Fortress (Beastformers)

This article is about the Beastformers battle stations. For the other "Fortresses", see Fortress Maximus (disambiguation).

Now them's some hot wings!

In ancient times, three legendary warriors protected the early Beastformer civlizations from all manner of threat. Though they eventually passed, each one was reincarnated as a powerful, high-tech Fortress embodying one of the three elemental powers of planet Beast. Each one is a massive mechanical animal that can transform into a battle station armed to the teeth (and with teeth in one case!). They lay in wait for centuries, prophesized to return when the planet faces great peril.

Though each one is incredibly powerful on its own, they cannot reach their full potential without the partnership of a strong Beastformer warrior at the helm. Combined with a worthy pilot, each Fortress becomes an absolute powerhouse!

The three heroes are:

Rex, the Flame Fortress Red Phoenix

Jack, the Deep Sea Fortress Shocking Shark

Vicky, the Forest Fortress Wood Beetle

Toys

Each Fortress is a mechanical animal with rolling wheels on the underside that opens up to reveal a battle station. They are all equipped with extra (non-firing) guns, some form of spring-loaded "grabber" gimmick, an accessory-storage compartment, and a prison for captured warriors (as most mid-80's playsets had; it's possible if you were a toy designer and didn't put some manner of prison in your playset design, the bosses took you out back had you shot).

Each one also came with a pilot Beastformer figure; all three were unchanged versions of figures previously released in individual boxes.

Transformers: Beastformers

• Red Phoenix (1987)
  • Pilot: Flykick

Only one Fortress was released during the Transformers-branded Beastformers toyline, the Red Phoenix. He came with the pilot Flykick, and both toys had individual bio cards included.

This set also came with a very important pack-in flier, depicting the left half of the "Mysterious Ancient Document", the other half packed in the "Burstsun Special Set" figure ten-pack. By mailing the two halves as well as a survey questionnaire available in both sets to Takara by January 31 1988, you could get the exclusive "Ceramic Special Cobrander" figure (seen in the Phoenix's prison in the box art)... though apparently Takara severely underestimated the number of mail-ins they would get and had to do a second run of the figure to meet the demand.

Beastformers

Thennnk yeewwww!

• Red Phoenix (1988)
  • Pilot: Flykick
• Shocking Shark (1988)
  • Pilot: Strong Hippo
• Wood Beetle (1988)
  • Pilot: Wavemoose

All three Fortresses were released in the "RPG" Beastformers line, though Red Phoenix appears to have been produced in much smaller numbers, likely due to having been made available just the year before (and apparently selling a lot, given the Cobrander shortage). Once again both Fortress and pilot had packed-in bio cards, with Phoenix and Flykick getting the new style cards instead of their prior ones. But while Flykick was available as an individual toy during this line, Shocking Shark pilot Strong Hippo and Wood Beetle pilot Wavemoose were only available in these sets during the "RPG" line.

Notes

• Red Phoenix is the only one of the three Fortresses whose package art changed between the Hasbro and Takara releases... and only a partial change at that. The base image of Phoenix on the background is the same, but features a completely different set of beasts than the Hasbro "Blazing Eagle" art. This was both to advertise the special Cobrander figure tie-in... and because Eagle's art had Flykick in the jail cell. So obviously that had to change.
• Also not changed from the Battle Beasts releases: the customer-applied sticker sheets. Yep, those had the Battle Beasts logo and everything.

Foreign names

• English: Transport Stations