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Ever since 2004, during the Valor Vs. Venom era, Mechs and power suits have become a standard part of the motor pool, but to be totally honest I never thought they would pull it off in the eight inch scale. The Defense Mech and Pulverizor (not to mention the Atlas Mech, Iron Hammer, and MANTIS in the 2.5" line) were all pretty large and imposing pieces of equipment. Anything done for the 8" scale would have to be pretty scaled down. The Metal Mayhem is in fact scaled down, but they do manage to cram some decent detail work into this smaller metal frame. Does that mean the Metal Mayhem is excellent? Not particularly, but I am surprised they were able to pull it off.
When the Metal Mayhem mech was first revealed on a leaked sales list so many months ago, everyone was greatly looking forward to it. Personally I was really trying to figure out just how they would do a mech suit for the 8" figures, but I must say they did a fairly decent job on it. Not fantastic, nor flawless, but it's decent.
The mech is large, but not overly large, with a solid, wide frame, tons of stickers and other pretty nice details worked in. The twin spotlights above the figure's cockpit, the broad, rounded shoulders and the well-detailed controls that extend from the sides of the cockpit all work very well. Those great trio-toed feet, nice pistons on the back of the calves and very cool looking twin thrusters on the back are all very cool little details. The under-armed cannon looks incredibly cool and I love the machine gun belt feeding into the cannon as well. The "Kung Fu Grip" is not anything really special, but it's interesting that they included it.
Now the figure that comes with the Metal Mayhem is pretty forgettible, to be honest. His new head sculpt is actually very cool, I like the additional technological details, but my enjoyment of this figure ends at the neck. First of all, the figure has absolutely no elbow joints and the joints that he DOES have are so loose, flimsy, and wobbly that it takes every form and function away from this figure that they could possibly take. This figure is pretty much worthless.
However, even though the figure is a throw-in, the actual Mech itself does have some nice redeeming characteristics. More on the figure later.
If I had one gripe about the Mech it would be the articulation. The movement of this thing is pretty much limited to shoulders and hips, with no real functional elbow and knee joints, which is a shame. I know from a technical aspect a mech like this would probably have limited movement, but it would make for a lot more "fun" if it could move a lot more and better. Even without articulation, though, the armored detailing, plating, and joint sculpting all really give the Mech a "real world" feel.
As for the "action" part of the Mech, when you lift the Mech's right arm, this gatling gun goes "clack clack clack clack" and shoots back and forth. It's a very cool function, but I do wish it wasn't tied to his arm lifting. That really restricts what you can do with his right arm, which is somewhat disappointing.
Tech Specs:
Now coming back to the figure...as I mentioned his head sculpt is very nice. I really like the plating around his chin and the reinforced visor, it gives him a very science-fiction appearence.
The figure overall uses Firefly's body tooling, but pretty much puts it in the blender, chews it up, and spits it out into the Metal Mayhem cockpit. He's got joints in the shoulders, but no elbows. Joints in the hips and knees, but every joint he has is loose and floppy. He can barely stand upright much less be posed in any interesting and dynamic poses outside of the Mech. His shoulders and hips seem to be designed a bit differently than your standard figure, and while he looks okay in his darkish metallic blue, but from a construction point of view he is lacking in almost every way.
I'm not sure if it was so he could better pilot the Metal Mayhem, but the figure's loose construction limits his viability.
Thankfully, the Metal Mayhem mech itself does make up for some of those limitations with it's overall design aesthetic and detailing. Not quite as dramatic and over the top as some of the 2.5" Mechs (for obvious scale-related reasons) but it's suitable enough for the larger scale figures and ends up looking all right.
Green and silver mixes well for the base color scheme, and Hasbro manages to really breathe some life into it with the caution stickers, number stickers, and lots of other colorful detailing throughout the Mech to offset those more standard colors. The metallic silver looks great, the armored drab green plating, and it all comes together fantastically.
The only issue I have really is the price point. Most vehicles in the line run around $15-20, but the Metal Mayhem retails (or at least I bought it for) a whopping $30. That seems very excessive for a vehicle, even with the 8" scale, especially coming with such a substandard figure. I do hear that retail is quite a bit more manageable at some other outlets, but at least at the Toys "R" Us I picked this up at, it was pretty overpriced. I would take an ATV at $10-15 any day for fun value and play value over the Metal Mayhem. Retail price aside, though, the toy does have some fun value, even with it's limited articulation and worthless figure. If you can find this thing at a lower price point, I'd recommend it in a second. For $30? I'm not so sure.
