Transformers: Generations: Titans Return Titan Fortress Maximus & Cerebros and Emissary
There are a few things I need to say about the Titans Return line.
First off, the trading cards. Hasbro made a big deal that they were doing real trading cards and not just a picture with no meaningful back. I guess they tried, but in the then end, they failed miserably. The cards suck. There are only four ratings instead of the eight that nearly all other tech specs have had for 30 years (when we’ve actually had tech specs). There is no quote or function, and the only bio is a couple lines on the back of the package, they didn’t even bother to put it on the card. Hasbro fails again. What else is new?
Secondly, what the fuck is it with Hasbro that they need to focus on only one theme at a time? Why are we getting Targetmasters and Powermasters as Headmasters? It makes no sense. Worse yet, the two Targetmaster converts, Blurr and Scourge, both have awful paint jobs (or I should say, barely any paint jobs at all). They put all the work into the real Headmasters and just mailed it in on the Targetmasters that they shouldn’t have been doing in the first place. As usual, they half ass everything, just like with Combiner Wars, where they ended the line without doing Terrorcons, Predacons, Seacons, Monster Pretenders, G2 Protectobots, and G2 Constructicons (in both colors). I mean, they still could do those as box sets next year, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
Thirdly, the Titan Masters. Why can’t they be consistent? Apeface, Brawn, Nightbeat, and Terri-Bull are named for the actual characters they are the heads for instead of the actual heads they represent. Clobber and Skytread could theoretically be the Headmasters for Grimlock and Flywheels. This makes no sense. Pick one way of doing it. It would make far more sense to name them for the Headmaster and not the character they partner with, as we are only getting the Headmaster. Related to that, it really sucks that we aren’t going to get any real versions of the Headmaster Juniors or Headmaster Horrorcons.
Finally, the Headmasters are freaking tiny. G1 Headmasters were way better than these, and had the ratings meter on the chest gimmick that they didn’t even try to reproduce. Another thing that sucks is that the heads of the Headmasters are articulated. This makes it so that the larger robot heads are articulated, but also makes it hard when plugging them in to Titan Masters vehicles. G1 Headmasters were so much better, but that’s true of most G1 toys.
Anyway, on to the review.
In the words of Maxwell Smart, “Missed it, by that much.”
Emissary
They did a really nice job on Cerebros’s head sculpt. It is really unfortunate they called him Emissary instead of Spike.
Cerebros
Cerebros’s robot mode looks great. He’s got a lot of nice detail and the colors look great. Fortress Maximus’s head is absolutely amazing. You really couldn’t ask for more, except for eye color. He doesn’t have any. That kind of sucks.
Fortress Maximus
Battle Station Mode: Fortress Maximus’s battle station mode is pretty close to his G1 design. The only major issue I have with it is that Cerebros forms to top of his tower. This seems completely unnecessary. It feels like there is no point to Cerebros having a robot mode as he has to be Fortress Maximus’s head and the top of the tower in both modes. Other than that, his battle station mode is fine.
City Mode: Unfortunately, his city mode is a complete joke. His legs do not fold up to form the city mode like the G1 tiy. Instead, you swing his legs out 90 degrees. Additionally, his two side ramps are not ramps. Now, you can look at them as being airstrips I suppose, but this leaves his fists sitting out in the open. He really needed flip out ramps or something to cover his hands.
Robot Mode: Fortress Maximus looks pretty great in robot mode. The only real problem he has is that he has two much red on his legs. The guns should be red, but not the area around them.
Overall: While he looks great in robot mode, I have to consider this toy a failure. Hasbro just didn’t bother to take the few more steps necessary to make him great. Much of this stems from him being remolded from Metroplex. His ramps/airstrips were repurposed from inside Metroplex’s legs, hence they are missing the ramps, and Hasbro didn’t bother add them. On the right side of his chest (left as you look at it), you can see a three sided red box with black inside. This is the pivot point for Metroplex’s left arm to swing back to form the rear tower in city mode. They flipped Metroplex’s chest backwards to make Fortress Maximus’s chest (in other words, Metroplex’s back is Fortress Maximus’s chest. I’m not sure why, as there is so much remolding, it would seem easier to not include the unnecessary parts, but that’s not a huge deal. What is a huge deal, is that his legs don’t fold up in city mode, and that is directly because they used Metroplex’s legs instead of remolding them to fold up properly. They also left off some of Fortress Maximus’s details like his forearm guns, waist guns, and two hand guns. Now, you can detach his shin guns and put them in his hand, but that’s not the same as having his large guns to attach to his tower in robot mode. The waist guns would seem to have been particularly easy, as they just needed to either fold out or telescope out of the bottom of the tower. The silver circles are where the guns should be. It’s like Hasbro was heading in the right direction, and then just stopped without finishing the toy. That seems to be the Hasbro motto. “Let’s do the minimum.” Is Fortress Maximus worth $150? I suppose so. His robot mode does look great even without the details Hasbro failed on, but it’s not a slam dunk must have. Frankly if you have a G1 Fortress Maximus, or even the Encore reissue, you probably don’t need this one.
