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.