Ever since I was a kid, I've been awed by Fortress Maximus. As an avid Transformers fan, this giant Autobot was a bit of a grail, one I still haven't gotten around to finding in his original G1 guise. Comprising a headmaster figure (Spike), his Headmaster partner Cerebros and the giant Fortress Maximus, for which Cerebros transforms into the head. This double-headmaster is a genuine feat of both size and play possibilities. He's also a triple changer, with robot, battle and base modes to choose from, all in a stylish grey, white and blue colour scheme that makes him look modern even today.
I've had third party versions and KO's of variants, such as a Chinese white and blue KO of his Transformers Gum toy, Perfect Effect Warden (IDW comics style Fort Max) and Toyworld's Infinitor. I have the Fans Toys Cerebros and the only official entry in my collection, the Takara Legends Fortress Maximus, which is frikkin' huge.
So when relative newcomer Modfans announced they were releasing a Cerebros that was compatible with Takara's leviathan effort, I jumped. At $40 it was cheap enough not to be a gamble and it also came with a radar dish and gun for the big fella.
The package is pretty svelte, and "Bless" himself is actually a lot smaller than I imagined, coming in at Legends scale. In the box you get the aforementioned bits, but also two extra open hands, a sword, blaster and a neck adaptor so you can attach Bless to the base of the Takara toy.
Bless is beautifully constructed - despite the small size, he has oodles of paint and die-cast in the feet to keep him rock steady. Everything is connected via pins and is nice and stiff, allowing him to pose with his own rifle and not topple over (it's a bit big for him in my opinion). The sculpt is bang on - lots of detail with vents in the legs and chest, sharp paint highlighting the facial details (I plumped for the toy colours, so he has a facemask like the cartoon) and you can even pull his chest open to reveal his power bars, a nice nod to the original toy.
He has solid, if not spectacular, articulation. It's enough to get the job done, with the head on a ball joint for movement in all directions, double hinge at the elbow, ball joint in the shoulders, a thigh cut, waist swivel, ab crunch, 90 degree rotation at the knees and a pair of slight ankle rockers that really only help with an A stance and nothing extreme. You can move his feet up and down moderately too.
His head detaches and can transform (a simple hinge to fold out the legs) and while he might have no articulation, the details are crisp and cleanly rendered.
All in, he's a lot of fun, feels solid and is constructed from sturdy materials, at least in the body. The transformation to head mode requires you to slide the sides of his helmet up along the sides of his face, and here the mechanism tends to stick and the plastic feels very thin. It's fine with care, but I can see problems if handled roughly. It's a complex transformation too, especially given how many iterations of this character have been attempted, with flaps at the knees and even the hip flaps having to move to accommodate the head mode. Given how much more svelte he looks than Takara's effort, you can see aesthetics took priority here, and as an older collector I can appreciate that - Takara Cerebros feels bulletproof and clunky by comparison.
When you get to head mode, it's certainly a handsome visage that greets you - all chiseled chin and full lips. I love the matte grey that really comes into play here, it's subtly different from the face and helmet, the black legs adding some subtle variety to proceedings. Once you tab it all together it feels pretty solid, though I will say there are some visible gaps between the legs and head that suggest it could have done with a few more hours in development to make it perfect.
So, what to do with this head? Well, notice in the photo the neck adaptor, a solid plastic piece that slots (with some effort it must be said) into the Takara body to create the necessary connections. It's a very tight fit, so I'm glad the connector is solid because it takes some force to remove it. I'm not sure given how expensive Takara Max would be to replace that I'm entirely comfortable putting this on too often.
And then there's the result. Which is underwhelming, sadly.
To me, it just looks a touch too small, and that's a bit embarrassing given that the entire point of the release was to provide a more appropriate head in scale with the body. Truthfully I didn't have any issue with the head as provided, but I don't mind experimenting and I admit I had fun with Bless and looking at the differences. For reference, here's the same pose with the original head, and you can decide for yourself:
So what does Bless offer if not a new bonce for the tall one? Well, he's a lot of fun as a legends scale Cerebros. The quality of plastics feels better than Magic Square, though still not on par with the masterful Newage. Paint is clean and crisp, the articulation gives you pretty much exactly what you want and the accessories for Fort Max are appreciated, even if the main gun is much smaller than the Perfect Effect add-on kit version (see the gallery below). I love the radar dish, and should Fort Max ever go into base mode, I'll certainly use it. The literal red cherry on top of a fun package.
Oh, and if toy colours aren't your thing, Bless comes in Japanese Headmaster, toy, US cartoon and even Brave Maximus colours.
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