could completely debunk an entire continuity just on the whim of continuing the Star Wars Saga past episode 6 or before episode 1. In the end, the Expanded Universe exists by the good graces of George Lucas and no one else.

(care of figure-archive.com)

This series for me was so cool since I was always reading the novels and comic books. When I saw names like Admiral Thrawn or Mara Jade, it sent my mind racing into thinking about all the figures they could make out of my favorite characters. The only serious downside was the price of these figures was slightly more than the basic figure assortment on the shelves. All things considered, they were worth it to support a budding line but it didn't do it any good. Out of all eight, one figure stood out above anyone else, the Imperial Sentinel.

This figure was massive, filling the bubble top to bottom and left to right he was worth all the money. But there was something more about him, like I had seen him before but in an older picture and it wasn't the comic book. At this point it finally came to me, this was the original design for Atha Prime with a couple of color changes. Atha Prime was supposed to be the main villain after the fall of the emperor if Lucas had continued Star Wars past Return of the Jedi. His back story was that he was a genetics terrorist that had a falling out with the Emperor and had been banished into the most remote part of the galaxy with his clone warriors. His story was supposed to be able to bridge Obi-Wan's mention of the Clone Wars to the Star Wars saga, instead we got Jar Jar Binks, an Australian-accented precursor to Boba Fett and fairly cool ethnic cleansing of the Jedi Order. This made the figure even more desirable to me, like a small piece of Star Wars history that never was in physical form in front of me. One good thing about Lucas is that he never throws away an idea for a character, it will eventually be used or recycled into something else later down the line.

The Imperial Sentinel has only 4 points of articulation and no legs. His base is the similar, but not identical, as the late 90's Royal Guard figure which give the figure a strange salt and pepper shaker feeling. He comes packaged with an ax staff, which I'm sure is called something like a vibro-ax or force ax or something like that ( in the Star Wars universe you can't have something as simple as a plain old knife, it's gotta vibrate or something. Don't believe me, read one of the character guides.). An added bonus feature was the back of the card opened up into a pop up diorama to proudly display your figures, like they walked off the comic pages and into your hand.

(original design art of Atha Prime)

(not just one but two times the fun)

(actually a Star Wars mini of the Imperial Sentinel, like I said Lucas rarely shit cans a design.)

(excellent example of the instant diorama on the back of the package)

Anakin Skywalker on tri-logo card by Kenner 1983

(credit goes to Wizard of X for this amazing photo)

Power of the Force was the most unique series created by Kenner for the Star Wars figure line. The line was rich with characters that barely had more than 15 seconds of screen time, which was a rarity since Star Wars was a line driven by main characters instead of perifial characters. This line was a fanboy's dream come true because by this point we all had 5 different Lukes, 5 Leias, 4 Hans and (of all characters) 3 Landos! Each figure came with a alluminum collector's coin that corresponded to the character in the package. This was Kenner's attempt to breathe a little life into the license by adding some unqiue figures to the series, unfortunately this line came out in 1985 and it was Kenner's last time out with Star Wars till the mid 90's when they attempted to revive it with bendable rubber figures. Dubbed as the last 17 in many circles, the Power of the Force line was responsible for such great additions Han in Carbonite, Amanaman, Yak Face, Imperial Dignitary, Luke in Storm Trooper disguise, Imperial Gunner, Barada, EV-9D9 and today's topic; Anakin Skywalker.

(today's catch, it may be a little rough but it's seen things man.)

Anakin came to me on a Tri-logo card. Tri-logo cards were released overseas and displayed the title of the line in English, French and Spanish. Most of the time the back of the card was incomplete; either the figure count on the back wasn't consistent with the character that was attached to it or some of the figures were blacked out on the back. Some tri-logo figures did hit US stores near the end of Star Wars' run as the dominant force in the toy aisles, unfortunately a good portion of these figures hit clearance on damaged cards (card cut in half, the non-English phrases blacked out with magic marker or smashed bubbles). The one I picked up wasn't in too bad of condition, the buble is cracked and coming loose on the right side but the card is in perfect condition with no yellowing, wrinkling or warping. The figure inside is totally mint, without a single flaw and I doubt it's ever been touched since 1983.

