Fortress Maximus (G1)
| This article is about the Headmaster Commander from Generation 1. For
the hidden guardian in Robots in Disguise, see Fortress Maximus (RiD). |
Fortress Maximus is an Autobot Headmaster in the Generation 1 continuity.
Fortress Maximus is a warrior who can truly be said to fight for peace. While he is a powerful soldier and a good commander, all he truly wishes for is an end to the war that had plaged the Transformers for so long. Nonetheless, he never lets this affect his efficiency in battle, remaining one of the Autobots' most valuable warriors, Headmaster or otherwise.
Maximus is a Headmaster. Due to his immense size, his own head transforms into a 'normal'-sized robot, Cerebros. Cerebros' head, in turn, is the human Spike Witwicky.
He has other companions: his rarely-seen ancillary vehicles Gasket and Grommet combine to form the robot Cog. (Little is known about these - to date, they haven't appeared in any fiction.)
Maximus himself transforms into a city or a battle station. This latter mode doubles as a starship, capable of interstellar flight.
Fiction
English animated continuity
Voice Actor: Stephen Keener
When the Hive of Nebulos had developed the massive Transformer Scorponok in 2007, Spike found that his only available resources to combat the threat were the Hive's older technology, and the pacifist Autobot Cerebros. Spike used the technology to create an Autobot giant, at the same time re-engineering Cerebros to become the new robot's head, and to take Spike himself as his own head (Cerebros seemed to get little say in these matters). The giant, named Fortress Maximus, blasted off for Cybertron, where he expectedly fought (and won) against Scorponok. After Maximus/Cerebros and Spike saved Cybertron and Earth from the Hive and the Decepticons, Optimus Prime sent them back to Nebulos as its guardians.
Fortress Maximus seemed to have no sentience of his own in the English TV series. In fact, for the most part, even Cerebros' will seemed to be pushed aside so Spike could run the whole thing himself. Spike's a bit selfish.
Japanese animated continuity
Voice Actor: Ikuya Sawaki
(The Japanese series ignored the above events, as they did everything in the English "The Rebirth" episodes.)
Headmasters
In this story, Headmasters were not the binary-bonded forms of Transformers and organic beings. Instead, human-sized Transformers had long ago left Cybertron and established themselves on the planet Master. To best survive there, they built large bodies that they could transform to become the heads of. The leader of the Autobot faction on Master was named Fortress. Fortress took the Headmaster process one step further: Fortress Maximus was the combined and transformed form of Fortress and the Battleship Maximus. Fortress would sometimes run the battleship while sitting on the bridge transformed into a giant head.
Super-God Masterforce
Fortress was seen briefly and indistinctly to introduce his brother, Grand Maximus.
Marvel Comics continuity
In 1986, unit commander Fortress Maximus became so sick of the war that he decided to leave it. He didn't care if it made him a coward or not, he simply believed that the war would go on regardless of whether or not he was in it. Taking a number of Autobots with him, he retreated to the peaceful planet of Nebulos.
Unfortunately, it wasn't long before mistakes were made and Maximus' group found themselves at odds with the local human populace. Maximus 'proved' their peaceful intentions by marching up to the Nebulan capital, and discarding the group's weapons. When that didn't work, he did the next logical thing and pulled his head off. Four other Autobots had to resort to this grotesque stunt before Galen, head of the Nebulan World-Watchers, was convinced they weren't a threat.
Dreamwave comics continuity
Maximus was first seen in a Matrix-induced vision of future Nebulos by Optimus Prime in the War Within era.
Later in the same era, Fortress Maximus and Ultra Magnus were struggling to hold the Autobot forces on Cybertron together.
Toys
Generation 1
- Fortress Maximus (1987)
- Japanese ID number: C-114
- w/ Cerebros (Fortress) and Spike (Cerebros) (Headmaster figures)
- and Gasket and Grommett (combine to form Cog)
- In addition to forming Fortress Maximus's head, Cerebros can also form a communications tower for Fortress Maximus's city and battleship modes. The Japanese release of Fortress Maximus came with a sword for both Fortress and Fortress Maximus. The latter was likley removed from the US release for saftey reasons.
- Fortress Maximus was redecoed into Grand Maximus (with added Pretender shell), and Fortress Maximus of Robots in Disguise.
- Jr Fortress Maximus (1987)
- Japanese ID number: C-114
- A smaller rendering of the character, scaled down to regular Transformer size, and with only one head. This toy lacks the city mode.
Trivia
- 'Fortress Maximus' was likely a considered name for the character that eventually became Metroplex in Generation 1. The comic adaptation of the 1986 Movie even refers to Autobot City as 'Fortress Maximus in a caption.
- Fortress Maximus was the first toy to be released with a bona-fide Earthling figure. All of the other Headmasters' companions were from Nebulos. (Although Maximus' tech specs refer to 'the Nebulan leader, Spike', the general consensus is that it was supposed to be the popular figure from TV and other media, who is almost certainly an Earthling.)
External Links
