Cerebros (G1)

The name or term "Cerebros" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Cerebros (disambiguation).

Cerebros is an Autobot Headmaster from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Must I always strike poses wielding weapons? Can I have no peace?! And can I have my legs transformed correctly?!

Cerebros is the robot that transforms into Fortress Maximus's head, and is itself binary bonded to Spike Witwicky.

Whether Cerebros is a sentient robot or just a mid-sized mecha suit for Spike depends on the continuity. See below for elaboration.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

Cerebros made cameo appearances in the Headmasters miniseries as an individual Autobot. However, that series contains many art errors, so the significance of those appearances is questionable.

He probably wouldn't get along well with his cartoon counterpart...

After Galen chose to flee Nebulos along with the rest of the Autobots under Fortress Maximus's command, the former pacifist had resigned himself to a life of war. He decided that all resources must be put into winning that war, so during the Steelhaven's journey to Earth, he ordered Fortress Maximus's body be doubled in size for greater power in combat. Now, Fortress Maximus's larger head transformed into the Autobot Cerebros, while Galen transformed into the head of Cerebros. (Cerebros was a robot entirely under the control of Galen. Fortress Maximus's Universe entry)

Once the Autobots arrived on Earth, they encountered the Decepticons under Scorponok's command. The Decepticons remarked that Fortress Maximus seemed larger than usual, but no matter—Scorponok kidnapped a young human named Spike Witwicky and retreated deep into the caverns of the volcano that housed the Ark. The caverns were too small for the larger Fortress Maximus to navigate, so he sent the smaller Cerebros in his stead. When the battle moved to a narrow rock bridge, Cerebros threw his own head into battle. Unfortunately, his head, Galen, perished in battle. Subsequently, Spike Witwicky assumed Galen's role as Cerebros's head (and through him Fortress Maximus's), hoping to aid the Autobots in finding his younger brother Buster. Trial by Fire!

Cerebros doesn't get to do much beyond the same expository panels over and over and over.

After Spike had been surgically altered for the Headmaster process, Spike accidentally revealed his changes to his father Sparkplug Witwicky. He showed his father how he could transform into Cerebros's head and then into Fortress Maximus's head, and with the Autobot Targetmasters at his side, he pledged to his father to find his brother Buster.

Buster had been spotted on a tropical island, but Kup refused to let Spike participate for fear of his emotional attachments gumming up their rescue mission. So, Spike, binary-bonded to Cerebros, stood outside the perimeter of the battle. But when the mission failed and the island transformed into a space-faring vessel, launching into space, Spike took matters into his own hands. He and Cerebros recombined with Fortress Maximus and grabbed onto the spaceship as it entered orbit. In space, Fortress Maximus's body was dealt a serious blow from the spaceship through the chest, forcing Cerebros to disengage. This led to Decepticon leader Shockwave himself confronting Cerebros in combat, and the Autobot was deactivated in one blast. Spike, disconnecting from Cerebros, was eventually able to defeat Shockwave himself. The Desert Island of Space!

After Fortress Maximus was repaired, their group of Autobots met the other group of Earthbound Autobots led by Grimlock. When their two groups met, Grimlock belittled Earth's humans, and Spike showed Grimlock how a "worthless human" led his contingent of Autobots by transforming from Fortress Maximus to Cerebros to his own binary-bonded self. Grimlock laughed and challenged Fortress Maximus to a duel for Autobot leadership supremacy, but the recent damage to Fortress Maximus and Cerebros at the hands of Shockwave worried Spike. Fortunately, Blaster was called on to fight in place of Fortress Maximus. Totaled!

Later, though, they were a lot more efficient about it.

Later, Buster was found in the Arctic due to a distress signal. Cerebros was once again seen when Spike transformed from Fortress Maximus's head to Cerebros and again to Spike's binary-bonded suit to show Buster that he was his brother. Dark Star Once Buster was retrieved and home safe, Spike saw no reason to continue his campaign with the Autobots, and so he tried to return to his previous life. Unfortunately, Decepticons came looking for him, and Spike had to telepathically call on the power of Fortress Maximus's body from space. Cerebros was very (very) briefly seen as Spike transformed into Fortress Maximus's head. The Man in the Machine!

