GT-R Maximus

I've never been a huge fan of the Alternity line of Transformers from TakaraTomy.  When they were first released, I thought they were gorgeous.  Optimus Prime and Megatron looked spectacular judging by the pictures I saw of them online.  After a lot of back and forth, I finally opted to get Alternity Thundercracker.  Then I cursed Unicron for leading me into a nightmare of twisting parts.  Thundercracker still stands in robot mode due to my inability to get him back to his vehicle mode.  Guess that makes me a novice Transformer collector.

Haunting my nightmares since 2010

After that debacle, I've been content to just look at the pretty pictures online.  I was tempted to get Galvatron, Bludgeon, Stat Saber and Dai Atlas, but fear permeated every thought I had about them.  Every attempted click of a mouse at checkout would be followed with a glance at Thundercracker mocking me and my skills.

Mocking...

Then there came a day when I saw the promotional art for GT-R Maximus.  There was something about him.  Was it the head sculpt?  The fact that he came with a Master Sword (heavy emphasis on the "w" when pronouncing sword)?  I'm not really sure.  All I can say for certain is that I looked at Thundercracker, made an obscene gesture at him and ordered him.  Then trepidation set in.

I don't know if I can properly convey how I felt when I opened Maximus and prepared to transform him into robot mode.  I followed every direction, distressed that I didn't know how to read Japanese.  Each part folded brought panic as I was worried that I was going to break something.  Then it happened.  I managed to pull an arm out.  Luckily, it popped right back in, but I was frantic for a second.  Covered in sweat, holding back tears, I finally held a very heavy robot mode Maximus in my hands.  Rejoice!

Needless to say, Maximus' transformation scheme is a little over complicated.  Then again, all of the GT- R figures are since they're just the Alternity Optimus mold with different heads and decos.  Also, all of the Alternity figures are needlessly complicated.  I don't know how many times I stopped to curse while transforming him.  There are pegs on the back of his feet that The Masterpiece figures, which are the pinnacle of transforming technology, are nowhere near this hard.

Anyway, I wanted to show off the robot mode first because I'm proud of myself for getting him back into car mode.  But we'll get that soon enough.  My first impression of Maximus' robot mode is that he's really compact.  Even though I have Alternity Thundercracker, I thought that Maximus would be Binaltech sized.  Wrong.  Here 'a Maximus with Zoom Zoom.

From tall to small

My second impression is that he doesn't feature the articulation that we've come to expect from Masterpiece or even Binaltech figures.  His fists, tiny as they are, are permanently closed.  The feet don't really form any decent angles for dynamic posing and Maxmimus' head does not look up or down .  That's...that's a bit if a bummer.

His deco is really sweet, however.  I really dig the white and bright green.  I've never been a fan of green, but it pops in this instance.  Maximus' head sculpt doesn't really scream Fortress Maximus, but I like it.  The visor on the forehead is a nice touch.

Maximus comes equipped with the Master Jack Sword.  The word "Jack" is thrown in there because the sword becomes a jack for the car mode.  I actually thought I broke the sword when the handle flipped down.  Man, I was on edge the entire time I handled him.  There are also cannons on the his forearms that can be folded back when not in use.

Shoot to kill

Slice and dice

Now, on to car mode.  For all of my griping, I really love the car mode.  And that isn't just pride in the fact that I was able to get him back into car mode speaking.  Maximus is loaded with sponsors.  I mean loaded.

"D'Station - proud sponsor of the 4 million old Cybertronian Civil War"

There isn't a spare centimeter on this guy that isn't emblazoned with some company's logo.  I wonder if TakaraTomy had to pay for all of those logos, if the companies just allowed their use for free, or if the companies paid a fee.  Whatever the answer, Maximus screams real car.

As I mentioned earlier, Maximus' sword becomes a handy jack.  There are even holes at the front and rear bottom for the jack to connect.  It doesn't really elevate the car, but it's a nice touch.

Then there's the matter of the race queen that comes packaged with Maximus.  She's a thing that I'm not sure about.  I understand that race queens are popular in racing, but I question their existence for this line.  Sure the line was created as a way of celebrating the GT race, but the women make me feel like I just started a Kiss Player collection.  And I don't want any part of Kiss Player.  That and mine kept falling apart when I look at her.  Here's a picture of her if anyone is interested.

And here she is with Maximus.

Jazz hands!

