Max Steel (2000) Information

Max Steel is a science fiction"action, CGI, animated series which originally aired from February 25, 2000 to January 15, 2002, based on the Mattel action-figure of the same name. Max Steel ran for three seasons, totaling thirty-five episodes with a predicted audience of young males from the ages of eight to twelve. After the TV series ended, since 2004, direct-to-television movies have kept the presence of the main character since its initial creation. The voice-acting cast for the series included such people as Chi McBride and Christian Campbell, the older brother of Neve Campbell, as well as well-known sports stars, such as Tony Hawk.

After the bankruptcy of Netter Digital and Foundation Imaging, Mainframe Entertainment took over the productions of the third season and the movies. The last episode, "Truth Be Told", aired January 15, 2002.

Backstory

Josh McGrath is a 19-year-old fictional extreme sports teen star, whose parents died some time ago. He was later adopted by his father's best friend and partner, Jefferson Smith, who works in an extreme sports equipment manufacturing company which is in reality a facade for a secret counter-intelligence agency known as N-Tek.

While Josh was visiting his stepfather at work, Psycho broke into the facility. The young McGrath faced him and battled against this super-powered cyborg, but in the middle of the fight, he was severely injured and exposed to a swarm of microscopic nanomachines, known to the company as "Nano-Tech Max." The nanomachines entered Josh's body and, as they ran out of energy, started dying, causing Josh to die too. In order to save Josh's life, his foster father, Jefferson Smith, agrees to submit Josh to a high proportion of the transphasic energy (nicknamed "t-juice"), which the machines need to survive. This saves his life and also gives him superpowers. As a result, Josh takes on the identity of Max Steel and fights against super-powered villains, mainly Mr. Dread, Psycho's evil boss, and the members of his Spy organization. Later, in the movies, they fight off mutants, robots, mad scientists and monsters.

Characters

N-Tek/Civilians

• Max Steel / Josh McGrath (voiced by Christian Campbell from 2000"2008, Matthew Kaminsky in two episodes in 2001) - As Josh McGrath, he is a college student and an extreme sports star, working for his adoptive father, Jefferson Smith of N-Tek; which supplies such equipment. He later discovers that N-Tek is a front for a secret anti-terrorist organization. In the course of this discovery, he suffered an accident when he was doused with Nanoprobes while battling Psycho. These probes gave him the enhanced senses, ability to alter his appearance, turn invisible (dubbed, "Stealth mode!") and become superhumanly-strong, agile, and fast (dubbed, "Going turbo!"), and to heal faster than a normal human being, but due to them integrating with his organic systems, he requires periodic doses of transphasic energy to survive or the probes will essentially starve to death and kill him. He uses this to take on the appearance of Max Steel, who looks very different from Josh McGrath, and join the fight against crime. His work in extremes sports and as a crime-buster often conflicts with college and his relationship with his girlfriend Laura Chen. As Josh, he has brown eyes and blonde hair. As Max, he has blue eyes and brown hair.

• Molly - Josh's mother died when he was just a toddler, in a shipwreck during a storm at sea while the family was on a pleasure trip. Molly makes a brief appearance only once when the incident is mentioned in the episode "Sharks": Max is being haunted by her death, and, despite being only a toddler when she died, blames himself for her death. After this, she's never mentioned again. Besides being a lovely mother, there's no other information about her.

• Jefferson Smith (voiced by Chi McBride from 2000"2002, Scott McNeil in "Endangered Species") - The CEO of N-Tek, both the sports and spy sides. He inherited this position from Marco Nathanson, the previous and first CEO of N-Tek. He is the adoptive father of Max after his father died. Being an international counter-terrorism agency, N-Tek answers to the UN and includes a number of other non-US citizens on its staff. He voices his displeasure when Max is put in harms way, but ultimately lets him go, knowing that Max is stronger than any human, and will be able to defeat enemies easier than others. His relationship with Max is strained, but the two ultimately make amends.