Thanks for reading!
lmb3.net 
With the benefit of hindsight, I think we can safely say that Fort Max walked so that later Titans could run. Trypticon, Omega Supreme, Scorponok, the Ark, and now Legacy!Cybertron Metroplex have all been their own full molds and decidedly great toys. TR Fort Max was essentially a bet-hedged (hence them not committing to a full new mold set) test of the waters to see if people would buy non-combiner Titans other than Metroplex. And the answer? A resounding “Yes!”
I do wish they’d at least shelled out a bit more for new lower legs, though, especially since in six years the 3P chuckleheads haven’t given us new lower legs either. New lower legs for ER Scorponok to amend the minor quibble of him not being fully eye-to-eye with Fort Max? Within a year of release. New lower legs for TR Fort Max to amend some of the major lacks of his base mode on its own? Six years of nothing but crickets.
To address some specific complaints…
* “The waist guns would seem to have been particularly easy, as they just needed to either fold out or telescope out of the bottom of the tower.”
Except there’s no room, because Cerebros is used to complete the tower. Which is annoying, I’ll grant you, especially since it cheats the figure of a proper Titan Master cockpit. I do wish they’d done the tower differently, maybe saved money differently by having Cerebros’ G1 altmode spot open.
* The retention of Metroplex’s arm pivot – useless on Fort Max – was because the socket for the rotation ratchet is part of the boom the arm swings out on. So while it’s useless, dropping it would have cost more.
* “Secondly, what the fuck is it with Hasbro that they need to focus on only one theme at a time?”
Focusing on a single gimmick streamlines the development process, and helps with a unified mini-play pattern.
*”Why are we getting Targetmasters and Powermasters as Headmasters? It makes no sense.”
1. Regarding the Targetmasters… Don’t forget that the Targetmasters came out at the same time as the Headmasters, so having those characters in the same line does make sense.
2. As for Powermasters… They liked to have a big Optimus Prime toy in every line. Powermaster Optimus Prime was the most logical choice given that Powermasters followed Headmasters only a year later. And I mean, as far as US narrative is concerned they’re all connected by Nebulos so…
“the two Targetmaster converts, Blurr and Scourge, both have awful paint jobs (or I should say, barely any paint jobs at all).”
1. Blurr and Scourge are movie characters first and Targetmasters second. They’re here because this is also the TFTM 30th anniversary line, hence Galvatron, Kup, and Hot Rod also being here.
2. Uh.. What exactly is awful about Scourge’s paintjob? It’s minimal, yes, but awful? He’s colored like he should be, nothing wrong with it. Go look at screencaps, or the original toy.
3. As for Blurr… Looking at Kup, somebody at Hasbro was obviously of the wrong opinion that their toy color schemes (or in Blurr’s case, what his toy color scheme turns into after a smidge too much sun) look better.
* “They put all the work into the real Headmasters and just mailed it in on the Targetmasters that they shouldn’t have been doing in the first place.”
1. Again, having the Headmasters and Targetmasters together makes more sense than you’re crediting it with.
2. Also again, nothing is wrong with Scourge (and they even made it so you can mimic the bit from the movie where his head sticks up) and the only thing wrong with Blurr is the colors; his actual sculpt and design are fine.
3. This is absolutely hilarious to read in the wake of Triggerhappy, Misfire, and Slugslinger.
* “As usual, they half ass everything, just like with Combiner Wars, where they ended the line without doing Terrorcons, Predacons, Seacons, Monster Pretenders…”
1. Combiner Wars’ molds were all vehicle-based, so they’d have been piss-poor bases to do any of those teams from in most cases. Would have required a fresh line’s money to do the molds. And oh my, look at what happened with PotP and Selects. Still missing the Pretender Monsters, admittedly, but not as many people care about them.
