Transformers Reviews - POWER-PUNCH

Titans Return - Fortress Maximus Review

7/17/2016

Titans Return Fortress Maximus is a Titan Class figure. He stands roughly 2 feet tall and is a triple changer. He can change from robot to attack ship to a fortress, it would be weird if Fortress Maximus did not turn into a fortress wouldn't it? His head comes free and turns into Titan Master Cerebros and then the head of Cerebros comes off to change into Emissary. Titans Return Fortress Maximus does not come with any weapons but some third party companies have made a pretty nice sword for him. PUNCH the "Read More" break to continue.

How Is He Packaged?

The box art for Titans Return Fortress Maximus is awesome. The front shows his 3 modes and him fighting with a gun that he does not have in the box and his knee guns firing. The side shows the head flying away or landing image (I still can not tell which way it is going) and the back shows more details for the figure. Fortress Maximus is strapped into his packaging pretty securely with rope ties and some of those clear elastic straps as well. He is also packaged with one of his arms detached so you will need to pop that into place once you free him from his restraints.

Stickers....

That is right I said it, the dreaded "S" word STICKERS. If you read my reviews often enough you know I always dread stickers and Fortress Maximus has renewed my Stickerphobia. The sticker sheet is normal except for a few issues, first the stickers and the page they are on do not cooperate and some parts of the page actually break away completely making it hard to pull the sticker free, secondly they want you to put these stickers in places a normal sized hand can not go, and lastly some times the sticker directions are unclear, simply placing an arrow on a diagram of Fortress Maximus but leaving you guessing which way the sticker should face. I suggest using a tweezers to place the stickers on and alleviate any stickerstress.

Robot Mode

I have to start out by saying I really set my expectations for Fortress Maximus pretty high. Titan Class Metroplex is a great figure so I expected Fortress Maximus to hold his own in those regards. The color scheme for Fortress Maximus is true to his original design and he has lights and sounds as well. Here is where he starts to fall apart, Metroplex has a full array of voice lines, for example he would say "Metroplex heeds the call of the last Prime" or "You Decepticons scatter like cowards!" pretty cool things for a giant Transformer to say. If you follow Fortress Maximus in his comic appearances he is a force to be reckoned with and says full sentences, even in his appearances on the show he was a pretty important character. I have no idea if they plan on changing this in the Titans Return comic coming out soon from IDK Publishing BUT the Fortress Maximus figure can only say one word sentences. He can say "Autobot", "Decepticon" & his own name "Fortress Maximus" he can also make some random blaster and transformation noises. This was a big let down for me, I hope somewhere down the line I can find an explanation for this. In the end I am going to just display him on a shelf and he will still look awesome!

Alt Modes

Fortress Maximus is easily changed into his two alt modes, but even they leave you wanting more. Now I know I shouldn't beat him up too much because it does state on the box and in the instructions that his fortress mode combines with Titans Return Blaster and Titans Return Power Master Optimus Prime to make a larger city. Either way I just expected more from him. Basically you are just laying Fortress Maximus on his back and moving his arms and legs around to create both forms. Check out the photos below and see for yourself. (Ignore my terrible floor this figure is too big for my usual set up.)

Fortress Maximus - Attack Mode

Fortress Maximus - Fortress Mode

The legs of Fortress Maximus are the same legs on Metroplex and can be opened in the middle but for some reason the transformation process neglects this completely. Also I am aware that I forgot to put Cerebros back into the tower portion in the center, he would not have made a huge difference since this figure is already stomping on my expectations.

Cerebros & Emissary

The head of Fortress Maximus detaches and transforms into Cerebros, the head of Cerebros then can detach and become Emissary. The only unique thing about Cerebros is that when changed from the Fortress Maximus head into his own figure he says different things. These things consist of more random noises and him saying "Cerebros" apparently even his head can not make a full sentence.

Titans Return - Cerebros (Front View)

Titans Return - Cerebros (Side View)

Titans Return Cerebros (Left) , Titans Return Hardhead (Right) - Front View

Titans Return Cerebros (Left) , Titans Return Hardhead (Right) - Side View

Emissary

Fortress Maximus Height Comparison

As I stated earlier Fortress Maximus is a Titan Class figure meaning he is tall! He stands shorter than Imaginext Dino Megazord by about a foot, slightly shorter than Titan Class Metroplex, but towers over Combiner Wars Devastator and Combiner Wars Bruticus.