• Dr. Roberto Martinez (voiced by Jacob Vargas from 2000"2002, Alessandro Juliani in "Endangered Species") - A technical genius in his late teen years. Best known as 'Berto (a diminutive of his name), he is the main expert on Nano-Tek Max, the microscopic machines which gave Max Steel his superhuman abilities. 'Berto is usually based at the HQ of the secret intelligence service N-Tek where he monitors Max's missions via a computer screen, but he also often takes a more active part in the missions himself. He has family in Colombia, although how many relatives is unknown. From the moment they met, he and Josh became very close: Josh would call Roberto "Bro", who would respond with the Spanish version, "Hermano".

• Rachel Leeds (voiced by Shannon Kenny from 2000-2001) - Max's first partner at N-Tek. Although her country of origin is not specified, her accent indicates that she may be a British national. Rachel has a rather bossy personality but is very attractive in her own way. Much of season 1 focused on her relationship with Max: from one of constant squabbling to increasing attraction on his part, which affected Josh's relationship with his girlfriend Laura Chen. At one stage Rachel did kiss Max as a way of calming him down when he was getting particularly agitated, but seemed to think that he ought to stick to Laura: one episode concludes with Rachel smiling and saying "Blessings on your union" in Chinese as Josh and Laura leave arm-in-arm. After the second series, Rachel was promoted and disappeared after three episodes. There is speculation that she has a brief, non-speaking appearance in season two, episode four, but it is also likely that it was just a reused model. She can normally handle herself in a fight even against multiple opponents bare handed, hence the reason why she was assigned to train and tutor Max as a new N-Tek Agent.

• Kat Ryan (voiced by Debi Mae West from 2000"2002, Meghan Black in "Endangered Species") - After Rachel's promotion in season two, Kat, another of her protégés, became Max's new partner. At first they didn't get along, but, after Jefferson Smith forced them to work together, they developed a little mutual respect. About the same age as Josh and Roberto, her relationship with the two boys is like that of a sister, much like how Josh and 'Berto see each other as brothers. Kat was never given a surname until season three, and it was revealed in the second-to-last episode that, when she was younger, she was part of a street gang and did "very bad stuff." She did time in a juvenile detention center, and has since changed her ways.

• Laura Chen and Pete Costas (voiced by Lauren Tom and Thomas F. Wilson) - Two of Josh's college friends, Pete referring to themselves as "the Three Musketeers" given that they used to be very close, until Josh's life as Max Steel started to interfere. Laura Chen was Josh's girlfriend but she soon broke up with him due in part to his increasingly close relationship with Rachel Leeds. He also kept his activities as Max Steel a secret from her and this would affect dates and other commitments which made him somewhat unreliable. Pete, in the season two premiere, found out about Josh's dual identity after being captured by John Dread and agreed to keep it secret. He was not seen in season 3.

• Jean Mairot (voiced by Keith Szarabajka) - Smith's second-in-command at N-Tek in season one and head of operations, briefing agents on their missions and coordinating their progress. A soft-spoken man, he is cool and calculating and a good judge of character — putting Max in charge of a major rescue operation even though the boy himself did not feel up to it. At the end of season one, Mairot turned out to be a spy working for villain John Dread, N-Tek mainly winning because Dread kept underestimating Max. His fate is unknown, though it is presumed that he was caught in the explosion of Dread's base. His treachery was a bitter blow to the N-Tek staff since he had been a popular figure. Season 1 story editor Greg Weisman has stated that Mairot was actually on N-Tek's side and in the final episode of Season 1, was going undercover into Dread's organization on Jefferson Smith's orders. Weisman also stated that Mairot did survive the explosion of Dread's base. Weisman was not involved in Season 2, and thus this storyline never was revealed in an actual episode. Mairot spoke in a French accent.

