Day 301

 Day 301 October 28^th

M.A.X. Elite Heroes wave 2 Undersea Rescue 2-pack Review

            This 2 pack is the second new set of people in the second series of M.A.X. minimates.  The undersea rescue minimates are designed to be able to find people or things lost in water filled regions.

Packaging – This wave of M.A.X. is blister carded on a cardboard back much like the first wave.  The main difference is that while the first waves cards were a blueish purple colour these ones are more red/orange hued.  The back of the card gives a quick bio about what M.A.X. is all about as well as a write up about the set itself.  It also has pictures of the minimate in the various states of gear included in the set along with the ‘Gear Up!’ slogan.  As with all things exclusive to Toys ‘R’ Us there is the nice silver exclusive sticker on the front of the package.  Inside the blister the minimates and the piles of extras are in the standard clear plastic tray, secured with tape if need be.  While the tape is nicer than the little twist ties it can sometimes leave a nasty tape residue on the parts it’s holding in.

Undersea Rescuer 1 – The first member of the undersea rescue team comes ready to get to the depths of the rescue with the big oxygen tank and full face mask; showing that he is ready for a deep dive.  This is actually an ingenious reuse of the slime blower tanks from the Ghostbusters movie line, huge props to DST for that design idea!  He has a nifty black wet suit with blue stripes on the arms that match well with the blue accents on his harness.  He includes some blue flippers that again match the blue he has elsewhere, great job making sure the colours match DST!  He is also outfitted with a knife and an ankle sheath for it.  Take off his dive tank and mask and he comes with a hairpiece and has a plain black torso block.  Looks good except for the fact that the dude in the package with him has a nice looking grey and blue tampo on his torso block; looks like this might be a case like the series one Law Enforcement set where only one of the minimates had a chest tampo.  No as serious here though since it is just a wet suit and not a police uniform.

Undersea Rescuer 2 – The second member of the search and rescue team is a ready for work in a bit more shallower area, outfitted in a sleeveless wetsuit and only a light scuba tank and eye mask.  He has the same blue flippers as the first guy, and the blue matches the blue on his torso as well as the blue of his scuba mask.  He has a silver belt that has a bunch of pouches on it, perfect to hold an assortment of tools that might be needed underwater.  This is a great looking minimate for shallow water exploration!

The Gear – In the M.A.X. sets this has to be a whole part unto itself since there is just so much extra gear included.  First off is the extra set of arms, and the deep diving oxygen tank and harness chest piece.  These are attached to a clear torso block.  To go with that is another full face diving mask.  There is a set of bare arms to give the first rescuer the sleeveless look and both rescuers get s set of bare feet to swap with their flippers.  There is another knife and sheath as well as a cream coloured heavy duty flashlight.  There is also a spear gun and a larger blaster type gun, originally scene with the 90’s Cable minimates.

I feel the Undersea Rescue set to be a great new addition to the M.A.X. brand!  Underwater themed toys were always a fun part of my childhood memories of toys, especially in the G.I. Joe line so these score big points in the nostalgia category.  To tell the honest truth I have been most excited for this set, almost more then some of the other minimates coming out at the same time!  I even bought several things to be able to do some fun photos with these minimates once I have the time to get it all set up.  The lack of a chest tampo on the first rescuer is a bit of a miss on DSTs part I don’t really find it to be that much of a big deal since I will have multiples of them so some will just stay in the deeper diving harness all the time.  Even though the amount of gear in this set is probably the least amount of any of the M.A.X. sets I think they were really well done and give them 5 out of 5 with a splash!!