Alternity has been a line that has confounded me since I got Thundercracker.  The complicated-for-complication's-sake design has always annoyed me.  I guess if I had just started with the Optimus Prime model, I wouldn't have avoided the rest.  My wallet, and wife, are probably glad I skipped most if the line.  However, now that I have Maximus, I'm beginning to wonder.  Don't tell my wallet.

Encore Fortress Maximus Part Two

Welcome to part two of my Encore Fortress Maximus review.  If you missed the first part, you can read it here.

As I stated in my last post, the reason that Fort Max is a two part post is because of frustration.  Frustration not because of the figure, but because of photographing him with the original.  I'm not even going to do much of a review, just give you some of the horrible, horrible pictures that I took and try to erase the entire experience from my mind.  

Here's where the trouble started.  

Last year I built a very large light box using wood and white sheets.  While not perfect, it worked for when I did my post on the original Fortress Maximus,  When I tried to do the picture above, I just couldn't get it right.  I kept adding more and more lights, but it just always looked the same.  That is actually the best looking picture I could get even after adjusting it in Photoshop CS2.  It just looks...rough.

Anyway, as you can see, I haven't put the decals on Fort Max yet.  I'm still debating as to whether or not I should keep him out of the box.  There really aren't any differences between the two, other than the huge honking sword.  I knew it was big, but I didn't realize that it was essentially the size of Scorponok!

There was a small Q/C issue with my Encore Fort Max as shown below:

Original

Encore

 

 

Can you notice the difference?  Besides the sparkly eyes, the rubsign on the Encore is crooked.  ZOMG!  Quick, someone call Tomy!  The sticker is a little crooked!  I want my money back!

Overall, I'm really pleased with Encore Fort Max.  He's a worthy addition to my collection.  And that sword is awesome.  Enjoy the few comparison pictures that turned out decently of Fort Max in city mode!

On the right - no yellowing!

And finally, here's a few pictures of just Encore Fort Max in city mode.

Next post, we get back on track with better photography!

Encore Fortress Maximus Part One

Box Scan from www.botchthecrab.com

 Before I start this review, I'd like to point a few things.  First, I'm working on a buffer system, so this post was actually written a couple of weeks before it was posted.  I'm trying to keep up a post per week schedule, so I'm writing everything in advance.  Second, the reason that Encore Fortress Maximus is a two part post is because of pure frustration.  I'll explain more in the second post.

Ah, Encore Fortress Maximus, how you have haunted my dreams.  As I've posted before, I already own my childhood Fortress Maximus and he's complete.  If I already owned a Fortress Maximus, why would I be so happy and excited to get the reissue?  In one word: sword.  Seriously that's the reason I preordered this guy the second the preorder went up.  On May 2nd, he arrived and I couldn't be happier.

Essentially what I'm going to do with this post, and the one after it, is compare and contrast the two releases.  This first post will cover Spike, Cerebros, Gasket, Grommet, and Cog.  With that out there, let's get started!

Thanks to some unknown quality control issues, Encore Fortress Maximus shipped opened and then resealed.  I'm not really sure what they were checking for, but everything seems to be in order.  Everything that is...except for Spike!  Cue mystery movie music!

Yes, there is something wrong with my Spike.  There actually seems to be something wrong with everyone's Spike, judging from what I've seen online.  Not everyone seems to be aware of it, but it's there.  The thighs of my Spike are assembled wrong.  At least both of mine are, so it's not too noticeable.  I've seen instances of just one thigh being placed on incorrectly which is really jarring.  Take a look:

Raise your hands if you're sure!

The original is on the right, Encore is on the left.  As you can see, the thighs on the Encore are facing the wrong way.  It's not a huge deal, but they're still not assembled correctly.  I thought it might affect transformation into Cerebros' head, but it doesn't.

Actually, the incorrectly assembled thighs give a straighter edge to the top of the head.  One could argue that in this mode, it's an improvement.

Again, original on the right, Encore on the left.  Can you spot the difference between the two?  If you said the sword is the difference, you're correct!  The Encore Cerebros is holding the smaller Master Sword.  

There is another tiny difference that isn't visible at this angle.  I'll show you another angle:

The gun on my original Cerebros has extensive chewing on it.  Ah, the joys of having a dog coupled with an eleven year old's desire to not pick up his toys.  There's one reason I'm happy to get the reissue.  Having parts that aren't chewed up is nice.