• Charles "Chuck" Marshak (voiced by Edward Asner) - An N-Tek division chief who's in charge of Behemoth, the massive flying fortress used as a mobile base to support Max in the TV series. He's a senior, probably around 60 years old, who assists N-Tek with his expertise. He was a close friend of Big Jim and acts a bit fatherly with Max. Despite his age and butler-like appearance, he can move extremely fast, and is an experienced hand-to-hand combatant. He does not appear in season 2 or 3, with no explanation of where he went.

• Jake Nez (voiced by Gregg Rainwater) - N-Tek agent and astronaut, formerly from NASA. He was also once a love interest of Rachel's but was dumped by her when she started training Max. He does not come across as the jealous type, ably assisting Max and Rachel on missions.

DREAD

• John Dread (voiced by Martin Jarvis) - The leader of the DREAD organization, and the main antagonist of the series (even after his supposed death). He's rarely seen outside of offices and rooms in dark secluded buildings, and only made two known appearances where he was the main or part of a main threat. He was killed in the season 2 finale. There is fandom speculation that John Dread and Marco Nathanson (the N-Tek founder) are the same person, although this has been debunked by the first season story editor Greg Weisman.

• Psycho (voiced by Keith Szarabajka) - His real name is unknown, although his nickname/DREAD code-name is speculated to come from the fact that he appears to be a psychopath. He's often called "Smiley", mainly by Max but occasionally by other members of N-Tek. Usually he doesn't care about it, but for some reason has very violent reactions when other members of DREAD address him with that nickname. He has a metallic face which looks like the human skull, with an unusually large smiling jaw (hence the reason of his nickname). In the first season, Psycho covers up his metallic face with a mask, which gives him the appearance of a normal tough white guy. His main weapon is his right bionic arm, which can change into a claw or a laser gun, presumably by nerve signals. In "Endangered Species," Psycho also has a Psycho-droid, which looks almost exactly like him, except the droid is a silver or copper color. He features the same bionic arm as Psycho and has a self-destruct system, which Psycho ultimately uses to kill Bio-Con.

• L'Etranger (voiced by John de Lancie) - "The Stranger," as his name translates from French into English. He wears a mask over his face, which appears to resemble a metal skull (similar to that-of Psycho), with little facial details, and was the first villain to appear in the TV show. At the end of said episode, Dread mentions that he is not a full-time member of his organization. By the time of his second appearance, he is said to no longer work for Dread. He is a mercenary terrorist armed with electrical charged gloves which can produce an explosive spark. Being an electrical weapon, one hit is more than enough to stun his enemies for a large period of time. It appears that he drowned in the episode "Fun in the Sun" (S2E2).

• Dragonelle (voiced by Mia Korf) - She is the first major female villain shown. The origin of her code-name is unclear, although there is speculation that she comes from China (as that is where the episode which she appeared in for the first time took place). As dragons are a key part of Chinese mythology, it is believed that she took this name for good luck. She's dressed in a golden battle armor, and has the ability to perfectly mimic the actions and appearance of any person she has seen. She's not much of a fighter, as she always runs away from any physical confrontation, since she's more an undercover agent than an active fighter. Nevertheless, she fights off both Max and 'Berto in the episode "Shooting Stars" (S2E8).

• Vitriol - According to Max, Vitriol is "not the sharpest tool in the shed," which explains why he often teams along with Psycho. While they are supposed to be equal members of DREAD, Vitriol usually follows Psycho's orders. His arms are vibrant, translucent green with metallic 'bones' visible, and can shoot green energy beams, which can be very destructive. At the end of season one, he realizes he's an expendable pawn, and decides to cooperate with N-Tek in an effort to obtain a reduced sentence. However, in Season 2, he would return to old habits, and go against N-Tek several times. In Season 3, he is seen several times as the main enemy.

