Allegiances: Autobot
Size: Titan ($150 U.S.)
Difficulty of Transformation: Easy
Color Scheme: Dark flat blue, moderately dark gray, moderately dark red, white, and some transparent greenish blue, silver, light pale bluish gray, and black
Rating: 6.7 (mass retail version); 6.9 (SDCC Exclusive version)
 

Emissary

    Emissary is the name of Fortress Maximus' Titan Master's... Titan Master. Look, it all makes sense later, let's just go along with this for now, okay? So, in robot mode, Emissary is a fairly dull Titan Master, being light and dark gray with some dark blue on the legs. Not exactly a stellar color scheme, but he does largely fit with the rest of the figure and especially Cerebros, so there's that. Most of the mold detailing is fairly generic, with some boxy lines on his legs and little hands molded into the sides of the antennae-arms that make up the sides of the head mode. He's got some simplistic boxy detailing on his chest, but his head is the only part that stands out-- that's only slightly, due to the paint app on his face being the only paint in this mode. Unfortunately, his head looks like many other small Headmasters'/Targetmasters', so all in all Emissary's robot mode is pretty forgettable even among Titan Masters. As with all Titan Masters, Emissary can move at the head and back-and-forth at the shoulders, hips, and knees (with the latter two being at one point, as the legs are one piece). In head mode, Emissary forms the head of Cerebros, which is definitely a far more robotic-looking, less human-looking head the Emissary's head. The rounded black helmet doesn't flush all that well with the squareish shape of the back two-thirds of the head, but it is certainly more unique than Emissary's look, and the silver faceplate and single long blue bar for an optic with a slight etch in the middle for a "nose" is quite unique among TF heads.
 

Cerebros

    When you connect Emissary to Cerebros, a small circular portion of his chest lights up red and he says in a robotic voice "CER-RE-BROS". (Along with possibly some sounds meant for Fortress Maximus' robot mode-- it's a pretty sensitive pressure pad underneath the head.) Anyways, Cerebros' robot mode is a little larger than a deluxe, and houses the electronics for the toy, so he has a bit more "heft" than your average deluxe as well, but he's close enough where he can "interact" with other Generations deluxe toys. Like the headsculpt, Cerebros looks considerably more robotic in his robot mode than Emissary does, with more square, angular proportions. Speaking of, his proportions are pretty darn good-- I really have no problems with him whatsoever from a frontal view, though from a side view you can see the bulk of Fortress Maximus' head sticking out a bit further than I'd like behind his back. That said, Cerebros has sturdy heels to keep him from falling over, and it doesn't get in the way of articulation, so it's not a big deal. Cerebros mostly keeps Emissary's color scheme, being mostly black and gray, with a bit of dark blue (this time around the shoulders). It's honestly kinda boring, but G1-accurate. I do love the silver paint on the chest "bars" over his sound speaker, though, and there's also some dark gray paint above his abs. There's no paint whatsoever on his legs at all, unfortunately, or on his shoulders. The mold detailing can be quite impressive at spots, with the side of his legs, his abs, and the sides of his arms having very intricate robotic detailing that isn't at all highlighted by the paint. He also has one little peg for a Titan Master to stand on right behind his head on the right side. For articulation, Cerebros can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows, hips (at three points), and knees (at two points; one due to transformation), so he's fairly poseable.
    Transforming Cerebros to Fortress Maximus' head mode mostly involves folding his arms back behind his back, turning him upside down, making him do the splits and folding up his feet, then flipping the "head cover" up to reveal Fortress Maximus' face. When you do this final step, Fort Max's eyes will light up red and you'll hear the classic G1 transformation sound. (You still keep Emissary plugged in on the bottom.) In head mode, Cerebros looks pretty good, aping Fortress Maximus' rather square head from G1, but allowing his side silver antennae to stick out from the tops of his head a bit more. The vents the feet form look great on the sides of the chin strap, though from a top or side mode this head is a bit weaker; here you can more clearly see Cerebros' upper legs on the top or the lower arms clearly sticking out from behind the top of the head. There's quite a lot of mold detailing on the front of this mode, emphasizing how massive Fortress Maximus is supposed to be. The face has a rather emotioness expression, though that may have been done to emphasize Fortress Maximus isn't "his own person" but controlled by someone else. It's certainly a unique, detailed head design, though.

