MAX STEEL - Blade Attack Dredd

Like I mentioned with the previous figure I reviewed for this franchise, I am not familiar with these characters but I assume that this guy is Max Steel's main arch enemy . He looks wicked and menacing and comes with two cool action features. Blade Attack Dredd comes with no accessories but his action features make up for that. Dredd's action features are (1) his right arm emits a red light and (2) make the blades / propeller attached to his right wrist spin. You can get him at places like Wal-Mart for around a 9-10 dollar price range.

Once you remove Dredd from the package, you'll discover that he has very little articulation. The legs move up and down, his left wrist rotates in a 360 degree circular motion. His head can do the same yet it somewhat restricted a little due to these edges on the tips of his shoulder blades. Both arms can move up and down and his right elbow spins / rotates for the spinning action feature.
Speaking of his right arm, there is a real treat for those of us that are curious as to how things work. If you look real closely at Dredd's right arm , you can see the gears and circuitry inside that make his action features function . You can really see them well when his red light is on. The camera really does not do my claim much justice but hopefully you can see some of the gears and even a circuit chip inside his arm in the pics below.

Can you see the micro chip in the above pic? It's right where you see the black button. Speaking of the black button, this is what you press to activate the light up feature. To activate his spinning action, you just press downward on his right shoulder attachment, the one you see in the pic above the one above.
The spinning action is not a continuous long spin. Instead it is a very short spin for a few seconds after pressing the button once. For multiple and continuous spins you must constantly keep pressing the button. Dredd is slightly taller than 6" inches. As you can see in the pics below, the 6" mark is right at his shoulder blade and that he is slightly taller than Max Steel .

On the packaging there is notice of locking up the blades for a power punch. I assume the power punch is referring to the spinning action. Mattel does a nice job of providing detailed instructions on operating the toy. Not to mention explaining how to remove and replace the batteries if you use up the power on his light feature. You can purchase these special batteries at any local Radio Shack or electronic specialty stores.

Of Dredd's two action features, I can not make up my mind which one I like the best. The spinning blades or the red light. The following comparison pic between Dredd's light and Max Steel's light may help you decide who's light feature is the coolest. If you ask me, I like Max's blue light the best. It is very bright and almost blinding . Whereas Dredd's light is more dim, more reminiscent of a forest wood fire at night . I say the brighter the better in my opinion.

                                                 FINAL   THOUGHTS
(1) ARTICULATION - Very limited. Since I have already mentioned what parts are articulated in the article, I'll mention a few non-articulated parts here. There are no knee, ankle, or elbow articulate points. No outward movement in the arms and legs.
(2) STANDABILITY - To get my figure to stand well without balance issues, I simply pushed out his left foot ahead of his right. You can also use his blades to balance him by having his right arm downward toward the ground.
(3) WHAT I LIKE BEST ABOUT BLADE ATTACK DREDD ? His action features. They both are very cool.. Looks like the perfect villain. Mean with an emotionless expressionless look.
(4) WHAT I LIKE LEAST ABOUT BLADE ATTACK DREDD ? The limited articulation , however this does not bother me much I still think he's a cool action figure.
(5) WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE TO IMPROVE THE FIGURE ? More articulation but as I already mentioned this really is not much of an issue to complain about.
(6) GRADING  SCALE - On a scale of 1-10 I give this figure a 9.5. Almost a 10 but the small minus is for the articulation that is not there. Similar to what I already mentioned, extra articulation or lack thereof does not necessarily make or break a figure but it does help.
(7) FINAL  ANALYSIS - I am pleased with my purchase of Blade Attack Dredd. He is a pretty decent action figure with cool features. As I mentioned earlier, he comes with no accessories but his action features are so neat he does not need any. Plus I like how he is kind of somewhat of a bulky figure. This bulkiness gives him somewhat of an imposing threatening presence against his enemy Max Steel. It is always excellent when the main villain is physically larger than the main hero. No matter what media or canon, be it comic books, action figures, cartoons, etc. The larger a hero's rival is, the more physically threatening is his/her presence . Popeye and Bluto are a perfect example of what I'm talking about. And Dredd does look physically imposing standing next to Max Steel.

MAX STEEL - Boomerang Blast Max Steel

Sometimes you may bump into an action figure that you know nothing or very little about. This happened to me when I purchased this Max Steel figure. I never knew these figures ( The Max Steel toy line ) existed until I saw them at a local Wal-Mart. Never heard of or saw the cartoons either. However I decided to purchase the figure because of the following reasons.It looks cool, I like toys/figures with flashing lights, since it's in 6" scale the Max Steel figures fit in well with other 6" lines that are well known such as Marvel Legends,etc. , and the price was decent being under 10 dollars. As you can see on the packaging that this particular Max Steel figure is a variant known as Boomerang Blast Max Steel , by Mattel.

As you can see on the back of the packaging his action features are illustrated. The main selling point of the figure is that if you twist his midsection upward to his right, he is supposed to be able to toss the rubber boomerang like items that he comes with. Plus the emblem on his chest flashes with blue light. The blue light flashing is my favorite feature. It looks really cool when flashing in dark settings. Also on the back of the packaging is a short miniature bio , along with a website url address for the Max Steel franchise, and various other figures in the line.
Max comes with three accessories plus an instruction sheet. The accessories are a big blue sword and two boomerang pieces.