Other Villains

• Woody Barkowski and Annabelle Barkowski/Electrix - Two siblings who are intent on bringing down N-Tek: Woody because he believes that they gave him a faulty mountain bike to cause him to break his leg and thus retire from the extreme sports world. Woody considers himself to be Max Steel's arch-nemesis, but Max mentions that he "barely qualifies as comic relief." Annabelle collaborates with her brother in the first season and seeks revenge for her brother in the second season. In season two, Annabelle suffers an accident in her laboratory and her body is never found. It is later revealed that Annabelle's body using electrical currents and sources as an energy supply, much like how the nanoprobes in Max's body uses transphasic energy. She adopts the name as Electrix and has several robots to act as her reinforcements.

• Bio-Constrictor (voiced by René Auberjonois) - His full name is "Biologically Altered Constricting Serpent", having been given this name by 'Berto. He is usually addressed as "Bio-Con" or "Bio-Constrictor" in the series and movies. Dr. Klimo was involved in an accident what is thought to be injected with electrified snake venom, and thus mutated into a half-human, half reptile with the abilities to turn into a snake, poison people with highly-toxic venom or use his venom to transform other people into copies of his mutated self. Bio-Con looks more like a leather mummy than a snake, mostly because his body is composed of several serpents twisted around what seems to be his base skeleton. Before his accident, he was an employee fired for erratic behavior, mainly due to the use of turning poisonous animals, such as scorpions and snakes, into biological weapons, which appears to form a basis of the plotline of the Endangered Species movie. He initially meet Josh when he was younger, and they used to play baseball together.

• Lance Breamer - He considers himself the "King of the sky." Angered by those who feel his ideas are too expensive or too impractical, Lance creates a massive airplane called, "The Javelin." Lance uses this to steal aircraft out of the sky, using fog exhibitors to conceal the plane, and knockout gas to wipeout a part of the pilot's short-term memory. After N-Tek use their plane, the Behemoth, as bait, Lance manages to abduct the plane with 'Berto inside. He takes a liking to 'Berto, and attempts to have 'Berto join him. After 'Berto refuses to destroy a plane, Lance lashes out, firing the Javelin's lasers at innocent bystanders. Shortly thereafter, Max boards the Javelin. Lance fights Max, but is knocked out and presumably arrested.

• Hernando Carreras - The leader of the so-called pirates in Baja and he only appears in the episode Swashbucklers. He has a mechanical eye under his eyepatch which can shoot lasers and his men use laser swords. He plans to use an earthquake machine to find the buried treasure so that they'll be rich.

• Bret Grimsley - Grimsley is the sports manager for athletes Brian Durham and Danny Preston. Grimsley uses Brian and Danny to steal high-end computer chips, promising they'll be the best. The computer chips, when attached to the head of a person, can push their body to the extreme. It is extremely dangerous, and have the potential to kill Brian or Danny. Grimsley doesn't care about this, only thinking of profits and being number 1. Max catches Brian and Danny, and they confess, leaving Grimsley behind bars. Grimsley is thought to be seen numerous times in season 3 as a henchman, however, it possible that it was only a reused model.

• Clark Ashworth - Clark is an egotistical, megalomaniac who takes his former coworkers hostage after he is fired from his job in Washington, D.C.. While holding them hostage, he steals his "prized creation"; The Disruptor. The Disruptor has the equivalent of 50 sticks of dynamite each time it is fired, as well as unlimited firing capabilities. Clark created this, as well as the security system for the building he is holding his former coworkers hostage in, making it difficult for Max and Kat to save the hostages and stop Clark. After Max and Clark struggle, he escapes the building, and heads towards the Washington monument, in an attempt to fire the Disruptor and destroy the White House. Max stops him, and he is arrested. He is known for using the term, "Dude" quite frequently, and Max states he looks more like a surfer than a terrorist.

• Richard Shine - Shine is a sports park owner, and is extremely obsessed with Kat. He attempts to destroy his own sports park to make millions, and later kidnaps Kat after she is injured in an explosion he caused. Max is almost blown up by one of Shine's bombs in an apartment, but Max escapes with the bomb and tosses it into the ocean before it goes off. Max and 'Berto track down one of Shine's mansions, and rescue Kat. Shine attempts to stop them with his henchmen, but they are all taken down and arrested.

