Mighty Max Outwits the Cyclops
Doom Zone Playset Review
Released during the second wave of Mighty Max Doom Zones alongside playsets like Saves the Kingdom of Gargantua, Grapples with Hellcat, Stings the Scorpio, Blows Up Mutasaurus and Caught in the Jaws of Doom. Mighty Max Outwits the Cyclops stands out in the line-up as one of the true ‘monster’ playsets among all the animal themed sets available. The set comes complete with two enemy characters, the smaller ‘Torturer’ Figure and the larger ‘Eye of the Cyclops’, as well as Mighty Max kept within a removable blue cage.
Outwits the Cyclops also influenced the TV episode of the Mighty Max cartoon, Day of the Cyclops. It’s the first TV episode where Mighty Max, Norman and Virgil work together with Max’s mum to save the day. Previously, Max had to hide his Mighty One destiny. The cartoon does a fantastic job including items and references to the playset, especially once Max and Norman reach the Torturer’s chamber.
Doom Zone Image Gallery
Mighty Max Outwits the Cyclops features an ugly cyclops head with a single eye right in the middle. On the top of the playset, the cyclops has a horn protruding from its head. We also get some fantastic details sculpted in the Cyclops’s grin too like the yellow gnarly teeth and protruding tentacles. You open the Cyclops head from the jaw, which flips down revealing the Torturer figure and a small cavern of baby eyeballs.
Pulling the top section up, we can see that horn form a stairway bridging the top of the Torturer’s chambers and the lower dungeon section. The Eyeball of the Cyclops sits in the middle of the playset. Lifting it out, we reveal Mighty Max in a blue cage underneath. We can also finally access the torture devices throughout the set. On the bottom level, there’s an opening spiked coffin, the blue cage as well as a raising red-head gate. On the top level, there’s an electric chair which can flip down.
Day of the Cyclops – Mighty Max Cartoon
For a change of pace, Mighty Max, his mum, Virgil and Norman too are on a holiday in Turkey. It doesn’t take long for things to go bad when Mighty Max loses his cap and gets arrested along with Norman. Where do you take a boy and a massive gorilla of a man with a sword? The local police station in a castle way up on a mountain. Leaving Mighty Max’s mum and Virgil to track down the Mighty One’s Cap. She features heavily in this episode and it’s great to see her in action.
Max and Norman have some big problems though. The castle police prison fortress is frequented by the Torturer who cleans out the cells by kidnapping and torturing prisoners.
When the Torturer comes for the Mighty One and Norman, they manage to fend him off long enough to see that he escapes through the wall. Hot on his trail, Max and Norman discover a giant door in the shape of the cyclops head. Which is a fantastic nod to the playset and how they enter the Torturers chambers.
Once Max and Norman confront the Torturer, they’re up against his arsenal of weapons and torture equipment. The fight scenes in this episode are fantastic and the Torturer gets trapped inside a spiked coffin, again, just like the comic panel.
But that’s just the first enemy. Mighty Max and Norman find the real reason these underground caves exist. The cyclops was here, and even though just it’s skeleton is left behind, a small piece of the cyclops managed to survive inside its skull… The eyeball.
The Eye of the Cyclops makes a really interesting monster, but it doesn’t feel all that menacing. It’s doesn’t have claws, or teeth, those tentacles aren’t thick enough to do much damage. It isn’t a real threat until they light it on fire.
