Now please tell me which horse will win this year's Melbourne Cup!![]()
Anyway, I personally never believe in anything until it's officially announced because I don't wanna get my hopes up in case it doesn't happen!I'm totally gonna get Encore Fortress Maximus. Firstly because I just want a MISB complete Fort Max, but also I hope that this toy will sell well and prompt TakaraTOMY to do more reissues -- especially more big cityformer reissues like Trypticon (they used the mould for Gigastorm in Beast Wars!) and Scorponok (not sure if they still have the mould... hope so!) etc.
Yeah, that's only in America. That's why Takara was able to release Brave Maximus for Car Robot, but Hasbro couldn't release it as Fortress Maximus for Robots In Disguise.
To be honest, Fortress Maximus really isn't that impressive a Transformer action figure, even by G1 standards. The transformation/engineering isn't all that clever -- toys like Triggerhappy and Snapdragon have far more interesting designs. And the size kinda makes him hard to interact with other Transformers as an action figure. Marvel Comic artists had to significantly downsize him to make him work, like going toe to toe with Galvatron. Toywise Fort Max could just step on Galvatron (whereas in the comics Galvatron could wrestle with Fort Max and rip his circuitry out with his bare teeth!). But Fortress Maximus is a really impressive play set for other Transformers! And unlike Metroplex who's really a playset for the smaller carded Transformers (specifically the Scramble City gestalt limbformers, but Mini-bots work too), Fortress Maximus can work with the larger boxed Autobots! He has all kinds of neat play features like the ramps, launchers, lift, prison etc. that make him a really cool play set. Much better than the Cyberverse rubbish.
The real "action figure" feature is in Cerebros -- they made him a Headmasters too (w/ Spike) so that he could be interactive with the other Autobot Headmasters (this play pattern was heavily promoted in the Headmasters anime series) -- but let's face it, Cerebros sucks compared to any of the other Headmasters (because he's just a head... you'd certainly never buy this toy on its own!). But yeah, the real appeal of the toy is as a playset. Oh, and the size is bloody impressive!!When my daughter was born I couldn't resist doing this...
IMO $300 for a MISB Fortress Maximus reissue is a good price. It's what I paid for my Brave Maximus, so I consider that within the RRP range (albeit at the upper end - but still acceptable). It's a helluva lot cheaper than what you'd pay for a MISB G1 Fortress Maximus now... my G1 Fort Max cost me about $300 and it's yellowed and incomplete (no weapons/radar). So I'm more than happy to pay $300 for an Encore Fort Max... plus it means I still won't be breaking my record of paying $300 for a single toy (Brave Max remains the most expensive TF I've ever purchased -- so this will match it, but won't exceed it -- I don't _want_ to break this record! (unless the toy is bigger/better than a MISB Maximus)
eHobby should totally do Grand Maximus. Still can't believe TakTOM didn't do eHobby Metrotitan.Gah! I can't find our phone card to call overseas... I wanna call TakaraTOMY and get confirmation about this news (and also ask about the RRP) ... I'll have to wait for the missus to get home (cos she usually uses the card). Anyone else able to call them first?