21There are very few toys in existence quite as memorable and iconic as the original Transformers Fortress Maximus from the 1980s. Fortress Maximus is a massively large Transformers figure that transformers from a giant robot into Cybertron City- a home base fortress for all of your other smaller Autobots to hang out on! Now, for the first time in several decades, Hasbro is bringing back Fortress Maximus in their ‘Transformers Generations Titans Return’ line! We were lucky enough to get our hands on one from our friends at Entertainment Earth to take a look and see just what makes it tick. So the real question is, does the new Transformers Generations Titans Return Fortress Maximus live up to its name? Is it more than just a large plastic brick? Or is it, in fact, one of the coolest toys the Transformers line has seen in ages? Here’s our full review!

Don’t forget to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page for your chance to win one of these our Giveaway!

Diving right in, the all new ‘Titans Return’ Fortress Maximus is one of the titular a ‘Titans’ Class Transformers, meaning he is GIGANTIC! Fortress Maximus stands at around 23.5″, meaning he is just under two feet tall! This thing is massive, and that is an understatement and a half. How big you ask? So big that when he Transforms, all the normal sized Transformers hang out on him like he’s a homebase. He’s THAT BIG! This guy is so big that he doesn’t even fit in the box when he’s fully assembled! They had to package one of his arms separately from his body in order to fit him all in the already gigantic box!

To give you a better sense of scale, here is the all new Fortress Maximus next to Transformers Masterpiece Edition Grimlock and Hot Rod! These two are each about a foot tall, standing taller than most standard Transformers figures besides the Leader Class figures. Fortress Maximus here towers over them like it’s no big deal!

Inside the package, Fortress Maximus comes naked and unstickered. Inside a plastic sleeve within the packaging is a large unfoldable instruction manual, a collectible trading card, and a massive sheet of stickers that is going to take you an extensive amount of time to apply. It took me about an hour and fifteen minutes to put them all on accurately. While this may sound tedious, this is in no way a bad thing as it lets you make sure all of these stickers are applied correctly! It would be really easy for Hasbro to have these applied in the factory, but if they did there stands a massive chance of quality control issues between stickers being applied at weird angles, or in the wrong space, or just missing entirely! It also gives you the option to just not sticker him so that he looks a bit bare bones. Even unstickered and naked, Fortress Maximus is still a sight to behold up close! He’s big and heavily detailed in every nook and cranny! The stickers may forever but it was pretty worth it! As much as I liked him unstickered, it’s crazy how much this guy comes to life once they are all on there!

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To make things even more interesting, Fortress Maximus is a Headmaster! His head comes right off and transforms into a different Deluxe Class Transformers named Cerebros! On top of being a Deluxe Class Transformer figure, Cerebros is also where Batteries go that power Fortress Maximus. Cerebros makes fun sounds when he Transforms into any different mode (of which there are several), and is the main power source and speaker for the entire Fortress Maximus figure.  And Did I mention that Cerebros head ALSO comes off to reveal Transformers Titanmaster Class Emissary? This guy is so tiny!It’s hard not to enjoy him and his miniature stature. He’s also the perfect size to hang out on Fortress Maximus when he is in Cybertron City mode.

When Fortress Maximus head is attached and full of batteries, you can press the button on his chest to make his eyes light up and hear awesome Fortress Maximus phrases, weapon sounds, and Transforming sounds! If he wasn’t life like enough with all of his articulation and stickers, the lights and sounds really give him that extra something he needed.

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Once the massive Fortress Maximus is transformed into his alternative form, which is an entire section of Cybertron City, he somehow seems even bigger! Not that he wasn’t big before, but one you actually transform this guy he is HUGE and takes up a ton of space. Still, he doubles as a homebase for your Autobots, which is pretty damn awesome! There’s even a little turret cannon for Emissary to sit in! Plus Cerebros transforms into a power core to the city, providing even more sounds! I really enjoy that Cerebros can tell which mode it is in and give the specific sounds for each mode without you actually having to set anything on him.

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Fortress Maximus’ City Mode is GREAT, but if I had to have a complaint, it’s that he is obviously just a big dude laying down when he is transformed. I wish they did more to hide his hands in his alt mode. I really like the idea of these gigantic leg cannons more than I like how they are executed. I wish they had better movement range. I really do enjoy how spacious he is in this mode, leaving lots of room for Autobots to hang!

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Overall, Transformers Generations Titans Return Fortress Maximus is a BEAST of a toy. He has plenty of callbacks to the original version of this character so that he hits all of the right nostalgia buttons, making him a must have for fans of the original G1 version of Fortress Maximus. Even just based on his size alone, he’s a nice addition to any collection- but on top of it, he looks great, has several phenomenal modes,  and functions exactly as you would hope a Transformer of this size and scale would! If you have the display space, I highly recommend picking Fortress Maximus up! You can get one from Entertainment Earth here, and even stock up on other Autobots to help occupy him in Cybertron City mode! Either way, this guy is definitely worth every penny so that you can transform and roll out!

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Now that you’ve read what we thought of the Transformers Generations Titans Return Fortress Maximus, scroll down to enter to win one of your very own! 

 

For your chance to win a Fortress Maximus for yourself, just complete the contest entry form at the bottom of this post! The giveaway will run from Monday 9/19/16 through 11:59PM PST on Friday 9/23/16. The winner will be selected at random from all of our entrants at the end of the contest. If you decide you can’t wait to see if you win, you can also just buy yourself a Transformers Generations Titans Return Fortress Maximus here!

By entering this contest you agree to allow up to 12 weeks for delivery, accept the fate of packages getting lost, stolen or damaged (neither Entertainment Earth nor the host of the contest are responsible for replacement or compensation either in product or currency) and a correct, valid physical address must be provided (wrong address provided, unfortunately no shipment). This giveaway is only open for people in the US and Canada.

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