Like I already mentioned earlier, the real selling point about this figure for me is the chest emblem flashing with blue light. There are two ways to start the flashing. You can move his midsection upwards toward the right, or just simply press the chest emblem with your finger. The sword itself does not glow or flash, however when close to his chest the flashing light seems to give off the effect as if the sword too is glowing. As the following pics illustrate.

The compartment on Max's back has several purposes. You can store his sword along with his boomerang weapons separately, plus you would need a flat head screw driver to remove the cover to replace the batteries whenever or if ever the day comes that the original batteries have lost all of their power.

When taking Max out of the package, if you want to pose him with his sword in hand, you may want to pose him with the sword facing downwards toward the ground. I say this because this stance better balances him, making him stand better. If you pose him with the sword facing upwards the extra weight of the sword may make him just a little top heavy, but not by much.

And as I also already mentioned, Max fits in well with various other 6" scale toy lines, as you see here.

                                                        FINAL  THOUGHTS
(1) ARTICULATION - Articulation is very limited. The head moves left, right and all around. The left arm moves up and down. Right arm moves slightly but is about 98% non articulate. The palm of his right hand lifts up so you can insert the boomerang weapons. And his midsection moves upward towards the right. That's all there is to the articulation.The legs have no articulation.
(2) STANDABILITY - Standing this figure is somewhat tricky . Max stands well on hard surfaces such as wood, but when standing him on something soft such as a sheet of notebook paper takes a little bit of a balancing act on your part. However, he stands best when you pose him with his sword facing downwards.
(3) WHAT I LIKE BEST ABOUT THIS MAX STEEL FIGURE? The blue flashing lights, his sword, and sculpt wise I like that his hair is sculpted rather than painted on to his head.
(4) WHAT I LIKE LEAST ABOUT THIS MAX STEEL FIGURE? Very limited articulation however it does not take away from the coolness of the figure.
(5) WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE TO IMPROVE THE FIGURE ? More articulation.
(6) GRADING SCALE - Depends on how you grade everything. What I mean is, if I was grading just the figure only, I'd give it a 7.5. But combine the figure with his weapons along with his action features gives it an overall score of 9.0. The minus being for the very limited articulation.
(7) FINAL  ANALYSIS - Overall I am pleased that I purchased this figure. And is it just me or do the Max Steel figures kind of have somewhat of an anime feel and look to them? Especially Max. He kind of reminds me style wise of the Young Justice figures also by Mattel. Plus I think the figure is somewhat cool looking, because blue is one of my favorite colors anyway, which is why I enjoy the flashing glowing light so much. Although these figures are aimed at kids, us adult collectors may enjoy mixing them in and displaying them with our other 6" scaled lines.

Robots Space Bot by Funtastic Toys

I purchased this fun figure at a local Citi-Trends store. The company that this figure comes from has a website at http://www.funtastictoy.com . Despite very limited articulation , this is a fun figure that fits in well with any 6" fantasy super hero toy line. You can pose these guys next to your Marvel Legends, DCU Classics, etc as they too are in 6 inch scale.
     These guys come in two colors, black and white. They kind of resemble Darth Vader a bit in my opinion. Just press the button in the middle of the Space-Bot's chest to make his sword glow with a very cool blue light just like a light saber. The eyes glow red as some nice battle sounds are made.

If you use up all of the power just in case he stops glowing, there's a compartment on his back where you can use a screw driver to open it and replace the old battery with a new one. Here's a close up shot of Space-Bot with other figures.

FINAL  THOUGHTS

(1) ARTICULATION - The arms move up and down,back and forth. No side outward movement. The legs move up and down also with no side outward movement. The rest of the figure is not articulated.

(2) STANDABILITY - The figure stands well with no balance issues.

(3) WHAT I LIKE BEST ABOUT THE SPACE-BOT FIGURES ? The glowing lights in both his sword and eyes are the real selling points of these figures, along with the sound effects. 

(4) WHAT I LIKE LEAST ABOUT THE SPACE-BOT FIGURES ? Despite the very limited articulation, there's nothing that I dislike about these figures. The positives outweigh the negatives in my opinion with this figure.

(5) WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE TO MAKE THIS FIGURE BETTER ? Although the lack of extra articulation does not bother me with this figure, extra articulation would've made it better.

(6) GRADING SCALE - On a scale of 1-10 I give the Space-Bots figure a 9.0 . Excellent figure the minus being for the very limited articulation even though it does not bother me. 

(7) FINAL  ANALYSIS - Overall this is an excellent figure if you want to add extra characters to some of your 6" scaled collections. I assume the idea for these were motivated by the Star Wars franchise. I mean if you look closely they look like a cross between Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper. Plus the glowing sword is reminiscent of a light saber. It'd be nice if Hasbro could make these glowing swords/light sabers with the real Star Wars figures, ( hint , hint ) . These guys may be hard to find in person these days, as my figure was purchased over a few years ago before writing this post. Try your luck at some local thrift stores or flea markets , you might run into a few of these bad boys. If not try your luck with the internet via E-bay or Amazon. Good luck in finding these figures if you want one!!!