Front Box Art	Rear Box Art

Contents

The Light Gimmick
Ultraman Max comes with a hideous looking zipper at the back. Unzipping his suit will reveal the battery compartment and a light switch. 3 LR44 wrist watch battery is provided.

The switch turns on the light on his eyes and his signature Power Timer. The Power Timer comes with a magnet switch. By placing the Max Spark, which comes with an embedded magnet inside, near to the Power Timer, this magnet switch is triggered switching the Power Timer from its blue light to a blinking red light.

Light switch and above that is the battery compartment.

Default blue light.	The blinking red light triggered by Max Spark.

4 extra hands.	Left: Max Spark, Right: Max Galaxy.

The Figure
This is quite a good action doll from Bandai, who is boasting their Original Doll Body design all over the packaging box. He comes with 29 point of articulations and a default pair of fist hands interchangeable with 4 extra hands provided.

I am surprise that Bandai is using click joints on this figure. There are pro and cons using click joints. The good news is that this action doll becomes very durable and can withstand some amount of abuse. The figure comes with a soft-vinyl suit. I thought it might be a figure, like Hot Toys Rambo, too delicate to stretch it by too much. I thought wrong. The suit is actually quite thick and works quite well with the click-joints. I am actually quite happy with the combinations where I can twist and turn the figure like without a care.

On the other hand, the cons of using click-joints are it cannot be posed in a very precise way. Those who has experience playing with the Transformers Cybertron or similar toy will know that the nature of click-joints. The joint bending or folding degree is dictated in a fix manner by the gear it utilizes. Sometimes you need to pose your figure in a certain stance but then the hand is simply 2mm too far away. It is sometimes frustrating but this is a small matter anyway.

Speaking of articulations, the head comes with limited range of movement. This is owing to the light-up eyes effect that requires some form of connection from the battery casing located in his body to the head. The neck is moveable but it won't hold its position once your hand leaves the figure. Main joints like the elbow and knee can only be folded at about or lesser than 90 degree. As with any figure that comes with a wrapped around suit, both arm cannot be lifted higher than the shoulder. That is not all. The suit is also obstructing the hip joints. Both thighs cannot be lifted too high up and resulting in a figure that cannot kneel properly.

When it comes to the feet, I wish Bandai provide 31 point of articulations instead of 29 or replace the useless articulation on the toes with a better joint on his ankle. The ankle allows the feet to turn sideway and move up and down. The articulations here look good but it is not enough. The figure is quite large and has quite a substantial weight on its upper body. When I spread his leg wide for a pose, the feet cannot be planted level to the ground since there is no articulation that allows the feet to skew sideway. As a result, the figure keeps falling down when the legs are place too far apart. Bandai has some great ankle joint system on the Saint Cloth Myth series and maybe in their SIC and Garo series. How could they forget this for the ankle?

Conclusion
As any kid in Asia who grew up exposed to Japanese TV show; Doreamon, Ultraman and Kamen Rider are the 3 main unforgettable childhood shows.

Who could have forgotten about Ultraman? He has made countless children glued to the TV, patiently sit thru the first 27 minutes of unintelligible bad Japanese acting and overly long launch sequence of fake toy planes and sometimes vehicles, just to watch their idolize hero in rubber suit finally appeared fighting off the monster-of-the-day within a short 3 minutes time frame as the hero is limited by the all too annoying blinking red light and beeping sound of his power timer signaling the end of the episode is near and the hero should cross his hands shooting out deadly laser beam vanquishing the foe-for-the-day leaving the children wanting for more thus making them waited loyally for another week with undying anxiety just to see the next appearance of the mentioned rubber suit hero.

That was Ultraman (pronounced as 'Urutoraman'). Ultraman Type A, B and C to be exact. And the formula works pretty well for the past 4 decades (since 1966).

This is Ultraman Max, a new member of the Ultraman family joined since July 2005. I have not been following the series since I grew up thus I do not really know much about this guy. However, the action doll comes with good enough articulations and the same rubber suit feeling to it. It is nostalgic and fun to play with as the body is sturdily made. Best of all, it comes with light up eyes and the very same annoying Power Timer lighting up in blue or in blinking red where every kid come to hate since it's unofficial function is to indicate the episode is coming to an end.

Value wise, the price at 13,700 yen is a bit steep. I can get something else in die-cast for the price. There are not many accessories provided. However, the light effect is pretty cool and should be a reason enough to get a copy of this. As far as I know by the time this is written, this item has sold out ever since its first release on March 2006 and it is no longer in production. Online auction has gone double of the price that I paid for this.

This item is purchased locally at Berjaya Timesquare.