Franchises on this blog always seem to shoot themselves in the foot by the third outing. That’s just what Sammy Steel did in Series 3 (the square sets), which decided to include built-in sound effects. Maybe this was an attempt to make Sammy Steel different from Mighty Max; in reality all it did was hurt an already less-than-mediocre franchise. The toys come off like they’re aimed at a much younger demographic who would be easily amused by such a feature. And as a result of the inclusion of electronics, there are only three sets in the series — one fewer than the other two — and a near-lack of accessories apart from Sammy and the villain-of-the-day.

Electronic parts also means going even cheaper with the sets themselves: tons of goofy decals fill in details where paint would normally be applied. Indeed paint is mainly reserved for Sammy and very sparsely used otherwise. Speaking of Sammy, look at the makeover they gave him! He’s even bigger and resembles Macaulay Culkin!

This series is easily the worst of the three, and it’s lucky I’m dignifying it with its own blog post. They did at least come with comics on the cardbacks, but there’s nothing to connect the sets to one another chronologically this time. So I’ll list them in an order that made sense to me, with the most boring set acting as an intermission in the middle.

EPISODE 1: SUBMARINE SANDWICH

Once again we start with an aquatic theme and a playset that’s laid out flat. The batteries died in mine recently (and leaked slightly) so I can’t give a recent update on the sound effects — I believe they include a submarine “dive” alarm, a sonar blip, and a torpedo firing. As you can see, the set is pretty bare apart from Sammy, an Atlantean reject, and a periscope. Doesn’t bode well for the rest of the series, does it? The fish dude is rather neat though.

EPISODE 2: TOMB OF TERROR

Once again, here’s me being a completist, or I wouldn’t have bothered with the “intermission” set. Our accessories this time are a moving cemetery gate and a sarcophagus lid which covers up a lame skeleton sticker. This is just pathetic, to be perfectly frank: at the very least, the upper half of the compact should’ve been the graveyard, so the bulkier lower half could be the inside of a spooky tomb. And a black cat? Really? Why not a skeleton that fits inside the coffin? The sounds are generic Halloween stock: two wolf howls (one accompanied by cackling witch), a yowling cat, and a stone coffin opening followed by screamy creature leaping out.

EPISODE 3: CHASING THE MOB’S MISSILE

Anything is better than the ‘Tomb playset, so here we at least get to end things with a bang. We get two accessories this time: a robot and a big ol’ missile that Sammy can stand in for whatever reason. We also get a badass alien guard with a phaser and natty dreads. The sounds include a Star Trek door noise, two laser blasts (one accompanied by snarly alien), and a beepy-boopy robot saying “danger!”.

Sammy Steel didn’t see a fourth series, and if this was the direction he was going in, I’m grateful. Despite the goofiness and cheapness of this toy line, I still enjoyed it, and it’s too bad it had to go with such a whimper.

Sammy Steel Variants?!

Imagine my surprise when I browsed the Big Lots toy aisle (back when it was called MacFrugal’s) and discovered NEW Sammy Steel toys — four more playsets to double my collection. While the line was and still is a Mighty Max knockoff, I can’t say I’m not impressed with how far they were willing to carry the franchise.

Series 2 (the rectangular sets) is probably my favorite Sammy Steel series, although it’s hard to gauge whether it’s better than Series 1 or not. The Series 2 locales are more creative and feature greater variety, whereas Series 1 groups its playsets into “prehistoric” and “sci-fi” pairs. You get more stuff, too — three times the stuff, in fact — but the figures themselves aren’t as good and the paint/decal application is sloppier, which makes Series 2 manage to look cheaper than Series 1. And in all four sets, the chief villain is the same: the flamboyant purple-suited Death Star gunner, and his twin brother.

One area in which Series 2 definitely trumps Series 1, though: the compact exteriors are certainly more interesting. Two are “disguised” as Walkmans, and two as Gameboys. Each of the latter two goes as far as sporting a unique decal on its screen, so it appears to be running the demo for a Sammy Steel lcd game based on its respective playset. An extremely cool artistic touch.

I believe the cardback comics of Series 2 also told a linear story, but I don’t remember the chronology being as clearly defined. I’ll list the playsets in what I remember to be the best approximation of “chronological order”.

