Does anyone here remember the Mighty Max cartoon?

[Prowler]

The opening:

Spoiler:

It aired around 1992-1994, I think. Pretty cool action sci-fi(with a bit of fantasy aswell) cartoon series, featuring a teenage boy named Max who's the chosen one and goes on adventures with a fowl and a warrior dude.

This show could be surprisingly edgy for a kids cartoon. It didn't have blood but it had deaths and a lot of times it was heavily implied that someone died/was about to die. I also liked how every time Max went through a portal he got the instructions from Virgil in a different way. That was funny. Max would be watching TV and suddenly "Mighty One, go to portal at the barbershop"

The main character, Might Max, was voiced by Rob Paulsen... he's like a human Fred Wolf Raphael in this show! It's as if the retromutagen had been used on him and he went on to live as a teenage boy. Also, one of Max's allies, Virgil the Fowl, is voiced by the great late Tony Jay, the same VA who voiced Dregg in the FW TMNT series.

The problem with this show was... the ending. It sucked. Wanna know why?

Spoiler:

Norman and Virgil die in the last episode but then Max is able to rest the time and sh*t starts all over again... yep. Total disappointment.

Supposedly this show had a pretty successful toyline, which is funny because I don't recall the show being a success. Then again I only watched it later on cable in the early 21st century. Maybe it has a cult following from the 90s?

[CyberCubed]

I remember watching it as a kid, but don't remember anything about it except the chicken thing saying, "I'm a Veil not a chicken" and Mighty Max having Rob Paulsen's voice.

It was a typical 90's cartoon, while dated, is still better than the trash they call cartoons today.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I remember watching it as a kid, but don't remember anything about it except the chicken thing saying, "I'm a Veil not a chicken" and Mighty Max having Rob Paulsen's voice.

It was a typical 90's cartoon, while dated, is still better than the trash they call cartoons today.

I re-watched a few episodes the other day(found at the usual place...) and it holds up well, imo. It's still entertaining to me and I'm a guy in his mid-20s.

I recommend you watching it again one day if you happen to have time for it.

[CyberCubed]

Wow, the show made 40 episodes total, I had no idea it lasted that long:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Max_(TV_series) )

For some reason I assumed this show was a short-lived 13-26 episode series or something. 40 episodes total is quite a lot for a series like this.

[Prowler]

Doesn't surprise me much. I had a feeling the number was around 30-40.

I wonder if the show got cancelled instead of actual finishing... that would explain its crappy ending.

[drgon78]

I thought it was a great show and like many that I have liked didn't last nearly as long as it should have.

[sdp]

I never got to watch the cartoon as a kid but I was a huge fan of of the toys, I had a massive collection and they were some awesome toys. In fact they pretty much revolutionized the industry since for the rest of the decade everyone had playsets a la Mighty Max even after Mighty Max stopped.

The cartoon had two seasons and an ending which was rare for this type of shows in the 90s. So while not a huge success it was a successful enough cartoon, I watched it as an adult and while nothing mind blowing it's entertaining enough and would've loved it as a kid, you don't really suffer through episodes like of some other shows we used to love. Sadly it never got a DVD release but there is a guy that just recently started a Mighty Max remaster project and the few episodes he's done look better than DVD because what's out there are horrible VHS rips.

I would love a revival, it's such an awesome concept, sadly Mattel has never shown signs of interest, I don't know why, it was a huge success, there's nostalgia for it and there's nothing like it in the market today.

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

"I'm a Veil not a chicken".

A fowl, actually.

[Shark_Blade]

I found this yesterday and feel like it's so similar with this Mighty Max on so many levels...

[Prowler]

Never had Mighty Max toys myself.

It seems like it was mostly the toyline that was successful while the cartoon was just another cartoon.

[plastroncafe]

Oh hell yeah!
Tom Curry was the bad guy and Richard Moll was Norman.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

Oh hell yeah!
Tom Curry was the bad guy and Richard Moll was Norman.

Norman was pretty badass.

[snake]

I have a couple of the toys. They're great. Sucks that a line like that literally can't be made today.

[plastroncafe]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Norman was pretty badass.