Titans Return Fortress Maximus (Right) , Fisherprice Imaginext Dino Megazord (Left) - Front View

Titans Return Fortress Maximus (Right) , Titan Class Metroplex (Left) - Front View

Titans Return Fortress Maximus (Right) , Combiner Wars Devastator (Left) - Front View

Titans Return Fortress Maximus (Right) , Combiner Wars Bruticus (Left) - Front View

Titans Return Fortress Maximus (Right) , Titans Return Galvatron (Left) - Front View

Titans Return Fortress Maximus (Right) , Fisherprice Imaginext Dino Megazord (Left) - Side View

Titans Return Fortress Maximus (Right) , Titan Class Metroplex (Left) - Side View

Titans Return Fortress Maximus (Right) , Combiner Wars Devastator (Left) - Side View

Titans Return Fortress Maximus (Right) , Combiner Wars Bruticus (Left) - Side View

Titans Return Fortress Maximus (Right) , Titans Return Galvatron (Left) - Side View

Final Thoughts

In my opinion Fortress Maximus had alot to live up to when you look at Metroplex and I feel he does not even come close.

The Good :

Color Scheme is pretty accurate and very patriotic.
Titan Class figures are an impressive size
Easily Transformed
Easily Posed

The Bad:

Stickers
No weapon included
Limited voice function
Alt modes needed more effort put into them

This is basically how I feel about Fortress Maximus. It is a bit blurry but it reads "..But everyone's like "Oh Fortress Maximus you're my hero! You've got guns in your legs and you killed tons of Cons at Simanzi..." and I'm like "That was a Thousand years ago! He's a relic! He's a has-been He's..."

Transformers : More Than Meets The Eye. IDW Publishing

The next frame of that issue is this. "We were just talking about Simanzi! With the thing and the - the stuff! So... Oh wow! you've got guns in your legs! Hows that working out for you? That's awesome man. You're Awesome."

Transformers : More Than Meets The Eye. IDW Publishing

All joking aside I can not fail Fortress Maximus for his bad aspects when his good aspects help balance them out. I would have definitely liked to have seen more effort put into him with the sounds and lights as well as more detail in his transformation process, but these are not reasons to give him a terrible score. He is still going to look pretty impressive on a shelf. That is why I am going to give Titans Return Fortress Maximus 4 out of 5 PUNCHES!

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2 Comments

Shin Gallon

9/14/2016 05:12:24 pm

I was a little let down by him as well. At least the reprolables sticker set for him gives him a bit more visual flair (as well as red eyes all the time!) but he feels...flimsy. Metroplex felt pretty sturdy but Max feels like a stiff breeze will snap him in half (nightmare recollections of my G1 Metroplex snapping in half at his waist-swivel joint as well). Granted I'm comparing him to my old G1 Fort Max that you could kill a charging rhino with, but still...G1 Max's fortress mode was also much more fun to transform and looked better with his legs becoming those giant rear towers.
I also wish he'd come with weapons and Cog, like G1 Max did. I'd give TR Fort Max a solid 8/10, because he DOES look awesome, but for his price and expectations he should have been a 10/10.

ZeldaTheSwordsman

11/22/2020 09:04:18 pm

"BUT the Fortress Maximus figure can only say one word sentences. He can say "Autobot", "Decepticon" & his own name "Fortress Maximus" he can also make some random blaster and transformation noises. This was a big let down for me, I hope somewhere down the line I can find an explanation for this."

First, I'm pretty sure those metallic noises are actually sword-related.
Anyway, here is the explanation:
For one thing, battle noises are appealing to a lot of us who play with our toys, makes them actually sound like they're attacking. So that's one reason those are included.
As for saying the names... That seems to be the first sound effect in the order, so I think it's supposed to be a dramatic name declaration after completing transformation.

But the biggest thing is cost-saving with regards to international releases. It costs money to record translated versions of the lines, but names don't have to be translated. It used to be that there would be full lines recorded for the US version of toys, and then those would be cut down to just the names for the international version (Example: US ROTF Leader Prime says "I am Optimus Prime" but Intl. ROTF Leader Prime just says "Optimus Prime").
But costs have tightened a little since Metroplex's release, so Hasbro has apparently saved some cost and complexity by only making the international-friendly version of the soundchip.

"slightly shorter than Titan Class Metroplex"
Metroplex is only taller if you have his shoulder guns pointed up, so that doesn't really count :P

It's understandable that the city transformation doesn't make use of the vestigial opening legs from Metroplex - they don't really work too well with Fort Max because of the leg guns. It would have been better if Hasbro had sprung for new lower legs (or at least substantial retooling) that would have allowed for the below-the-knee sideways pivots that the original Fort Max had. It's one of the biggest ways in which TR Fort Max suffers from being a Metroplex retool instead of his own mold.