Minimus Ambus
- Minimus Ambus is an Autobot from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Minimus Ambus, true to his name, is a tiny dude. This diminutive robot has always had big dreams, however, wishing to be the kind of venerated Autobot who holds the line against evil and serves as a soldier in the Great War. Despite his small stature, Minimus Ambus is a type of Point One Percenter. As a "load-bearer", he has a specially-empowered spark that allows his body to survive drastic physical augmentations.
He is the spark brother of Dominus Ambus, with whom he shares their House's distinctive facial insignia and presumably the birthplace of Ambustus Minor.
He is sometimes known as Minimum Ambus.
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Having devised the Magnus Armor as a way to keep the legend of the "immortal lawman" Ultra Magnus alive, Chief Justice Tyrest selected Minimus Ambus to be the latest Autobot to wear it and serve as the duly-appointed enforcer of the Tyrest Accord. As Magnus, Minimus had many adventures, incluing hunting Scorponok across the galaxy and helping co-ordinate the counterattack against the encroaching forces of the Dead Universe. Following the end of the war, he befriended the human Verity Carlo and travelled with her for a time, but when Magnus transported the Wreckers on their disastrous mission on Garrus-9, she left him to take part in the action.
Magnus rejoined the Autobots on Earth, causing ructions as he attempted to arrest Rodimus for working with Decepticons. After a failed assassination attempt on Bumblebee, Magnus took command of the Earthbound Autobots as they dealt with the return of Megatron. When Optimus Prime took most of the group back to Cybertron to handle the threat of Galvatron, Magnus remained on Earth with a few other law-enforcement Autobots to investigate Spike Witwicky and his secret dealings with Swindle.
When Cybertron was reborn and Rodimus declared his intentions to seek out the Knights of Cybertron, Magnus signed up for the mission, becoming second-in-command of the ship Lost Light. Unfortunately, an inability to deal with peacetime led him to suffer a nervous breakdown; he became increasingly obsessive-compulsive about ridiculously minor things, and made life hell for all aboard the ship. The existence of Minimus Ambus was revealed to all aboard the vessel when Magnus was critically injured by the rogue Decepticon Overlord, and an involuntary recall trigger built into the Magnus armor returned his body to Tyrest on Luna 1. Though healed by the lawmaker, he realized his former superior had gone insane, and helped thwart his plan to exterminate all Constructed Cold Cybertronians. His identity now exposed to his shipmates, Minimus grappled with the fact that he felt they had lost respect for him, but with a little help from Ratchet and new admirer Ten, he has come to accept his change in circumstance and now splits his time between wearing the Magnus Armor and publicly going without it. Regardless of who he might be underneath the armor, to his friends and crewmates, he is still, and has always been, the Ultra Magnus.
The Functionist Universe
In an alternate timeline, Minimus never had to become Magnus and served as a soldier in the Primal Vanguard. After two million years offworld, keeping in touch with his brother Dominus by video, he finally returned home after a peace deal. He was sickened to see the oppression and casual genocide of Cybertron, and to see his brother had been made an empurata victim for speaking out, but was unsure about whether to become a full-on rebel. Minimus was not given the chance to decide as a few hours later, the Council began the "mass recall" of all memory sticks.
He drove through streets littered with Cybertronian corpses to warn Rewind and found Dominus's vocabulary had been deleted by the Functionists. Via Dominus's face, the Council taunted him that they'd replaced his optics with cameras on his flight home and he'd been unwittingly spying on his brother. The Custom-Made Now
Beast Wars: Uprising
Minimum Ambus was goalie for the Throttlebot Wanderers and a Cyberdroid from Master. He was saddened by the news that Cyberdroids could not play in the Maximal/Predacon Games, instead being restricted to the Micro Division. Broken Windshields
Ask Vector Prime
Various versions of Minimus Ambus across the multiverse were Nebulans, Cyberdroids, Mini-Cons, and Micromasters. One Cyberdroid Minimum Ambus underwent the Bravemaster process to binary bond with Ultra Magnus. Ask Vector Prime
Toys
Generations
- Ultra Magnus (Leader class, 2015)
- Minimus Ambus is a very small mini-figure that comes with Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus. Despite its tiny size, it is based on his "middle" augmentation armor rather than the tiny innermost robot. He transforms into a Cybertronian hovercar. In robot mode, Minimus can "pilot" the Ultra Magnus cab; he even "wears" the Magnus head like a helmet.
- Andrew Griffith worked on the figure design.[1]
- Although the figure can store in the Ultra Magnus toy in robot mode, it cannot do so with the toy in truck mode. Additionally, many Ultra Magnus toys feature Minimus toys with poor joint tolerances, causing his arms to pop off with minimal resistance.
- He was redecoed into Legends Alpha Trion.
Platinum Edition
- Autobot Heroes (5-pack, 2016)
- Accessories: Springer's weapons (dual missile launcher, two missiles, rotor blades/sword), Arcee's weapons (2 swords), Kup's "laser musket" rifle/exhaust pipe, Ultra Magnus' 2 guns, Blurr's weapons (Sniper rifle, left & right pistols), Minimus Ambus figure
- This Minimus Ambus figure features the same paint applications, with extra details on his chest & waist.
Notes
- In "The Custom-Made Now", Minimus is shown capable of transforming into a minesweeper while wearing his secondary augmentation layer. When completely stripped of all optional equipment however, his design appears far more human-shaped than most Transformers, calling into question whether or not he is capable of transforming on his own.
- Minimus served in the Primal Vanguard in the Functionist timeline but it's not specified if he also served in the original timeline.
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