For the 30th anniversary of Mighty Max cartoon Mattel gave us nothing. But a big fan had big plans and we are getting a Mighty Max Revival out of it. Two new Mighty Max sets are coming out and are available for Pre-Order but what are these exactly. I did some digging to get a little more information and they were from someone that I already was a fan of. The information on this is a bit tricky so let me go through every aspect.
A fan in Taiwan got the rights to Mighty Max in his country, this is after years several failed attempts at Mattel trying to get different copyrights & trademarks for the brand. Because of this He decided to brand these sets as Mighty Max, at least the anniversary one. They want to pay tribute to the brand more than anything and show their love. They also don’t want to touch the brand too much so they’re doing a continuation called Rover Robin as a spirital sequel.
The Cross Mighty Max hat set is a tribute to the cartoon and the final episode of the show. It’s mostly a portal and we can see some familiar limbs coming out of it from Heroes to villains. I can’t think of a set that better represents both the brand and the cartoon for a small anniversary set. The “head” in this case cap is a great closed design and the Max included works great with the gimmick of being one of the hats teeth. Heck we even have Thor the iguana in there! There is a variant where the hat is clear plastic instead of red.
The next set is the Hunting Rudolph, with the new hero Robin, it is the first in the Rover Robin sets also the size of the previous Mighty Max Shrunken heads. It’s a very basic set because of it but it feels so nice to have a new Mighty Max style figure and a Christmas themed one at that. The variant here is glow in the dark.
The packaging on these new sets are a tribute to the original Mighty Max toyline, they even include comics that tell the story of the new sets including the new character Robin. So his story will be told through the comics but the scoop I was able to get is that Robin is the new Cap bearer and Mighty One. This was a way to introduce a new character and not mess with Max I have here a few more tidbits on the story but it includes an older Virgil, Norman after losing a hand and his daughter. All from a parallel universe that started from the ending of the cartoon.
As far as future sets other small Shrunken Heads featuring Robin are in the works, all Christmas based and include Snowman, Elf, Xmas Tree, Santa, Gingerbread Man and this choice was made to make the story cohesive and not fragmented. But for those fans of the bigger Doom Zone sets we have Sewer Croc that’s coming along as well. This was chosen based on the popular urban legend of sewer crocodiles in the United States. The toy will be designed with multiple mechanisms as you can see in the picture, it has multiple parts that can be opened and interacted with, as well as other stuff.
Here is more information on the story from the creator himself:
“Coming from the closed-loop ending of the Mighty Max cartoon, it was quite a shock to me as a child. Most cartoons of the 90s had the protagonist defeating the villain and saving the world, but Mighty Max didn’t. Instead, it featured a journey where Max’s companions, mentors, and guardians all died one by one. Even the seemingly invincible Norman left Max. I believe the writers had their own message to convey, but to my childhood self, it shattered my faith.
Thirty years have passed, and occasionally, I think maybe Max could have another story, an extension of the unfinished ending from back then. We, the children who watched him on his adventures, could become Robin, searching for our childhood (Max) and embarking on new adventures. This is also the story behind Hunter Rudolph (the deer head released alongside Hunting Rudolph) and the upcoming toy series. I must also mention that the creative concept for Robin’s storyline came from the designer of the Almighty Hat concept, Rock Dan. He breathed life into this new Mighty Max universe.
Rover Robin, paying homage to the classic Mighty Max ability to travel through different time periods. Similarly, RR can also travel through different time periods using the magical handheld game device. However, RR might make some changes later on, and I expect to keep one “M” to commemorate Max’s Mighty.
The prologue to Robin’s story:
Due to the final battle between the Almighty and Skullmaster, time was reversed, creating multiple universes within the Max world. These universes, formed by mixing and molding countless imaginations, gave birth to various nightmares and emerged from time-space fissures under specific conditions. Twenty years after Max defeated Skullmaster, a new Hat-wearer was chosen – Robin, a boy who loved old-school gaming devices. He unintentionally opened rifts through various time periods when he combined an old handheld game device called Game Max with computer scraps he bought at a market. And thus, a new adventure begins!
We are using Robin because Max holds a special place in my heart. He is sacred and should remain unaltered, much like childhood memories that cannot and should not be changed. The new girl is Norman’s daughter. As for the old Virgil… let me keep that as a surprise.”
Not exactly the revival many expected but at this point it’s the revival that was done out of pure passion to the brand. More than just fan art, a lot of money was spent to make this fan revival happen and that’s what you should think of it as. I’m curious to see where the story goes and wish a lot of luck to the project as I know it’s made by very talented people with a lot of passion.