Maxx 89

Nacelle strikes again! Maxx 89 was built to lead RoboForce, but on the day of their grand introduction to the world, the Utopia Aegis 101 line of bots stole the spotlight and Maxx 89 was relegated to RoboRooting the toilets of Detroit. Maxx's hopes of being a leader faded over time until the once trusted Utopia Aegis 101s began hurting the innocent! This causes Maxx to lead RoboForce on a dangerous mission to stop the 101s from wreaking havoc upon the world. Huh, okay. Robo Force was created in 1984 by Ideal, the company that had also sold things like the Betsy Wetsy doll or the original Rubik's Cube, and had invented the teddy bear. Hell of a lineage! By the late '90s, the company had gone through several mergers and acquisitions, the name currently belonging to Mattel. In 2013, a company called Toyfinity bought several Ideal properties outright from Mattel, Robo Force among them. They released a few Gylos-style offerings, that would have been cute $5 toys, maybe $10 since they're a small company selling online, but that wasn't the price they charged, and thus you've never gotten a review of them. In 2021 the Robo Force rights were sold on to Nacelle, who are making real action figures for the first time. The vintage Robo Force toys were basically like a soda can with arms and a suction cup on the bottom - in fact, if you remember the line existing at all, "those robots with a suction cup for a butt" is probably all you know about them. There was a cartoon pilot created, but it never went anywhere. Apparently these figures, available at Walmart on the fully Nacelle-themed endcap in the electronics department, are a second edition release; I guess Nacelle sold versions direct last year? Those were in minimalist white boxes under the name "Very Important Toys" (is that supposed to be a play on "Ideal"? Because if so, somebody needs to double-check their thesaurus because they don't mean the same thing), while these are in much more pleasing and eye-catching retro-colored packaging. Robo Force's leader was originally Maxx Steele, but Mattel eventually reused that name for a different toyline. Toyfinity named him Maxx Zero, and now Nacelle calls him Maxx 89. There's also a Funko POP! of the character called Maxx 64, so are all the new ones upgrades in the same series, like Ultron working his way up through the various numbers? They are if we say they are! And sister, we do so say. But why is it "89"? Shouldn't it be five lower? Nacelle has really made Robo Force their own, completely ditching the old design in favor of something more humanoid. We're saying they have legs now instead of just a big tube body. I admit, I'm kind of torn on the change: yes, their designers and sculptors have done an excellent job adapting the broad strokes of the old toy into something better than ever; but also, the weird, distinct body on the '80s toys was part of the charm; it was something you couldn't get anywhere else, while now this could be almost any robot at all. Max retains his flattened cone headshape, with its two large eyes on the front, as well as the barrel shoulders and sloping chest panel, but then there's a waist and legs, making this look more like a sci-fi android than like the thing that vacuums the aisles at the supermarket. The old toys had flexible arms covered in rubber accordian sleeves, but this time we get sculpted hoses and tubes. Same on the legs, too. Instead of simple C-shapes, his hands are now sculpted with hinges and panels to make them look like industrial grabbers, and there's just a ton of surface detail all over the place. Very nice! And yes, the toys do still have sunction cup feet - it's just that there are two of them, on the ends of legs, instead os just one under the solid body. Not that this one has a solid body. 1980s Robo Force figures weren't the pinnacle of articulation, so there was lots of room for improvement. Maxx 89 has nearly every joint you'd want from a toy of this size and style: head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. The elbows and knees are hinges, the wrists and biceps are swivels, and then the rest are all balljoints (even if the head and waist sit so close that they're rendered merely wobbly swivels in the process). Yes, that means the suction-cup feet are on a balljoint, but don't worry about balance: the cups themselves are a little wobbly (being rubber, after all), but the joint where they plug into the leg is surprisingly tough! Like the original Maxx, the new one is white and blue, like R2-D2's butcher cousin. There are some pale yellow accents in the sculpted slots on the shoulders and shins, and all the interior tubes are black, referencing the coverings on the old arms. His chest panel is smaller today than it used to be, so while all the details on the sticker that adorns it are taken from the original, they've been squashed vertically to get them to fit; a clumsy solution at best. Like, surely they could have forgone putting his name on there and left more room for the colored lines and circles, right? 1984 Maxx had a few small guns, but couldn't actually hold them: they just had to plug into the side of his hands. 2024 Maxx wins again! There's a large gun that can be held in either hand, though you'll want to put it in the left, because the right can be removed and replaced with an alternate version that has a pair of claws extended from it. (Honestly, that can replace either the left or the right hand, it's just packaged on his right side in the tray.) If that weren't enough, we also get three more weapons molded on hoses that plug into the body in various spots: a big gun on top of his right shoulder, a little nubbin on the left side of his back, and a smaller gun on the lower left side of his back. That one ends up just pointing directly at Maxx's own leg, thanks to the way it's molded; he'd better be careful firing it! All geared up he looks pretty daunting, really ready to throw down to defeat his foes. Now we just need some foes for him. Three points on the new Robo Force packaging proclaim "Starring in the hit animated series!" and it's like, are they? Are you sure? You really want to leave that on the box? Yes, Nacelle has announced a cartoon, but so far all that's been released is the opening theme - hardly enough to be considered a "hit." Or even a "series." They do have a comic from Oni Press, though, so why not promote that instead? Maxx 89 only has the roughest of connections to the original Robo Force Maxx Steele, but that doesn't really matter: this is a fun toy on its own, with a cool design that can work on its own or be integrated with other toylines as any random robot. Unaffiliated crowd-filler on Cybertron? Specialized Luthor-Bot sent to fight Superman? Crazy Cosmic Legions helper droid? It can be whatever you want! And buying it off the shelf at Walmart is significantly cheaper (and easier to find out about) than ordering it online last year was. -- 12/08/24 Do you like Robo Force better with or without legs? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.

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