I do think the market is ready for this particular kind of toy again, seeing as smaller collectibles are currently dominating in sales ( Shopkins, Grossery Gang, LOL Surprise!, etc.). It sure seems like Mattel is feeling out the market in regard to this older style of toy, so perhaps the possibility of a true Mighty Max return isn’t so far-fetched after all. Shown on the floor were classic miniature playsets, something we haven’t seen in a really long time, and to me that bodes well. However, I threw some of that caution to the wind after the Polly Pocket news broke at this past weekend’s international toy fair. Since that particular MM trademark filing was several years ago at this point and nothing concrete has yet surfaced, I remain cautiously, albeit soberly, optimistic. That being said, there are currently no real plans in the works (I asked a very kind Mattel rep about this and “ Polly Pocket is the only mini news we have right now” is the exact response I got). Perhaps Mattel was simply reserving the name in the event that, should they eventually decide to do something with the MM license again, the option would be still available. Now, companies renew trademarks for dormant intellectual properties all the time, and more often than not, nothing ever comes of it. Then came the news that Mattel had renewed its trademark for the property (this was back in 2015), a development that had long-time fans speculating about possible plans for an actual, honest-to-goodness reboot. I figured the line had a good run, but perhaps there just wasn’t room in the current market for another incarnation. Until a few years ago, my hope for a proper Mighty Max revival was halfhearted at best. There was just something oddly cozy about them. I always gravitated toward the smaller playsets for some reason, even though you could do much less with them in terms of general play. The individual playsets spanned a whole gamut of sizes and styles, from the larger Doom Zones and behemoth Skull Mountain to the more compact Horror Heads, Shrunken Heads and Monster Heads. Also, the packaging art was gruesome and irresistible, which I’m sure helped propel my unending quest to collect every last playset, a herculean task that I’ve come insanely close to completing. It combined the gross-out factor of Creepy Crawlers, Goosebumps and Doctor Dreadful, the alluring kitsch of tasteless Halloween decor and the intoxicating allure of unexplored, minuscule hidden spaces. I can’t really overstate the fact that I was, and continue to be, completely obsessed with this toy line. The catchy TV commercials and tie-in cartoon only fueled the fire. Needless to say, I was hooked from the moment I saw them in Toys ‘R Us. Each playset was essentially a monstrous head or body that opened up to reveal a detailed interior scene, usually replete with skeletons, snakes, bugs, dungeons, perilous pits, graveyards and other equally unsettling details. Mighty Max, as the product line was heroically dubbed, was similarly miniature in nature, though instead of being presented as compacts modeled after makeup containers, these bite-sized playsets were themed after decidedly more edgy fare-the repulsive, the bizarre, the horrific, the weird. Before that strategic and stylistic metamorphosis, Polly Pocket’s success managed to spawn a sibling line from Bluebird Toys (distributed again by Mattel in the US), one aimed at boys as well as kids with a, shall we say, alternative taste in toys.
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