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General
- Crossover Ship: Many kids of both genders ship Max Steel with Barbie. The couple was born due to the popularity of both brands (and because both are owned by Mattel), but also because many feel Barbie deserves a better boyfriend than Ken, finding Max manlier and more attractive.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
- The franchise has never made much of an impact in America, with the 2013 reboot and 2016 movie not managing much interest either. But in Latin America, the series is huge and new toys and DTV movies continue even after both the original show and the 2013 reboot finished their American runs. (A case of History Repeats, as Max's father, Big Jim— Mattel's 1970s-80s action hero— was bigger in Latin America as well.)
- The 2000's toyline is most fondly remembered in Mexico, thanks to a superb dub, decent animation and the coolness of Max and his enemies, particularly Elementor. Most memes, retrospectives and information on the franchise will thus originate in Mexico, with Spanish-speaking adults that grew up with Max Steel as the toy equivalent of Superman and Goku.
2000 Cartoon
- Awesome Music: That kickass theme
. - Complete Monster: See here.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Ven-Ghan for being a badass Bounty Hunter, who fights through use of portals. He even joins the heroes when he realizes he and Max were fighting for the same cause.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Max's catchphrase is "Going Turbo!" Doubly so since Disney XD would go on to air the remake series.
- Not only that, Dread's voice actor, Martin Jarvis, would voice a minor character, Saitine, in the above-mentioned film.
- Nightmare Fuel:
- Psycho's arm has a creepy sort of casualness to it given the size and functionality of the thing. He also takes his face off. Oh, and the face underneath? It looks like a mix between The Joker and a Terminator.
- Viewers of sufficient age will notice immediately that L'Etranger is meant to be a sexual predator.
- Max's infestation is pretty damn freaky.
- Bio-Constrictor is a man made out of snakes. That's horror movie material right there.
- Retroactive Recognition: Dread's voice actor, Martin Jarvis, would later voice Alfred Pennyworth.
- Visual Effects of Awesome: While it hasn't aged well, the CGI was impressive for the time; the series moved to Cartoon Network because they were willing to continue funding for the third season as-is, whereas the WB wanted to switch it to traditional animation.
2016 Film
- Complete Monster: Miles Edwards is a sociopathic Mad Scientist obsessed with harnessing the alien power of turbo energy. To this end, Miles betrayed the Earth defense force he was part of, N-Tek, to the evil Ultralink aliens, leading to the deaths of at least 5 of his former partners. In exchange for allying with the Ultralinks, Miles was granted the capability to betray his former best friend Jim McGrath, who constantly produced turbo energy due to his alien biology, and tried to drain him of the turbo energy, leading to the man's agonizing death. Years later, once learning that Jim's teenage son, Max, has begun giving off turbo as well, Miles sics an Ultralink on the boy, nearly killing innocents in the process, and, after failing to trick the boy into giving up his turbo, Miles settles for absorbing the Energy directly into himself, hoping to kill the boy in the same painful way as his father, while brutally murdering numerous N-Tek soldiers who attempt to save Max. Miles is fully aware that the Ultralinks are world destroyers and will invade Earth once the turbo energy is contained by him, but doesn't care one bit, showing no concern for any life or person except the turbo energy he is so obsessed with.
- Critical Backlash: While the reception to the movie on release was overwhelmingly negative, there's some people who feel that the movie has its own charm — or at the very least, isn't bad enough to be one of the few films with a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Narm: Max searching "My fingers emit liquid energy" on Google, followed by searching "WHAT AM I?!"
- Questionable Casting: Andy Garcia doesn't exactly scream sinister Big Bad. This might have been the point, given that him being the villain was seemingly meant to be a big reveal, but he's pretty underwhelming compared to the Miles Dredd from the cartoon.
- Special Effect Failure: Aside from maybe Max's suit, the CG looks like it came straight out of the cartoon.
- Visual Effects of Awesome: Some viewers' opinions on the CG of Steel, the tachyon energy, and the Air Ultralink/Air Elementor.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The revelation that Steel might have betrayed Jim to Ultralinks. An event that could have turned the usual hero dynamic upside down became undone by a hollow revelation that carried no emotional weight.