Cerebros was seen one last time, again merely as an intermediate transitional mode, when Spike was once again called back into action, this time against the increasingly deranged Galvatron. The Last Autobot?

Marvel Generation 2 comic

Inexplicably, Spike transforms directly into Fortress Maximus's head, bypassing Cerebros. All or Nothing!

Classics

Classics continues from the Marvel US series, and does not include the UK stories or any subsequently published stories.

Decades later, in 2012 Cerebros was stationed in South America along with Spike inside Fortress Maximus. His body was present behind Spike one day when Rad reported from the Ironworks base in Oregon about a foiled attack by Gigatron and his Decepticons. Soon thereafter, due to the actions of an evil Ultra Magnus from another dimension, a rift of space time opened over Earth, causing catastrophes worldwide. Cerebros, merged with Spike, gathered civilians inside Fortress Maximus for safety. Invasion

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Voice actor: Jered Barclay (English), Ken Narita (Japanese)

Cerebros: "I hate guns! I hate them so much!"

On Cybertron in 2007, Cerebros observed a race between Blurr and Hot Rod, the latter of whom was assisted by Daniel Witwicky, an experiment by Brainstorm to show the advantages of a unity between the humans and Autobots. Cerebros would express concern regarding humanity's growing involvement in the Transformers' conflict. The debate was cut short, however, when the Decepticons attacked Cybertron, with the intent of unleashing the Plasma Energy Chamber on the Autobots. During the conflict, Cerebros, eleven other Autobots, Spike and Daniel took a ship to the chamber in pursuit of Scourge, who unwittingly unleashed the power of the Chamber. As Scourge was overloaded by the chamber's power, Cerebros took back the Key to the Plasma Energy Chamber and returned to the ship. A bolt of energy hit the ship and sent them flying across the galaxy to the planet Nebulos. Cerebros and the other Autobots wandered around the planet looking for a way off, but were captured and almost destroyed by Nebulon rebels who mistook them for Hive machines. When the Decepticons attacked, the Nebulon leader Gort freed them and they counterattacked. Unfortunately, this resulted in six Autobot's being captured, and Daniel getting injured. Brainstorm's idea of merging humans, or in this case Nebulons, with Autobots came up as a solution, and five of the six remaining Autobots agreed to become Headmasters. Cerebros refused to undergo the process, reiterating his belief that human(oid)s shouldn't endanger themselves by fighting alongside Autobots. The Rebirth, Part 1 As the new Headmaster Autobots attacked the Decepticons and rescued the other Autobots, Cerebros wandered off exploring the planet, but came across a Hive city and was attacked by them. He barely escaped with his life and managed to make it back to the cave, wounded. The Rebirth, Part 2

Spike: "Hold your gun, whore!"

When he awakened, he found out things had gotten worse. The Decepticons now had Scorponok (controlled by Zarak) as well as Headmasters of their own, with the addition of Targetmasters. At Spike's insistence, he and Cerebros remained behind on Nebulos as the other Autobots departed to stop Scorponok. The two made their way back to the city were they chased by Hive machines, but Spike was able to gain control of them. The two used the machines to create Fortress Maximus. Cerebros finally underwent the Headmaster process, with Spike as his partner, and was further modified to become the head of Fortress Maximus itself.

