Fortress Maximus

Generation One in America

Cartoon: Fortress Maximus was introduced following The Return of Optimus Prime, in the fourth season episode "Rebirth". In the cartoon, his headmaster partner was named Cerebros. In the cartoons Cerebros was also a self-confessed pacifist who binary bonded with Spike Witwickyin order to rescue the defeated Autobot Army on Cybertron.

Comic: Fortress Maximus was the leader of a group of Autobots on Cybertron. Tiring of the endless war against the Decepticons he led his followers away to the world of Nebulous and after initial misunderstanding eventually made peace with it's native inhabitants. Pursued by his old enemies and forced again to take up arms he allowed his head and those of several of his followers to be replaced by cybernetically enhanced Nebulons wearing transformable exo-suits. This allowed the Autobots to drive off the Decepticon attackers and to alsp maintain the fragile peace with the Nebulons. Eventually internal Nebulon politics resulted in Fortress Maximus' partner (Galan Kord - the Nebulon leader) being held prisoner by his rival (Zarak) who had joined the Decepticons as their leader's head module. Corrupted by the shear power of the Decepticons and by the mind of his Decepticon partner, Zarak however managed to free Galan on the condition that both sides would take the fight away from Nebulos and to a distant world, Earth.

En route to Earth the Autobots significantly upgraded Fortress Maximus, boosting his size and power levels far beyond their original specs. Such was his size increase that a separate Transformer sized body was constructed (Cerebros) and became the new head of Fortress Maximus. It was to this body that Galan now formed the head. In the first battle on Earth the upgraded Maximus proved unstoppable against the Decepticons and it was only through circuimstance that the battle came down to a fight between Galan and Zarak themselves. Galan gained the upperhand but Zarak tricked him into breaking off the fight in order to save a human from harm. Galan was killed in the human's place and Fortress Maximus was rendered immobile until Spike Witwicky, the human Galan had saved, took Galan's place. Operational again Fortress Maximus quickly drove off the Decepticons.

Eventually the Autobots left Earth but Spike did not go with them effectively putting Maximus into cold storage. Rogue Decepticon attacks however continued to occur on Earth and Spike was able to recover Maximus and use him to neutralise these threats. Eventually however he was engaged in a battle with the upgraded Megatron which he could not win and he instead decided to sacrifice himself in order to crash the ship he and Megatron were on in order to contain Megatron's threat. No body was ever found on the crashed ship and rumour has it that the Liege Maximo the ruler of the Second Generation Decepticons took an interest in the head module.

Generation One in Japan

In the Japanese storyline "Headmasters", Fortress was the leader of the Headmasters, a race of robots from Planet Master, who create large bodies to combine with. Fortress was previously an Autobot who led civilians to their homeworld upon the outbreak of the Autobot/Decepticon war. After the destruction of Cybetron, Rodimus Prime made Fortress the new leader of the Autobots while he, Kup and Twincast (a rebuilt Blaster) depart to find a new home for their race.

Eventually the Autobot's base, Maximus, was modified for Fortress to combine with to form Fortress Maximus. In this form, he wields the powerful Master Sword.

• The Headmasters did not have human components until the later series Masterforce concering the HeadMaster Jr.s.

Robots in Disguise

Fortress Maximus was a giant transformer keyed to the positive energy flowing from children. He had been hidden on Earth prior to the arrival of the Autobots.