Up next is Gasket. Everything here seems to check out.  The wheels are all there, so there's that. I was a little worried because I've seen a few accounts online where people had gotten 2 left arms or 2 right arms.  Luckily this was not the case with me. Spike gets the privilege of riding on Cog's face as he drives down the highway.  I"m going to skip Grommet since there literally is nothing about him to say.

Encore Spike is winning!

As a final point, here is Cog, the combined form of Gasket and Grommet.

Encore Cog is on the left and the original is on the left.  As you can see, they're identical.  Well minus the decals.  I actually thought that the decals for Cog, and by extension Gasket and Grommet, would have been tampographed.

Tune in next week for part two, where I dig into any Q/C issues and play spot the differences between Fort Max and his Encore reissue.

Fortress Maximus

When Takara announced that they were releasing Encore Fortress Maximus a few months ago, I was ecstatic.  Then I panicked.  How would I photograph this behemoth of a figure?  Fortress Maximus is the biggest Transformer ever released with a height of two feet!  How would I photograph Encore Fortress Maximus with my original Fortress Maximus?  The light box would have to be big.  Realizing that, I custom built a light box.  It's huge, and, frankly, needs more work.  I still need to add a better backdrop, I think, and a few more lamps.  The three lamp setup isn't working like I need it to.  Since then, I've been using it to take lots of pictures for the blog, but I haven't actually tried to put anything really large in it.  Say like Fortress Maximus.

Time to rectify that.

I remember when I got my Fortress Maximus.  I was in the 6th grade and my parents gave me a choice: I could either get my first stereo with a turntable (God I'm old), or I could get, as they put it, that big Transformer.  I thought about it for a bit before I ultimately decided to get Fortress Maximus.  Stereos would be around forever, I reasoned, but Fortress Maximus would only be available for a short period of time.

Looking at him, it's easy to tell that I've had him since 1987.  He's dirty, and his stickers are peeling.  Because he's so old, and expensive to replace, I'm hesitant to transform him, let alone add things like water to the mix.  For a figure that's so old, he has amazingly tight joints.  I thought that I was going to break one of the tabs on his leg cannons when I popped it out.

I knew when I got him that he'd be heavily armed, and I wasn't disappointed.  Aside from the two handheld guns, Fortress Maximus comes equipped with leg cannons, waist cannons, a cannon on his left leg that swings out, cannons on his forearms, and cannons in his freaking hands!

Fort Max, like every other base released after Omega Supreme, is a triple changer. He has a robot mode, city mode, and an attack vehicle mode.  Let's look at the city mode.

The city mode is massive, of course, but also beautiful.  It's large, compact, and full of features.  The two large ramps feature manual launchers so you can launch your vehicles.  The main ramp in the middle, the one with Grommet, features a push button launcher.  It's pretty neat.  There's also a spinning radar dish at the top, a helicopter landing pad, and a few other neat features.  The first we'll look at is the jail cell.

Should the Autobots manage to capture a small Decepticon or a Decepticon Nebulon, there's the perfect place to put him.  I really like it.

This is what I've always just thought of as another entrance into Fort Max.  To the left of the stairs, we see the elevator which leads to the ramp.

Next up is the "attack vehicle" mode.  It's uh, it's a thing.

I'll be honest, I don't like this mode.  It's too big and it just looks like Fort Max decided to lay down.  The less said the better.  Anyway, Fort Max is more than just a city.  He comes with friends!

First we have Cerebros.

I really like Cerebros.  His head sculpt is nothing like the one from the cartoon, but that's fine.  It still looks pretty good.

It's almost like a smaller version of Fort Max's head.  Cerebros is a triple changer as well.  There's his robot mode, Fort Max's head, and what I've been told is a computer for the city mode.  Really, it's just a bent over Cerebros.

Cerebros himself is a Headmaster!  His partner is Spike, who, according to his Tech Spec, is from Nebulos now.  That confused me as a kid, but I don't really care about it now.

He's seen better days

Along with Cerebros and Spike, Fort Max also came with two drones, Gasket and Grommet.

Gasket on the left, Grommet on the right.  Spike on top.

Gasket and Grommet merge to form Cog.

Overall, I love Fort Max.  He's tall, feature packed, and features decent articulation for a G1 figure.  I'm looking forward to the Encore release of this figure so I can see how it compares to the original.  Besides the sword.

Also, be sure to check out the tabs on the bar up top as I plan on adding many new sections over the next few weeks.  I'm starting with the smaller parts of the collection and working my way up to the G1 figures.