Max Steel: Extroyer Gorilla Attack!

A few years ago I was tapped by the boys action team at Mattel to design a new creature for their Max Steel action figure line.
I was already somewhat familiar with Max Steel, a brand unique to Mattel, but hadn't yet worked with him.  Most of my experience up to that point was actually working with their Barbie line, certainly fun and creative experience, but Max Steel answered my desire to design for their boys action figures.

Of course Max already existed and didn't need designing. My part was in creating a new creature based solely on their verbal description; a cross between sasquatch and a gorilla on steroids.
It would need to look menacing, with huge fangs and purplish fur, oversized hands that would need to grapple (part of a necessary feature, shown), and completed with these crystal-like mutations that were literally growing from inside its body. All of this was thematically consistent with Max's arch nemesis; 'Extroyer' and the characters' ability to possess other living beings. The crystaline growths were an integral part of that mutation.   

The Extroyer Gorilla would eventually make its way into the Max Steel pantheon of characters and creatures.  Take a look;

Here is the initial drawing I generated in illustrating the Extroyer gorilla attack and its grappling action feature;


















The decision was made by the creatives at Mattel to eliminate the bolo net and employ some hi-tech shackles instead.
Here is the revised concept brought to final rendering for presentation;

This is how it looked when it was released to the toy market;