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Max Steel is a line of action figures produced by the toy company Mattel. The figures are similar to the original 12-inch G.I. Joe toys, consisting almost entirely of different versions of Max Steel, the main character, and one or two of his enemies, a couple of vehicles and 2 or 3 special packages. Max Steel was developed into an animated series of the same name, which originally aired from February 25, 2000 to January 15, 2002,. As well as 9 direct-to-video animated films, being released one every year from 2004 to 2012. A reboot currently airs on Disney XD in the United States, and premiered on March 25, 2013. A new Max Steel toy line accompanies the new TV series for 2013. The new toy line somewhat abandons the 1/6 scale of the original, however, 1/6 scale figures are still made. According to Mattel's American International Toy Fair presentation, the toy line is one of the best sellers in Latin America. ==History== After Mainframe took control of the TV series, every new toy makes a brief appearance in the series or the movies. Also after the ''Endangered Species'' movie plot was included in the toy line, every new set of toys includes at least a couple of wild animals too. Waves 1 and 2 included exactly the same Psycho figure, with only minor changes in the box. Wave 3 changed Psycho's mechanic arm, while the rest of the body remained mostly the same. *All the first Max figures were quite different from the TV character. Most earlier ''Max Steel'' toys had military, adventure or sport clothes not related to the series in any way, but quite similar to the 70's and 80's Mattel's action figure Big Jim. Some models wear exactly the same clothes, colors and accessories as Big Jim, and seems to be updated versions of this classical toy. In Latin American market, many Big Jim toys were sold in the 70's under the name "Kid Acero", which literally translates as "Kid Steel". Most ''Max Steel'' vehicles used to be blue, with yellow or green accents, as the early 80's Big Jim sport and spy series. This particular combination of colors was widely used on ''Max Steel'' toys despite the fact that the character in the series wears a blue, silver and brown uniform. In fact, the first Max Steel action figure to wear the same costume as in the series was "Going Turbo!", released a year, or so, after the initial debut of ''Max Steel'', as part of the Urban Siege sub line. * ''Urban Siege'' line — At the end of 2000, Mattel took the decision to divide the Max Steel figures into different sub lines. All sport related toys, for example, would go to "Extreme Sports Adeventure," while others would go into "Urban Siege," "Snake Island," etc. Vitriol, a new villain, arrived as the main villain in the sub line Urban Siege, the molds used to produce him were similar to those used to produce Psycho. Vitriol and Psycho wear the same pants, albeit different colors. (Some compare Vitriol to Super Attack Psycho, but Super Attack wasn't created until a year after Vitriol.) In fact, the main characteristic of both villains were strange, enhanced artificial arms. The only difference is, while Psycho's right arm is a bionic construction which can be formed into a claw/laser, Vitriol's arms were green, with light up features. Urban Siege is the most controversial Max Steel wave, when the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Vitriol and Urban Siege action figures were recalled because the package mentioned on the back: "The diabolical villain Vitriol is blasting urban buildings to pieces". Rumors say the real reason of this act of empathy were the low popularity and poor sales of the toy, specially because it is the only ''Max Steel'' action figure never produced again. Vitriol was available only from April to September 2001. Also, the "Secret Mission" Cards included earlier that same year in boxed figures from the ''Urban Siege'' sub line were retired from the packages. Each Secret Mission card contained clues and plots about a fictional persecution of terrorists on or off American soil. Children were supposed to use the cards to be informed of their next mission and stop the terrorists before they could demolish a building, spread a deadly virus or detonate a nuke bomb, among other tasks. The Urban Siege line's card text was: '' "Vitriol is on top of the World Trade Center ready to blast the city with his deadly energy waves! Your Mission: Stop Vitriol before he destroys New York City!".'' Once any mention of terrorism in New York was eliminated, the toys returned to the shelves, but as part of the main line this time. The ''Urban Siege'' series ended immediately after the recall. Other figures of different lines retained their mission cards, however, later Max Steel figures had no mission cards at all. * ''Endangered Species'' — In 2004, the release of ''Endangered Species'', the first movie, also marked a completely new direction of the toy line. Since then, every new set of ''Max Steel'' toys appears in the latest movie. As a result of this decision, several iconic characters and vehicles were removed from the market. The N-Tek minijet and the Sport Coupe which were Max's primary ways of transportation in the series didn't make the cut into the movies, so the respective toys were discontinued before the movie's premiere. Many other elements from the series were also removed from the toys, including any mention of Max' alter ego, Josh McGrath. * ''World of Elements'' — Since the main character of this sub-line, Elementor, has the ability to emulates 5 different elements (water, fire, air, earth and metal), all new sets released includes at least 10 different Elementor variations, 2 for each element. Max figures were reassigned to a specific "World of...", with arms, equipment and accessories designed to challenge each Elementor's version. Thus, in the "World of Water", Max is dressed as a diver or surfer, uses a surf board, a boat and battles Water Elementor. In "World of Air", he has a parachute, a jet pack, and battles Air Elementor, and so on... * Max Gear — In mid 2007, Mattel released for the first time "Max gear" to be dressed by kids. The toys included a retractile Ninja Sword, Max's communicator, Max's suit with battle sounds and light, night vision glasses, binoculars and other stuff alike. * Adrenalink line — In 2007 Mattel dropped the Going Turbo! concept from the toys for the Adrenalink one. The most notorious change in the packages it is that the Max Steel logo was changed from yellow to green. The Adrenalink subline includes almost all sport and adventure versions of Max not related to Elementor. * Extroyed line — The first Extroyer figure was announced as a special event, released only a couple of weeks before the movie premiered on Cartoon Network Philippines in late 2007. The original package contained both Max and Extroyer action figures, but Extroyer's face and body were mostly covered with the package's artwork, so no one could tell for sure how he looked like. Some time later the same Extroyer was available as a stand-alone figure, this time uncovered. Action figures related to Dark Rival movie and this new villain are often denoted by the word "Extroyed" in front of the package. * Turbo Missions — Released for the first time in 2009, these three different series separated the main toy line into themed missions, in a similar way as the Urban Siege line intended to separate the military-themed figures from the sport ones. The Animal Encounter subset grouped all animal and wildlife related toys with Extroyer as the main villain, while the High Voltage subset was mostly focused in water and lightning versions of Elementor. A third subset named N-Tek Invasion virtually grouped all other items which do not belong to the previous two. The Turbo Missions packages had large set numbers (1, 2, 3) in reference to their respective mission. In 2010 a second set of Turbo Missions action figures was released. This time the themes were "Bio-Threat", "Cyber -Attack" and "Night Strike". Similarly as the previous ones, Bio-Threat grouped all earth pollution related adventures, while Night Strike showcased glow in the dark action figures. Cyber attack was mostly the same as N-tek Invasion, grouping all other enemies focused on causing mayhem inside N-Tek's headquarters. Several large vehicles, including a mini jet, a boat and a couple of sport cars were released some time ago, at the beginning of the series. The jet is by far the largest toy ever produced on the line, followed a giant child-size Elementor figure. Despite of the constant presence of women in the series as main or supporting characters, no female figures were ever produced. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Max Steel」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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