It's hard for me to believe that this action figure is nearly a decade old. Shocker Toys and their Indie Spotlight line have quite a storied past, which I'm not interested in getting into here. The shame of how things turned out in the end, is that I feel like I missed out on getting some really amazing action figures. The Maxx is one of my personal favorites even after all these years! I have their Tick, Katchoo, SCUD and Kabuki figures, as well, but none are as dear to me as The Maxx.
Released on a collector-friendly card (the backing can be slid up and out from the bubble, resulting in no damage to the figure or packaging whatsoever), The Maxx came with three Isz mini-figurines: one frowning black, one smiling white, and one floating pink, complete with stand. Maxx himself came with two alternate heads: one plain (my preferred version) and one "maned" (I don't remember exactly why he had those two looks, but I think it had to do with which "world" he was in - the "real world" was the bald look, while the fantasy dream world, The Outback, had the "wild animal" look). They each plug in via a socket for a ball joint at the base of the neck.
Maxx is a pretty big figure, standing about 7 & 1/2" tall in a the crouching pose I've got him in, and is cast in a deep purple plastic that looks beautiful and striking at once. It's a terrific sculpt that works perfectly with the articulation. He's got lots of deep muscles all over, and the proportions are excellent from head to toes. There are appropriate black highlights at the thighs, back and shoulders to add some depth and realism. The wrappings of his feet are beige/tan, and probably could have used some of the same highlighting or dry-brushing to give them a "dirty" feel, and they have what look like silver clasps to hold them in place. There's some excellent black at the forearms transitioning to the yellow spiked hands. 
The yellow is good, and has more of a satin finish than the rest of the figure's matte. The only detraction here is that there's some red that's been applied haphazardly over portions of the hands. It's uneven and very thin, leaving an orangish haze in some spots, and nothing in others. The yellow on his head, on the other hand, is beautiful, and mostly crisp. There's a nice black outline around the eyes, and the white of the mouth (teeth?) looks great. They even applied some purple to the underside of the teeth, between each, so they stand out a bit more. The red feather highlights shown on the package have been skipped on the final version's Outback head.
The Maxx has terrific articulation, comparable even by today's standards. The head/neck combo has a wonderful range of motion, he's got biceps swivels, ball joints at the elbows and wrists (the wrists don't have a great range, but they can tilt), swivels and balls at the hips, double jointed knees, ball-jointed waist and ball joints at the ankles. There's even a balljoint for the Outback version's hair! The only point that falls a little short are at the shoulders, which are only swivels. A 2017 version would probably sport lateral movement that this figure can't. If I remember, some of those joints could come pretty loose, but I tend to not handle this guy too much, so mine is holding together fine. He is quite top-heavy, so I could see the stress on the fairly-thin knees affecting them over time. I plan to baby mine, so I'm not anticipating problems.
Overall, The Maxx is a great action figure, which accomplishes everything that the Shocker Toys Indie Spotlight "mission" claimed: it's created with respect for the title, has a great sculpt, excellent articulation, acceptable paint and appropriate and valuable accessories. As I said earlier, it's one of the best action figures in my collection, and has had a prime place on my display shelf for nearly a decade now. With his brilliant purple and yellow color scheme, hefty size and unique look, I don't see that changing in the near future...
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| Scaled with SOTA's Riddick |
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