2. Also, the line had gotten stale in retailers’ eyes and was at about the end of the usual life-cycle of a line at the time, so it was time for a gear change to keep the retailers happy.
* “…G2 Protectobots…”
It’s my understanding that the other G2 boxsets shelfwarmed, so that killed the chance of doing another.
* “…and G2 Constructicons (in both colors).”
Ah yes, because with regular-size combiner G2 boxsets shelfwarming it would make *total* sense to gamble on not just one but two *Titan-class* G2 boxsets. Get some frigging perspective.
* “Thirdly, the Titan Masters. Why can’t they be consistent? Apeface, Brawn, Nightbeat, and Terri-Bull are named for the actual characters they are the heads for instead of the actual heads they represent.”
1. Because to the wider fanbase, the Headmaster partners’ names were often forgotten (aside from Zarak and Spike) – the robot names are more recognizable.
2. Brawn doesn’t belong in your little whinge list anyway, considering the figure is a miniature version of Brawn’s own robot mode.
* “Clobber and Skytread could theoretically be the Headmasters for Grimlock and Flywheels. This makes no sense. Pick one way of doing it.”
“Clobber” is because with Grimlock they apparently had hesitations about using his proper name for such a figure. “Skytread” is, as SIEGE makes plain, a straight up re-name. I guess they finally acted on the thing everyone had been pointing out about Flywheels for years.
* “It would make far more sense to name them for the Headmaster and not the character they partner with, as we are only getting the Headmaster.”
1. Except see previous point about robot names being more recognizable.
* “Related to that, it really sucks that we aren’t going to get any real versions of the Headmaster Juniors or Headmaster Horrorcons.”
Boy did that age like milk – we’ve had real versions of both Horrorcons and of Fangry thus far.
* “Finally, the Headmasters are freaking tiny.”
By “freaking tiny” I assume you mean “The same size as regular figures’ heads instead of being 2-4x the size because of the limits of eighties manufacturing”?
* “G1 Headmasters were way better than these, and had the ratings meter on the chest gimmick that they didn’t even try to reproduce.”
G1 Headmasters were bricks. Admittedly, having simulations of the ratings meters would have been nice, but not at a cost to the figure as a whole.
* “Another thing that sucks is that the heads of the Headmasters are articulated. This makes it so that the larger robot heads are articulated, but also makes it hard when plugging them in to Titan Masters vehicles.”
Uh, not really? Most people don’t have any problem with it. Sounds to me like you’re just being an impatient brat when it comes to trying it, and that’s making you clumsy.
* “G1 Headmasters were so much better, but that’s true of most G1 toys.”
Lolno. Most G1 toys were bricks, especially in the era of the Headmasters, and while it’s true that their modern recreations often lack the full accessory sets the articulation gains usually balance it out if the figure as a whole has good resemblance and transformation. Though I will admit that the tradeoffs *are* a lot more painful when something was as feature-rich and as good in base mode as Fort Max was.
* “The cards suck. There are only four ratings instead of the eight that nearly all other tech specs have had for 30 years (when we’ve actually had tech specs).”
1. That’s one more rating than the meter reels you were so nostalgic for have.
2. Cramming all 8 in there would be harder to read. The 4 chosen are the more juicy ones in most people’s eyes, and fit with the Headmaster thing – it’s the three from the meter reels, plus Firepower.
* “There is no quote or function”
Would have taken small print to fit a quote, and that would also have left less space for the Tech Specs. They could have fit a function, but then they’d have to print a separate international version with the function either trilingual-translated or left off.
“and the only bio is a couple lines on the back of the package, they didn’t even bother to put it on the card. ”
1. Like with a quote, it would have required harder-to-read print to put it on the card, left less space for the Tech Specs, and required printing a separate international version of the card. May as well keep it on the part they were going to have to do an intl. version of anyway.
2. The international packaging has put them off doing longer box bios, since they have to prune it back anyway
3. A substantial box bio isn’t as necessary, since the G1 fans this stuff is aimed at already know and are invested in the characters, plus it’s less of an attract feature these days. The main thing the bios needed to do was establish what power the Titan Masters bestow, which they do.