EPISODE 1: VACATION AT CLUB DREAD
The only Series 2 set that is laid completely flat (we’ll see more of this layout in Series 3), and easily the most fun for a kid who loves boat chases, boat crashes, and lots of room for both. The downside is the near absence of detail: not much substance here, although the oodles of stuff included sort of makes up for it. Also, it’s the only time we get a unique Micro Mob soldier: the silvery dude on the jetski.

EPISODE 2: ON A HURTIN’ SAFARI
I really like this one. The Treehouses of Evil are rather cute, and perfectly set above the raging rock-speckled river below, a perfect place for many a villain to plunge to his death. The removable bridge is also a nice feature. On the downside, the ladder never attaches properly and the animals look like they were lifted from another playset by another company. Still, a pretty cool set. And you get another hydrofoil!

EPISODE 3: IN THE FACE OF PREHISTORIC PERIL
If they had laid this one out flat like Club Dread, it would probably have been the best of Series 2. As it stands, it’s neat, but otherwise bland. The volcano in the background is kind of useless, leaving you with only half a usable environment. I do really dig the moving lava-crag, though, and the armored triceratops gives me Dino-Riders flashbacks.

EPISODE 4: THE STAR TRAP(?)
The climax of Series 2 takes us into space once again, this time to an evil moon base what needs blowin’ up! Sammy’s really in trouble here, as the bad guys come with all sorts of nasty space weapons to jam down his throat, the most devastating being the sleek starfighter that gets its own retractable landing pad. There’s also a ramp for the moon buggy and a swiveling/removable solar antenna and space bulldozer ensemble. The pastel colors harken back to Series 1 a little bit.

Final thoughts: Series 2 is certainly uglier than Series 1, but it’s a helluva lot more fun. None of the Series 1 playsets let you send a monkey on a speedboat rampage, I’ll tell you that much.

On to Series 3…

Mighty Max knock-offs are rare, but the most well-known of them is Sammy Steel, or to be precise, “Sammy Steel vs. The Micro Mob”. Pictured above is the entirety of that toy line — three series of playsets, a total of eleven.

Like Mighty Max, Sammy Steel was brought to us over the course of three different series. Also like Mighty Max, Series 1 (the round sets) is the cute one. There the similarities end, however: Sammy Steel was a toy you’d find in discount stores like Big Lots and Dollar Tree. The quality is much cheaper — evident at a mere glance — and whereas Mighty Max sets glowed with creativity where design was concerned (they had to or they couldn’t close!), Sammy Steel shows merely a small spark.

Still, I ate these things up. I always had a thing for weird dollar store toys, and this was a rare gem: a little-known knock-off of my favorite toy line. I’d seen plenty of He-Man and GI Joe knockoffs, but never one of Mighty Max!

It should be noted that Sammy’s playsets also came with a comic detailing his adventures, just like Max. But his comics illustrate a chronological story, which I’ll remain true to by listing the playsets in the “proper” order.

SET 1: VICIOUS VOLCANO

It’s a cute prehistoric wilderness with a spouting volcano that better resembles a geyser of stew or kool-aid. The caveman dude is a hilarious Hanna-Barberra caricature. This is our first look at Sammy, himself, evidently played by the oldest son from “Home Improvement.”

SET 2: FACE MOUNTAIN

Sammy goes from the jurassic age to the…mammalian age? He faces a palette-swap caveman and a rather neat smilodon. The locale has a workable cave door and features a lush and rather un-menacing environment. After the raging volcano bit, this area seems pretty peaceful.

SET 3: DOME OF DOOM

Beneath Face Mountain Sammy encounters…the least interesting set in my opinion. Although it does feature a sweet lizard dude and hover-scooter. At the center is the Boss Brain or whatever he’s called, who’s tasked with the security of the path between earth and the Sinister Saucer hovering overhead. I guess. I’m sorta bullshitting at this point.

SET 4: SINISTER SAUCER

At last Sammy comes face-to-face with the robotic head of the Micro Mob. This is easily the coolest set of Series 1 and my personal favorite: it has more features than the other three combined! Space shuttle and retractable landing strip; Articulated radar dish that swivels and nods; and an airlock door that opens and closes. The two bad guys are also neat looking: the robotic villain is like something out of Star Wars, and the jetpack spaceman is rather sinister-looking. I also dig the lunch room on the top floor.

So that’s the first adventure of Sammy Steel. Not up to the same standard as Mighty Max, I’m afraid (nor Polly Pocket for that matter); still, as a kid I had a lot of fun with these. As far as knock-offs go, you could do a helluva lot worse.

On to Series 2!