• Serge De La Rouge - Serge is a car racer who holds a grudge against athlete Jeremy McGrath because he lost to him in the last Sahara Race: A race across the Sahara Desert where any type of vehicle goes. Serge plants a bomb in his own car, kidnaps Jeremy during the race, and attempts to kill Jeremy as well as the judges who overruled his protests that the last part of the race favored super cross bikers. Max, Kat, and 'Berto manage to stop and arrest Serge before anyone is harmed.

• Chang - Chang is a Chinese member of Dread and he is an expert in martial arts.

• Dexter - He kidnapped and brainwashed Scott to kill Montgomery. Max and Kat manage to stop him and arrested him.

Episodes

Max Steel debuted on Kids WB with the episode "Strangers" on February 25, 2000. And ended with episode "Truth Be Told" on January 15, 2002. The show ran for three seasons, totaling 35 episodes.

The series can be found on DVD: Volume one contains episodes 1-6, Volume 2 contains episodes 7-13, and the final one is a box-set with all of season one. Seasons 2 and 3 were never released. VHS ones were made available with various "Max Steel" action figures: "Strangers," "Snow Blind," "Sphinxes," and "Old Friend, New Enemy" were sold.

As of 2009, episodes of Max Steel can be found on Crackle's YouTube account, however, these are no longer accessible.

Principal voice actors

• Edward Asner - Charles "Chuck" Marshak
• Christian Campbell - Max Steel/Josh McGrath (2000"2001)
• Martin Jarvis - John Dread
• Matthew Kaminsky - Max Steel/Josh McGrath (2001, episodes "Prey" and "Fan Appreciation")
• Shannon Kenny - Rachel Leeds
• Mia Korf - Dragonelle
• John de Lancie - L'Etranger
• Chi McBride - Jefferson Smith
• Keith Szarabajka - Jean Mairot, Psycho
• Jacob Vargas - Dr. Roberto Martinez
• Debi Mae West - Kat Ryan

Additional voices

• Thom Adcox-Hernandez -
• Carlos Alazraqui -
• Edward Albert -
• Obba Babatundé -
• Jeff Bennett -
• Earl Boen -
• Robert Cait -
• Cam Clarke -
• Jessi Corti -
• Jim Cummings -
• David DeLuise -
• Tate Donovan -
• Jessica Gee -
• Jean Gilpin -
• Michael Gough - Grimsley
• Tony Hawk - Himself
• Matt Hoffman - Himself
• Sherman Howard -
• Charity James -
• Dublin James -
• Tony Jay -
• Clyde Kusatsu -
• Joe Lala -
• John de Lancie -
• Jason Marsden -
• Jeremy McGrath - Himself
• Candi Milo -
• Yuji Okumoto -
• August Paro -
• Gregg Rainwater - Jake Nez
• Kevin Michael Richardson -
• Mark Rolston -
• Rino Romano -
• Pete Sepenuk -
• James Sie -
• Cynthia Songé -
• Tara Strong -
• Michael T. Weiss -

Crew

• Susan Blu - Dialogue Director
• Bob Richardson - Producer, Supervising Director

Turbo Missions/N-Tek Adventures

Max Steel's Turbo Missions is a series of 1 minute length mini clips produced in partnership by Mattel, Sony Family Pictures Entertainment and Mainframe Entertainment (now Rainmaker Animation) which premiered on Cartoon Network on the first half of 2008 in Latin America. Each clip usually presents Max challenging one of his enemies. There's no moral lessons to be learned or advertising as usually happens in this kind of TV commercials. The main purpose of the Turbo Mission series is to keep Max's presence alive among his fans, and slowly reintroduce previous plots and situations from the series and movies. The clips are not intended to be viewed in a specific order, and are independent of each other. You don't need to watch one in particular to understand others. Also the chronology of the events depicted varies from clip to clip. Some shows present situations, while others are denoted to be memories or flashbacks.

