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A new line comes to TFTP. I recently found a
Mighty Max complete playset, and I bought it. I had also seen other playsets,
but I was not sure if they were complete, so this is the first and only playset
I own.
Buying this toy has given me the chance to
learn more about this great toyline. I knew it in the toy shelves by the mid-90s,
but at that time, I had not much interest in toys anymore. Now as a “toy
reviewer”, I regard them in a different way: they’re amazing toys! I’m glad I
have bought this one.
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| Figures included in "Blows Up Dino Lab" playset |
The name of the playset/adventure is “Mighty
Max blows the Dino Lab”, and comes with Mighty Max, the Dr. Zygote and two
dinosaurs: a velociraptor and a pterodactyl. These toys are playsets in form of
a shell that, when closed, have very cool forms, always related to what’s on
the interior. This one is a Triceratops, where two horns are actually parts of
the pterodactyl and the raptor. When opened, it reveals two parts: One of them
is placed horizontally, and the second is intended to be placed vertical.
Most sets are based on the TV cartoons, in
which Mighty Max is transportated to some magical or ancient place where he has
to fight against monsters and fierce animals. I have never seen the show, but
it was intended to promote the toys. This playset is based on episode “Zigote’s
Rhythm”.
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| Dr. Zygote in the laboratory |
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| Mighty Max on the cannon |
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| Dinosaurs scape! |
There were three waves of toys ever made,
although in all of them the products were very similar. The “Doom Zones” (also “Doomstones”)
were the most common toys, together with the “Horror Heads”, “Hairy Heads” and “Monster
Heads”, which were smaller in size and included only 2 figures (intead of 4). There
seems to be even smaller sets than the “Horror Heads”, with only one figure
included, but these seem to be extremely rare to find. These are called “Shrunken
Heads”. There are also promotional playsets from McDonalds, and other that
could be attached to the wrist, as a watch.
Apart from these, there were bigger playsets,
for example, 6 “Battle Warriors” (See “Magus” in the catalogue picture) or 5
large playsets (among them “Dragon
Island”).
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| Bluebird logo and copyright at the bottom of the plastic "shell" |
The toys were created by Bluebird Toys (the
same company that did Polly Pocket) and were distributed by Mattel in Italy and by Ideal in France
and Spain.
Here are a couple of pictures from catalogues that show the prices that those
toys had in 1994. In
one of the catalogues is even this exact playset depicted, and it had a price
of 1595 pesetas, that’s 9,60 Eur.
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| Christmas catalogue 1994. Showing a similar toy with Ninja Turtles instead of Mighty Max. |
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| Toys 'r' Us Christmas Catalogue 1994 |
Also interesting to mention, is that this
playset came with a different Mighty Max figure in the U.S.A. as it came in Europe,
or at least, that is what I could get from a few images I have found in
different websites. Maybe I am wrong and some experienced collector can tell me
that.
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| Italian carded playset - incl. the figure in this article and not the one with the monkeywrench. |
- Name: Mighty Max blows up Dino Lab (Doom Zone)
- Toy Line: Mighty Max (wave 2)
- Year: 1993
- Company: Bluebird (Great Britain)
- Size of the playset: Around 10 cm long
- Size of the figures (Mighty Max): 1 cm
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