(acted better than Hayden Christensen in 3 minutes, 'nuff said)

The ghost of Anakin Skywalker was one of my favorite scenes from Return of the Jedi because it made no sense at all. We all knew (before the prequels came out) that Darth Vader was “more machine than man” and probably looked nothing like Sebastian Shaw. But, if you suspended disbelief for a second you could imagine that if Anakin hadn't been corrupted by the Dark Side of the Force, this is what he may have looked like. A smiling old man in grey and white robes who brought balance to the force (which is true if you think about it. It went from 100's of Jedi vs 2 Sith to 2 Jedi vs 2 Sith, whatcha' think about that?). Anakin has the basic Kenner five points of articulation and even though it's a really monotone figure the colors are very rich.

(yub yub indeed!)

Great Mazinger Shogun Warrior by Mattel

(cartoons without subtitles, use your imagination)

The legend centers around the character of Tetsuya Tsurugi, an orphan raised by none other than Kenzo Kabuto. Kenzo is the once thought dead father of Mazinger Z pilot Kouji Kabuto. Kenzo Kabuto is the creator of the new and improved version of Mazinger by refining his father's Chogokin Z (Super Alloy Z) into a stronger form with better weapons to take on humanity's new enemy; the Mikenese Empire. This evil empire is led by the Great General of Darkness and his army of Warrior Beasts, which have little more than domination on their minds. Kenzo gives the Great Mazinger to Tetsuya to pilot, who is accompanied by a new token girl Jun Hono (an orphaned half Japanese, half black girl) in her female robot Venus A.
Both Great Mazinger's and Tetsuya's training are completed just in time to come to Kouji's aid as the Mycene Battle Beasts overwhelm Mazinger Z. With the original Mazinger destroyed, Kouji went to America to study space travel and left Japan's defense in the hands of Tetsuya and the Fortress of Science. Tetsuya battles the Mycene Battle Beasts and even their mighty generals, cumulating in a bitter final battle with the Mycene's Great General of Darkness; Ankoku Daishogun. After the Great General of Darkness' defeat, the Mycene forces are rallied by Dr. Hell (the villain from Mazinger Z) back under the guise of the Great Marshall of Hell.

(because every good intro credits deserves some kick ass end credits)

(I'm not sure what the fuck he just said but we better give him all of our money b/c that toy looks awesome!)

The series also includes some other cast members from the original Mazinger Z show like Shiro Kabuto (Koji's little brother) and comic-relief robot; Boss Borot. The show, unfortunately, wasn't as successful in Japan as the original and it was never aired in the United States. But as usual, good portions of South America and Europe got to see the show unedited and in its entirety ( like Mazinger Z, because the show we got here was watered down from it's original cuts).

My all time favorite Shogun Warrior, Great Mazinger. I always like him because of all the play features; firing finger missiles with racks of backup missiles on both legs and shoulders, removable swords that stowaway into the tops of the thighs and a removable “brain” ship. How can you not love a robot that can flip you the bird and then shoot it right at you! Of all the revisions done to this particular Shogun Warrior, this one is my favorite and I actually refused to buy anything but this version. From what I've found, this one would be considered revision one. Revision one had the raised red “V” on it's chest and the removable “brain” ship while later versions went to a flat “V” sculpted on the chest accented with a red sticker and a stationary “brain” ship.

Definitely a restoration piece, when I received it in the mail it required a considerable amount of cleaning and it was missing the missile firing hand. Luckily for me, I had found an missile firing hand a few months prior to purchasing this piece in a local collectibles shop for a very good price. When completing Jumbo Machinders, you learn to pick up extra and sometimes unnecessary pieces when you find them. Most of the time they are used for trade against stuff you do need down the line to complete robots in your own collection or to help out a fellow collector. But then again, some of that is the very nature of toy collecting in general. As you're reading this right now, I've already got reproduction swords and missiles on order and I'm waiting to find an original “brain” ship to complete my Mazinger. Looking forward to bringing everyone pictures of the final product.