Turbo Missions are also used to retcon the story, and give additional hints and backgrounds of the characters. In the movie Dark Rival it is mentioned that Troy Winter and Max are old rivals with no further explanations. Many Turbo Missions show several past confrontations between Max and Troy, providing a more wide and credible background for both characters. A curious thing to note is that despite it is stated several times in Dark Rival that Max never defeated Troy in the Extreme Sports Circuit, he usually surpasses him in Turbo Missions. Hence, the reason why Troy hates Max so much in the movie. Also Max fights several Psycho-robots, but it is not clear if these fights in particular are present or past, specially 'cause in this mini series Max always wears his newest Adrenalink uniform and the '09 Going Turbo Upgrade, even when the events depicted in the flashback episodes are supposed to happen years before this date.

For merchandising reasons, the complete season one episodes were randomly packed with the 2008 Bio Crisis DVD as an extra bonus. Other versions of this same DVD contained a Barbie My Scene movie instead. The external package of Bio Crisis does not mention anything about bonus content, or which one is included, but the My Scene version was initially intended to be a Wal-Mart exclusive.

In 2011, the Max Steel website was remade, giving it a new, fresh look. Episodes of "Turbo Missions" can be found there, however, they now have the name "N-Tek Adventures."

N-Tek

• Max Steel (voiced by Christian Campbell from 2008-2009, Mark Hildreth from 2009"present) - Max Steel is a super-charged man, and the protagonist. Based on his appearance, he is in his late-teens or early-20's. He has brown hair and blue eyes. After being infected with nanotechnology, he gained superpowers; such as the ability to go "Turbo": which makes him faster, stronger, and more agile than any other human being. He also seems to be fairly smart, being able to deduce situations and find the fastest ending. He also favors humor, such as making jokes about situations. Later on, his robotic partner, Cytro, would question his use of humor, which he finds pointless.

• Jefferson Smith (voiced by Scott McNeil from 2008"2009) - The adoptive father of Max Steel and the head of N-Tek. He is protective of Max, sometimes showing displeasure when Max has to go against the forces of evil. The relationship between Jeff and Max is strained, but the two usually make amends. He is later replaced by Faron Ferrus.

• Dr. Roberto Martinez (voiced by Alessandro Juliani from 2004"present) - A technical genius in his late teen years. Best known as 'Berto (a diminutive of his name), is the main expert on Nano-Technology, the microscopic machines which gave Max Steel his superhuman abilities. 'Berto is usually based at the HQ of the secret intelligence service N-Tek where he monitors Max's missions via a computer screen, but he also often takes a more active part in the missions himself. From the moment they met, he and Josh became very close: Josh would call Roberto "Bro", who would respond with the Spanish version, "Hermano".

• Kat Ryan (voiced by Lisa Ann Beley from 2008"2009) - Kat is one of Max's partners. About the same age as Josh and Roberto, her relationship with the two boys is like that of a sister, much like they see each other as brothers. For some reason, after "Bio-Crisis" and the first season of "Turbo Missions," her character is dropped. She is never seen again, and is replaced by Cytro as Max' main partner for future movies and Turbo Missions.

• Cytro - This battle android is a mechanic version of Dr. Jekyll & Mister Hyde. Created by Doctor Grigor Rendell, Cytro's directives states he must destroy N-Tek, but as a result of a major battle damage, his programming fails and sees Max Steel as a friend instead. A curious thing to note, no matter if he is evil or good, his voice and attitude are more of an attentive and reflexive butler than a berserk warrior. Cytro's robotic body is expendable, and he cannot really be destroyed as long as a backup of his programming exists. The program which contains his personality just needs to be inserted into a new cybernetic body. Cytro is not just a tool. He can learn and take decisions on his own, despite his programming, and eventually develops a strange sense of humor: makes a human-like pose and then questions the purposes and utility of such behavior, which he finds pretty much useless.

