Fortress Maximus - Car Robots


This is my 2nd review for a Transformer I just got in today: Fortress Maximus. It will be a short review on the Korean re-release from Car Robots.

SAL has written an excellent review so I am only going to give you some helpful information regarding this version. I will (mostly) discuss what is different about this version. And that is More Than Meets The Eye.

What every collector wants is to own special pieces. Which are for Transformers collectors Master Piece Convoy, Unicron but also older Transformers like Fortress Maximus which is 2 feet tall and transforms into a huge city. Which Transformers fan would not want that?

But the original Fortress Maxmimus would easily cost over $1000 MIB. Technically I could afford it but that would leave me pretty much flat broke. And I also need money for other stuff. ;-) So I got this one off Ebay for $100. But is it worth the money?

(Note: Technically he is called Fortress Brave. Since he appeared in Robots In Disguise as Fortress Maximus I will just call him that.

Well, I had better start my review. ;-) I know the G1 Fortress Maximus came in a nice styro foam box. I was hoping for something similar with this Fortress Maxmimus. But this was sadly not the case.

Instead I got twisties! Yep, and lots of them too. You think getting Unicron out of the box was tedious? Well think again! I even had to cut one side of the inner box open just to be able to remove all the twisties. Since I am going to display him, I do not really need the box to store him but it would have been nice to have a styrofoam box.

The first thing one will notice is that the colors are different. As if anyone had not noticed that. ;-) But the new color scheme is pretty good. I really like the neon green which is used on this version. Another feature that I like is the use of yellow on the blue towers. This makes them look as if there were lights inside. A really nice touch.

Fortress Maximus does not only have different colors. He is also missing several parts such as 2 guns and the robot Cog which transforms into the vehicles Gasket and Grommet. One does not really need those vehicles but it would have been nice it they were included. The loss of the guns is a darn shame.

That is not all that is lost. Several stickers are gone too (such as the one for the helipad) but that can be overlooked. The other stickers have already been applied and rather nicely on my Fortress Maximus. (I hate having to apply stickers so that makes me happy.) It is just sad that the Autobot symbol on the main tower is upside down. Looks a bit silly, especially since the tower is not featured in any other mode so that could have been changed without any problems.

But this is the biggest difference of them all: a slightly different plastic is used for this Fortress Maximus. Especially Spike and Cerebros apeared to be made of thinner (and perhaps inferior) plastic. I cannot really explain it but my Arcana (which is the original from 1987) feels smoother than Spike. (I can exchange both of them just fine though so Arcana will fit on Cerebros.)

The chestplate for Cerebros is also made of thinner plastic than the one on Brainstorm and the inner mechanism has jammed 2 times already. A simple tough will "reset" it, but it was worth mentioning.

Certainly mentionable is the tendecy of parts to pop off. Since Sal mentioned that his Fortress Maximus was really sturdy I think it is again due to the lower quality plastic. I already had one of the hip cannons pop off.

But this can also be a good thing as it can be re-attached. If it has broken off then it would have been far worse.

Fortress Maximus still has his die-cast parts though and these make him weigh a lot. This can also be a downside has he can be hard to transform. I had to use quite a bit of strenght to get the legs to transform. Suddenly a part would then move and if I had any fingers in its path then they could be "crushed".

There are also a few rough edges on this Fortress Maximus. I have not cut open my hands or anything but it is reasonably sharp. Expecially for a toy. (Allthough I would not give this version to a child.)

Not all the news is bad though. The elevator still works very nicely, as well as the launching mechanism. And Fortress Maximus looks really cool in both robot and city mode. (The fortess mode is a little less but that could be due to the removed weapons.)

In all I would say that this is an excellent version of Fortress Maximus. I understand that this may seen odd to you. I spend most of my time talking about the downsides of this Transformer.

But SAL already explained perfectly why Fortress Maximus is a must have. I cannot improve on that review. I only wanted let people know what the differences between this and the original G1 version are.

I recommend this Transformer highly but beware of all the (little) things I mentioned. If you do not mind those drawbacks then I am sure you will love Fortress Maximus. If you do mind these drawbacks then you will need to stay away from him.

And the last difference is, (as I mentioned before) he costs far less than the original version! That is a huge plus too! ;-) In all this is a great alternative for an original G1 Fortress Maximus.

ReviewerFerry Rudolph  
DateJanuary 6th 2004  
Score 10 stars (10 out of 10)  
Reads15992


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