He was the BEST!
Mighty Max was destination television for me when it was on the air. As far as I know they've never released a DVD version of it.

I was at a con many years ago and in a fit of the utter loss of scruples, I bought a DVD rip off the entire series. (Max and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs).

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by snake

I have a couple of the toys. They're great. Sucks that a line like that literally can't be made today.

Why not?

Originally Posted by plastroncafe

He was the BEST!
Mighty Max was destination television for me when it was on the air. As far as I know they've never released a DVD version of it.

I was at a con many years ago and in a fit of the utter loss of scruples, I bought a DVD rip off the entire series. (Max and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs).

I watched Mighty Max back in 6th or 7th grade, I think.

I was a bit surprised the writers never pulled the trigger on him and his female friend Beatrice, but it was an action cartoon so it's understandable.

[sdp]

I think the toyline could totally be made today, now people online often speculate that it can't because children would eat the toys but while logical there is absolutely no evidence for that and yet it's often repeated in Mighty Max discussions.

The Mighty Max line died in the late 90s around 98 but many other brands carried the mini playset torch, especially Star Wars but we had plenty of companies making mini-playsets.

Some of the last mini playsets that were available were for Episode I and Pokemon that I remember. However with the release of the first harry potter movie which was what 2001 we saw a mini playset of hogwarts.

So to me it was more of a people stopped buying playsets rather than a "ban", since companies stopped making them likely because they weren't selling. In the last few years we have seen playsets kind of trying to make a comeback, I remember Iron Man 2 and Secret Saturdays which came out around that time had similar mini-playsets though they were pretty terrible and I seem to recall another toyline tried to do it 2 years ago as well but can't remember the name. What we have seen is smaller and smaller toys are becoming popular so who knows, maybe one day?

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

I found this yesterday and feel like it's so similar with this Mighty Max on so many levels...

How exacly are they similar? They're totally different besides the transportation to worlds but even that is handled fairly different with very different rules. I like both shows but I wouldn't say they're similar.

[CyberCubed]

It's kind of funny how many obscure 90's cartoons there were. This was before the huge anime boom which started around 1997-1998, so prior to that all of Saturday Mornings just had these obscure cartoons.

Outside of the huge shows airing at the time like TMNT, Batman:TAS, Spiderman/X-men TAS, Power Rangers, etc.....there were all these obscure and niche cartoons being made at the time. It's pretty interesting.

There's also the cartoon based on Jim Carrey's "The Mask" movie, I remember liking it as well. Hell I think there was an Ace Ventura cartoon too if I'm not mistaken

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Why would children eat just Mighty Max toys? Children under three can eat anything?

[sdp]

There was also a dumb and dumber cartoon, I think that one was my favorite of the 3 Jim Carrey cartoons. And The mask crossed over with D&D, which I remember being mad since it made more sense for D&D to crossover with Ace Ventura since their shows were similar being only comedy and The Mask was more superhero mixed with comedy.


I wouldn't call Mighty Max obscure though, the show did air for like three years and the toys were there for most of the 90s taking a lot of shelf space.

[snake]

I don't think it can be made today in the same detail the original line was. Those playsets are hefty plastic. Nor do I think the line would be as successful.

There's only one way to prove any of this though- bring it back!

[sdp]

I somewhat agree, the original line began in the UK and had amazing sculpts and really gruesome details like dead animals, people and what not molded in. There was even red blood painted in some of them and a bunch of deadly devices, I mean it really was a horror fans dream. Not only that but they were engineered by people with really impressive imagination. The way things connected and the small gimmicks each playset had were awesome. I think all those details would indeed not be there any more.

When mattel bought the line I do think the playsets lost a bit of their cool factor, they didn't do as many deadly or gross out playsets and the engineering wasn't as good. Out of all the copycats that released mini-playsets (TMNT included) they were mostly jsut the basics, the only one brand that not only matched but even surpassed Mighty Max in their playsets were the Star Wars ones, they understood what made the line fun and it wasn't just shrinking the toys with a generic playset. Sadly the revivals of other brands trying playsets in recent years have been pretty boring so yeah, MM may have been a once in a lifetime thing.