• Faron "Forge" Ferrus - Very little is known about N-Tek's field commander. With a bossy, rude and secretive attitude, Forge insists the mission always comes first, no questions, no doubts, no more information than the strictly amount needed to complete the task. Forge's attitude often collides with Max's free spirit, but in the end, both knows how to make a successful teamwork. While Forge's abilities have not been revealed yet, there are a couple of hints that demonstrates he can challenge Max's training with no major effort.

Enemies

• Elementor (voiced by Scott McNeil) - Probably the most versatile of all Max's enemies, Elementor originally started just as a Bio-Con clone who went mad. The reptile like creature enhances his natural abilities with the use of different isotopes which grants him the capacity to mimic different basic elements. Elementor can transform himself into a mass of rock(earth), water, air, lava (fire) or metal, and adopts the natural physics of those materials. He also seems to be capable to mix some elements to create new states of his own body, hence, water+earth produces a mud-like creature, while water+(cold)air produces an Ice version. Being a clone of Bio-Con, Elementor remembers everything Bio-Con knew up to the date of his creation. Despite having the memories of a scientist, Elementor does not show any talent for science. He prefers the pure brute force approach. He also seems to be a bit dumb, typically falling for Max' traps easily and sometimes even appears to be comic relief.

• Extroyer - Troy Winter, who used to be an opponent of Max' when he was on the extreme-sports circuit, suffers a chemical mutation with a crystal fragment from Morphosos Comet which transforms him into a crystal like creature who can absorb other people's life force and identity, and in the particular case of super human entities, their respective powers. Once he absorbs a living being, he can reuse its appearance as needed. When in Extroyer form, the left half of his head is often missing, and the interior of his empty skull can be seen as a formation of rock crystals. Sometimes he only has the right eye, but when he takes another person's identity his head is complete and the impersonation is perfect. However, when copying other creatures he still has half head only.

• ToxZon - Titus Octavius Xander, (friendly nicknamed "Tox" by his initials), once a former N-Tek Agent who due to his scorn for rules, forced a toxic waste disposal machine to run at full capacity before testing it, without any safety measures on, resulting in a major explosion which contaminated and mutated his own body. ToxZon cannot live or even breathe in a normal environment without the help of a container armor, and requires all kind of chemical contaminants to power up his bio-suit. Being an ex-agent, he's familiar with all techniques, methods and procedures of N-Tek. Using different kinds of chemical waste, he can bring to life little creepy creatures known as "toxoids" which can receive mental commands from him even at a far distance, and acts as a little army of his own. The form and abilities of these creatures varies depending of the chemical used to create them.

• Makino - Mike Nickelson, an arrogant and vain news reporter suffered a mutation due to a contamination caused by a toxic cloud created during a battle between Max Steel and several of his deadliest enemies. He directly blames N-Tek for his current condition, which gives him the appearance of a war monger, although he uses a digital clone of himself with his previous normal appearance when he broadcast news. Makino can control any machine or computer he has contact with, can take parts of machinery or computers and add them to his body, and can partially transform into a machine (plane, tank, submarine, etc.). Since he is still part human, has the weakness of any normal person, and needs to eat, sleep and breathe like any other living being, but also has more resistance and tolerance to pain thanks to his mechanical parts. He has the same nanotechnology N-Tek developed to hypercomprise spy equipment and weapons, so he can match any gadget Max has, but with the additional advantage these are an integral part of his body. Officially, Makino substitutes Psycho as the main "cyborg enemy" of Max Steel in the series.

• Psycho-droids - Sometimes they are simply called "Psycho-bots" or "Droids." The Psycho-bots were initially made by Psycho, but after his death, the bots set one goal: Destroy Max Steel. The bots are not smart, making even Elementor look like Einstein. They also have a self-destruct system, which they use in an attempt to kill Max, but this usually fails, and Max uses them against each other.

• Psycho - The creator of the Psycho-droids. He is never seen, but originally shared the same physical appearance of the droids, only his left arm had skin, he wore a blue shirt and blue pants, and the only metallic part of his head was his face.