Fortress Maximus

    Fort Max gets his first update since his original G1 toy, and in robot mode it looks pretty good. Proportionally, he's pretty darned solid, and avoids the "potbelly" look of the original. Surprisingly, there aren't any extras in this mode whatsoever from the city mode except for the ramps behind the arms. He's also fairly stable and VERY articulated-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at two points), elbows (at two points), wrist rotation, movement at the base of the thumb and at each of the four fingers on each hand (individiually), waist rotation, and movement at the hips (at two points), and knees (at two points). Thus, for such a hefty guy, he's pretty poseable. The mold detailing is also outstanding; Fort Max LOOKS like he transforms into a city, with intricate detailing everywhere, from the little guns on the legs to the large HUGE guns below the knees (which can each rotate up to "shoot" forward) to the little tech, plate-like details on the chest and stomach, and even a little helipad on the small side gun on his right leg (which can move up and down where it meets the leg). The major unique details of Fortress Maximus are also here, such as the asymmetrical chest with the transparent window on the right side, square shoulders, a slightly wider stomach than usual, and the like. There's electronics, as you'd expect; plugging the head into the body causes the toy to say one of several things. (The eyes always light up red to match the sounds.) Pressing the button in the center of his chest causes additional noises to play from this catalog, like a gunshot noise, "FORTRESS MAXIMUS" in a rather heroic-sounding voice, as well as a "powering down" noise, "AUTOBOT", a computer-y sound, a "powering up" sound, multiple blaster sounds, "DECEPTICON", and a metal clashing sound. The color scheme is a bit duller than the original Fort Max's, but not by much; he has a bit less white and light gray than the original, with more dark blue on the toy. I honestly don't mind the change as I don't think either color scheme is all that great-- it's servicable, but not particularly eye-catching. The red on the legs helps the guns there stand out, and I do like the rapid dark blue-bluish-gray-white color change on the upper legs and waist. There's a fair amount of paint apps-- particularly the silver circles on the shoulders, lower arms, and midsection, as well as on the guns and chest. Most of his other "paint apps" are actually stickers you have to manually apply, just like on Metroplex. It's here, though, that I need to mention the elephant in the room; Fortress Maximus uses several parts from Generations Metroplex, including the feet, the knees and lower legs, the detailing on the ramps behind his arms, and on the lower arms and fingers. Although some of it works well enough for Fort Max-- the feet and lower arms in particular-- the extra red parts Hasbro has to put on some of these bits to "close off" what were features on Metroplex seem slapped on and not at all what I would expect from such an expensive toy. There's essentially red "cages" around the lower legs to keep you from opening up those lower legs like they could on Metroplex, but they aren't made of really firm, solid plastic, so it feels like Hasbro is closing off a feature haphazardly that honestly would help enhance the alt modes. The knees can also slide back and forth for no reason on Fort Max because of this. There's also a big ill-fitting red piece on the right arm (as that part lifted up on Metroplex), which looks off since there's not that large section of red on the other arm. These are relatively minor issues in robot mode, but...
    ...ohhh, this Battle Station mode is... not good. It's the robot mode laid down, with the feet flipped down and the arms flipped up, and the ramp on the upper back is folded out. The only really interesting part of the transformation is how the halves of the stomach fold together to form the base of the main tower, and then you half-transform Cerebros back to his robot mode and slot it into the top (G1 transformation sound emits as you do so) to form the top of the tower. It's very blatantly Fort Max laying down with a few changes made. Yeah, that happened with Metroplex too, but most of his robot parts at least split apart, folded around, etc. Here the effort just doesn't seem there. Why are there large platforms on the arms and legs? There's no ramps UP to those flat aircraft carrier-like platforms, so ground vehicles can't get on them, and there's blatantly obvious arms underneath them. The ramps on the legs actually are partially obscured by the guns added onto Metroplex's legs! The feet don't serve any purpose like they did on Metroplex, they don't open up for ramps or anything. There is ONE ramp behind the tower that is fairly short, and has an overhang piece that is only clipped on by shallow pegs and falls off ALL. THE. TIME. The ramp also leads to nothing but the side of a wall. I do like how the transparent part of the chest opens up for a double-barreled turret that can rotate and fit a Titan Master inside it, and there's a bi-level little "room" behind the turret that has a small hatch on the "ground floor" that is, again, Titan Master-sized. But that and the tower aside, this doesn't feel like a fortress. It's just too darned obvious it's a robot laying on its back. Because of how many parts are recycled from Metroplex, there's only a few pegs for Titan Masters to stand on-- notably on the hips, for the most part-- but not nearly as many as you'd expect on a massive toy like this. The left arm can also fold up onto the top of the body for no reason other to fit the toy in the box-- this adds needless extra parts to the mold and may confuse some kids, as well. This doesn't look like a fortress...
    ...but the city mode looks even LESS like a city. The city mode is literally just the Battle Station mode with the legs splayed out. No other differences. The legs can't even fold into themselves to make towers or something like on the original toy? Come ON, Hasbro.
    Fortress Maximus has a nifty gimmick, what with the Headmaster-within-a-Headmaster, and both Cerebros and Fort Max himself have pretty solid robot modes with good articulation. The color scheme isn't great, but still passable-- but Fortress Maximus suffers MASSIVELY in his alt modes from using parts from Metroplex. Neither look like a CITY or a fun playground for tinier figures-- even though Metroplex's alt modes were obviously his robot mode sitting down, at least there were several little bits for tinier figures to interact with. Not so on Fort Max-- he's got a dual-gun turret and a minor "room", but that's about it. Yeah, the original Fortress Maximus had a "fat" robot mode, but he had SO MUCH TO PLAY WITH in city mode, and Hasbro has utterly cut that out to save some $$$ by reusing Metroplex parts. Because of all that, they honestly shouldn't have bothered. Get a G1 Fortress Maximus reissue instead; this guy looks nice in robot mode, but his alt modes are just awful, and this is easily my least favorite Titan class release known about as of this writing (2/19).

*A SDCC-exclusive version of Fortress Maximus was released for an extra $30 U.S. that included a massive sword-- a definite plus, giving him a major weapon in robot mode-- and some more G1-accurate white/light gray paint apps here and there (on the chest in particular) and a few more stickers. It's pretty much the same toy, though, so I'd only recommend that version only slightly over the mass release version.

Review by Beastbot

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