Speaking of that, though, you know what’s real half-assing? Not putting what the Titan Master’s power is on the back of the packages for the separate-sale Titan Masters.
I do wish they’d at least shelled out a bit more for new lower legs, though, especially since in six years the 3P chuckleheads haven’t given us new lower legs either. New lower legs for ER Scorponok to amend the minor quibble of him not being fully eye-to-eye with Fort Max? Within a year of release. New lower legs for TR Fort Max to amend some of the major lacks of his base mode on its own? Six years of nothing but crickets.
To address some specific complaints…
* “The waist guns would seem to have been particularly easy, as they just needed to either fold out or telescope out of the bottom of the tower.”
Except there’s no room, because Cerebros is used to complete the tower. Which is annoying, I’ll grant you, especially since it cheats the figure of a proper Titan Master cockpit. I do wish they’d done the tower differently, maybe saved money differently by having Cerebros’ G1 altmode spot open.
* The retention of Metroplex’s arm pivot – useless on Fort Max – was because the socket for the rotation ratchet is part of the boom the arm swings out on. So while it’s useless, dropping it would have cost more.
* “Secondly, what the fuck is it with Hasbro that they need to focus on only one theme at a time?”
Focusing on a single gimmick streamlines the development process, and helps with a unified mini-play pattern.
*”Why are we getting Targetmasters and Powermasters as Headmasters? It makes no sense.”
1. Regarding the Targetmasters… Don’t forget that the Targetmasters came out at the same time as the Headmasters, so having those characters in the same line does make sense.
2. As for Powermasters… They liked to have a big Optimus Prime toy in every line. Powermaster Optimus Prime was the most logical choice given that Powermasters followed Headmasters only a year later. And I mean, as far as US narrative is concerned they’re all connected by Nebulos so…
“the two Targetmaster converts, Blurr and Scourge, both have awful paint jobs (or I should say, barely any paint jobs at all).”
1. Blurr and Scourge are movie characters first and Targetmasters second. They’re here because this is also the TFTM 30th anniversary line, hence Galvatron, Kup, and Hot Rod also being here.
2. Uh.. What exactly is awful about Scourge’s paintjob? It’s minimal, yes, but awful? He’s colored like he should be, nothing wrong with it. Go look at screencaps, or the original toy.
3. As for Blurr… Looking at Kup, somebody at Hasbro was obviously of the wrong opinion that their toy color schemes (or in Blurr’s case, what his toy color scheme turns into after a smidge too much sun) look better.
* “They put all the work into the real Headmasters and just mailed it in on the Targetmasters that they shouldn’t have been doing in the first place.”
1. Again, having the Headmasters and Targetmasters together makes more sense than you’re crediting it with.
2. Also again, nothing is wrong with Scourge (and they even made it so you can mimic the bit from the movie where his head sticks up) and the only thing wrong with Blurr is the colors; his actual sculpt and design are fine.
3. This is absolutely hilarious to read in the wake of Triggerhappy, Misfire, and Slugslinger.
* “As usual, they half ass everything, just like with Combiner Wars, where they ended the line without doing Terrorcons, Predacons, Seacons, Monster Pretenders…”
1. Combiner Wars’ molds were all vehicle-based, so they’d have been piss-poor bases to do any of those teams from in most cases. Would have required a fresh line’s money to do the molds. And oh my, look at what happened with PotP and Selects. Still missing the Pretender Monsters, admittedly, but not as many people care about them.
2. Also, the line had gotten stale in retailers’ eyes and was at about the end of the usual life-cycle of a line at the time, so it was time for a gear change to keep the retailers happy.
* “…G2 Protectobots…”
It’s my understanding that the other G2 boxsets shelfwarmed, so that killed the chance of doing another.
* “…and G2 Constructicons (in both colors).”
Ah yes, because with regular-size combiner G2 boxsets shelfwarming it would make *total* sense to gamble on not just one but two *Titan-class* G2 boxsets. Get some frigging perspective.
* “Thirdly, the Titan Masters. Why can’t they be consistent? Apeface, Brawn, Nightbeat, and Terri-Bull are named for the actual characters they are the heads for instead of the actual heads they represent.”