• Bio-Constrictor - The creator of Elementor. He is never seen, but was a half-snake, half-human scientist.

Season One (2008)

Season One premiered on Latin America on June 2008. Has a total of 14 episodes, 1 minute length each. Episode 12:"Relaunch" is a complete description of how Max Steel's new '09 Going Turbo Upgrade will work for upcoming movies and series episodes.

• Boiling Point - Pilot
• Relax
• Black Hawk down
• The Duel
• Gorilla attack
• Handle with care
• Enemy in home
• Hurricane
• Catch the prey
• The race
• The right gadget
• Relaunch
• Turbulence
• Warming up

Season Two (2009)

The Second Season of Turbo Missions was launched on June 2009, a year after the first one. Has twelve episodes. The main difference with Season One is it was divided into three separated themes: Animal Encounter, High Voltage and N-Tek Invasion. While (same as previous season) the episodes are independent and have no specific order or continuity, each one showcases only those elements related to their theme.

Animal Encounter Mostly wilderness and animal adventures, often focused on Extroyer or extroyed animals.

• All Teed Up
• Along Came a Spider
• Goin' Batty

High Voltage Extreme sports themed adventures, with Elementor as the main villain.

• Powersurge
• The Maze
• Flushed
• Desert Storm

N-Tek Invasion An "anything goes" series of episodes, all taking place in N-Tek headquarters, featuring several enemies focused on breaking in to steal N-Tek's technology.

• Uninvited
• Swingtime
• Spaced out
• Mission Critical Gear
• Goin' up

Season Three (2010)

The third season was gradually revealed to the public as part of the toy line first, while the videos were not available until June 2010. In 2009 Christmas, few selected toy stores distributed a limited amount of toys from the upcoming 2010 line, including two different ToxZon action figures. Same as the second series, the toys were separated in 3 different missions. Mattel briefly leaked a couple of episodes on YouTube to test the fan's initial reaction, but the main premiere was during the theatrical release of Toy Story 3 on selected theaters on Latin America. Before the main presentation, a Max Steel vs Psycho droids and Elementor sneak peek episode was presented to the audience.

Bio-Threat Adventures which involved some sort of chemical contamination, with ToxZon or his toxoids as the source of contamination.

• Endangered
• Fusion
• Makin' Earthquakes

Cyber-attack High-tech and robotic adventures, mostly as the previous "N-Tek Invasion" theme of season 2 but with a twist: instead of trying to get into N'Tek's headquarters, captured villains try to get out of the compound.

• Steel vs steel
• Extroyed raven
• Chemical discharge
• Multiple armors

Night Strike As the name implies, adventures that takes place at night, mostly in total darkness. (Night Strike action figures glows in the dark).

• Werewolf
• Extreme vision
• Hawk eye

Season Four/"N-Tek Adventures" (2011)

For the new season, the name was changed to "N-Tek Adventures." Contrary to previous seasons, this one was not released on DVD.

Extreme Terrain

• City on Fire
• Running Hot
• Live Bait

Air Assault

• Soft Landing
• Winged Fury
• Unfriendly Skies
• Air Spray

Chemical Chaos

• Water Hazard
• Short Fuse
• Gone Fishin'
• Hurrican't

Future series/Reboot

In January, 2012, it was reported Mattel and Freemantle Media were working on a new television series and reboot of the "Max Steel" television series, which will still retain the name, but feature different characters, villains, and an entirely new storyline. This time, the show follows 16-year-old Maxwell "Max" McGrath and his alien "war machine" partner, Steel. Maxwell McGrath learns he has the power to generate "turbo mode", in which he struggles to contain until meeting Steel, an alien "war machine" Steel gives Maxwell the ability to harness his power while merging his own to create one unified super force. The action adventure series was launched in March 1th, 2013 to audiences on Cartoon Network channels throughout Latin America, including Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Perú. On October 5, 2012, it was confirmed that the series will air on Disney XD in the United States, and will premiere Monday, March 25th, 2013.