When the city was completed, the duo left for Cybertron to repel the Decepticon invasion. Though Cerebros was less than thrilled with the idea of fighting again, Spike assured Cerebros that it would be the last time. Maximus was transformed into battle mode and engaged the Decepticons, but Scorponok quickly followed suit. Soon the two city-bots revealed their secrets and transformed into two gigantic robots, engaging in combat. Scorponok was about to deliver the final blow, but Spike managed to distract Zarak, allowing Maximus to force him back into city mode. Cerebros then detached and infiltrated Scorponok to retrieve a captured Daniel and Arcee. Soon after, Galvatron unleashed the Chamber and took out every Autobot, including Cerebros and the Decepticons themselves. However Spike and the Nebulon rebels were able to save Cybertron and restore it to its Golden Age. Cerebros was reawaken by Spike (who was unable to see the planet in his alt mode) and both were congratulated by Optimus Prime. Cerebros questioned the Decepticons' fates, with Prime stating that they may always be around but had a more important task. Cerebros, Optimus, the other Headmasters and Targetmasters took Maximus back to Nebulos were they all vowed to stop the Hive's machines. Optimus promised that when the machines were gone, Cerebros would live there in peace as the planet's guardian. The Rebirth, Part 3

Transformers vs. G.I. Joe

This section covers fiction that is ongoing. It will be added to as the story progresses. If it isn't current, you can help by updating it.

Cerebros was infiltrated and corrupted by Blackarachnia, causing Fortress Maximus to deteriorate into a mindless zombie-like state until the spider was defeated. He was then ripped off of Maximus's shoulders in battle with Trypticon, only to transform in the dinosaur's mouth and hold its jaws open while his own head, Galen, detached and led several Autobots and Joes hidden in Cerebros's body to infiltrate Trypticon. Everybody Hates Metroplex

Beast Wars: Uprising

Cerebros was turned into Fortress Maximus when the war spread to Nebulos, but the destructive power of the city-bot brought only more devastation to the planet, and the existence of Maximus and weapons like him was a major reason why humanity confined the Transformers and their war to Cybertron. As energy became scarce, Fortress Maximus could no longer move and ground to a halt in robot mode in Tarn, where his frozen, towering form was repurposed as a prison by the Builders of Cybertron. Cerebros himself died at some point, but his consciousness remained active within Maximus through three Cyberdroids, Gran, Kord and Plasma. Head Games.

Toys

Generation 1

Just me and my heads! (And missing my gun, but I'm all for peace anyway)

• Fortress Maximus (Headmaster Base, 1987)
  • Japanese ID number: C-114
  • Accessories: Mini-Laser Rifle

An accessory to Fortress Maximus, Cerebros is a large Headmaster unit whose head is formed by the Spike toy. In turn, Cerebros transforms into the head of Fortress Maximus, but does not actually need Spike to do so. Cerebros can also take the shape of a "communications room" when Maximus is in city mode.

The Japanese release of the toy also included a sword accessory for Cerebros (a.k.a "Fortress").

This mold was also used to make Super-God Masterforce Grand, Car Robots Brave and Robotmasters Zebres.

• More information on Cerebros at Transformers-Universe.com

Notes

So Fortress Maximus is a robot that turns into a base whose head is a robot who turns into a base. Inception Maximus.

• In "The Rebirth, Part 3", Cerebros is depicted as having an alternate mode. Curiously, it is in fact Fortress Maximus's city mode. Whether Spike based the larger Transformer's design on Cerebros, or if it was a side effect of the binary bonding process is unknown.
• His character model's head is way more made-up than the other Headmasters. The character model's head greatly resembles Cog's, while the toy's looks like a smaller version of Fortress Maximus's head.
• As you'll probably figure from its absence on this page, Cerebros doesn't really "exist" in the Japanese Headmasters cartoon. There, as with all Headmasters, Fortress Maximus's head is not a separate character, but actually the same guy as Maximus himself, going by the diminutive name of "Fortress". To keep the characters distinct, in the way we normally do here at TFWiki, we've listed all of the exploits of "Fortress" on Fortress Maximus's page, and refer to him with that name, which was also used by Metrodome and Madman Entertainment on their DVD releases of the series. The reason we point this out is because the subtitles for the Shout! Factory DVD release, which use naming conventions established by Hasbro, refer to the character as "Cerebros." That has made our position (which was in place for some years before Shout! Factory's DVD came out) seem a bit confusing, but it's the most straightforward way of distinguishing the characters.

External links

• Cerebros (with Fortress Maximus) at TFU.info
• Cerebros's (via Fortress Maximus's) Universe profile at NTFA.net