1. Because to the wider fanbase, the Headmaster partners’ names were often forgotten (aside from Zarak and Spike) – the robot names are more recognizable.
2. Brawn doesn’t belong in your little whinge list anyway, considering the figure is a miniature version of Brawn’s own robot mode.
* “Clobber and Skytread could theoretically be the Headmasters for Grimlock and Flywheels. This makes no sense. Pick one way of doing it.”
“Clobber” is because with Grimlock they apparently had hesitations about using his proper name for such a figure. “Skytread” is, as SIEGE makes plain, a straight up re-name. I guess they finally acted on the thing everyone had been pointing out about Flywheels for years.
* “It would make far more sense to name them for the Headmaster and not the character they partner with, as we are only getting the Headmaster.”
1. Except see previous point about robot names being more recognizable.
* “Related to that, it really sucks that we aren’t going to get any real versions of the Headmaster Juniors or Headmaster Horrorcons.”
Boy did that age like milk – we’ve had real versions of both Horrorcons and of Fangry thus far.
* “Finally, the Headmasters are freaking tiny.”
By “freaking tiny” I assume you mean “The same size as regular figures’ heads instead of being 2-4x the size because of the limits of eighties manufacturing”?
* “G1 Headmasters were way better than these, and had the ratings meter on the chest gimmick that they didn’t even try to reproduce.”
G1 Headmasters were bricks. Admittedly, having simulations of the ratings meters would have been nice, but not at a cost to the figure as a whole.
* “Another thing that sucks is that the heads of the Headmasters are articulated. This makes it so that the larger robot heads are articulated, but also makes it hard when plugging them in to Titan Masters vehicles.”
Uh, not really? Most people don’t have any problem with it. Sounds to me like you’re just being an impatient brat when it comes to trying it, and that’s making you clumsy.
* “G1 Headmasters were so much better, but that’s true of most G1 toys.”
Lolno. Most G1 toys were bricks, especially in the era of the Headmasters, and while it’s true that their modern recreations often lack the full accessory sets the articulation gains usually balance it out if the figure as a whole has good resemblance and transformation. Though I will admit that the tradeoffs *are* a lot more painful when something was as feature-rich and as good in base mode as Fort Max was.
* “The cards suck. There are only four ratings instead of the eight that nearly all other tech specs have had for 30 years (when we’ve actually had tech specs).”
1. That’s one more rating than the meter reels you were so nostalgic for have.
2. Cramming all 8 in there would be harder to read. The 4 chosen are the more juicy ones in most people’s eyes, and fit with the Headmaster thing – it’s the three from the meter reels, plus Firepower.
* “There is no quote or function”
Would have taken small print to fit a quote, and that would also have left less space for the Tech Specs. They could have fit a function, but then they’d have to print a separate international version with the function either trilingual-translated or left off.
“and the only bio is a couple lines on the back of the package, they didn’t even bother to put it on the card. ”
1. Like with a quote, it would have required harder-to-read print to put it on the card, left less space for the Tech Specs, and required printing a separate international version of the card. May as well keep it on the part they were going to have to do an intl. version of anyway.
2. The international packaging has put them off doing longer box bios, since they have to prune it back anyway
3. A substantial box bio isn’t as necessary, since the G1 fans this stuff is aimed at already know and are invested in the characters, plus it’s less of an attract feature these days. The main thing the bios needed to do was establish what power the Titan Masters bestow, which they do.
Speaking of that, though, you know what’s real half-assing? Not putting what the Titan Master’s power is on the back of the packages for the separate-sale Titan Masters.
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I’ll buy it and love it because I’m a Warrior.
Is sad. Fortress Maximus is like the Graal of Transformers and they botched it the chance of a new, great figure just because of their damn remold/recolor fetish.
Unlike Skorponok, G1 Fortress Maximus toy was never imported in my country: we kids didn’t even know that it existed at all. The Encore version was too costly so I had a lot of hope for this Fortress Maximus and Hasbro promptly disappont me making this: I believe that Hasbro simply does not want my money XD
I agree with your review: Cerebros is great, the jewel of this figure but the rest is an embarassing compared to the G1 playability, amount of features and stability. Sure, this is more detailed and jointed but I sincerely didn’t see any other improvement over the Vintage, quite the contrary.
I’m very curious about how the Takara version would looks like: just a recolor or something like Ginrai?