November 5, 2000 CURRENT RUMBLE You'd Be Brave, Too ... Darren 11.5.00 You'd be brave, too, if you were the size of a city. Brave Maximus arrived from Robozone, and I thought I'd serve up my unsolicited two cents on the long-awaited Transformer. Transformers fans already know Brave Maximus is a re-color and re-issue of the old (and loved) Takara Fortress Maximus, the largest Transformer ever made. I never owned the old Fort Max, so this is all new territory to me. Wow, this is a really big shipping box. Packing paper is strewn across the floor in great heaps as I de-crate ... another big box. By this point, Car Robot box art is a familiar sight, but NEVER at this scale. This is like something a stereo amp would come in. The lettering on the box alone is 3.5 inches tall. You can't help but giggle at the total excess of size. I remove the giant plastic robot within, bound to a cardboard inner-frame with the Takara twist-ties of hell. I swear, I'll never need twist-ties for trash bags again. Fifteen minutes elapse as I tediously twist, twist, twist. (I am not making this up ... I timed it.) I imagine the poor child who's trying to tear into his Christmas gifts at high speed. He'll have to work for THIS one! And then, you have a very large robot ... I half expected Brave Maximus to be a plasticy, hollow piece of garbage that "real" toy enthusiasts would turn their nose up to. I was not ready to be surprised and amazed. After all, I've seen lots of pictures of this toy on other sites. Most of the "newness" has worn off in my mind, even before receiving the toy. But he's huge! The pictures don't do him justice -- mine, or pictures at any other site. The sense of scale is incredible. He's almost two feet tall -- that puts him in Jumbo territory. However, Brave Max is much bulkier than a Jumbo. Front to back, he's 7.5 inches deep at one point! I can barely wrap both hands around his lower right leg. Sandrock agrees it's a big 'bot. And he's poseable! Brave Max is not an action figure, of course. However, he's got good, detented poseability in the hips, shoulders, and elbows. Max pretends to be Dendoh with a 28-inch high kick to impress us with his poseability, but it's just not coming off. And he's heavy! The thing is eight pounds! No doubt, some of that weight is due to diecast metal content. Bet you didn't expect the word "diecast" to come up in this Rumble, eh? Yes, right in the middle of his body is a large, diecast plate firmly supporting a set of important diecast body joints. That plate is about a centimeter thick. There is also a 1.5 centimeter thick plate on his lower left leg supporting a gun turrent joint. The plastic is thick and tough. This is a toy you can PLAY with. Brave Max has two transformations: "Cybertron City" and Chodokyu Senkan ("Mega Battleship") Maximus. They are both fairly simple, straightforward, and will require an entire clean tabletop to perform. Fortunately, there are no "spare parts" involved in the transformation, unless you count a tiny little radar antennae that you can hide away in one of the many little storage compartments. The battleship mode is pretty cheesey, but it's only meant to be big, not pretty. The ship is 2.5 feet long, and its wheels are passable on most surfaces. Sandrock demonstrates the ship's scale. The Cybertron City mode is no cheap gimmick. This is intended to be a fully functional playset for your smaller Transformer toys, and it is. There's tons of little ramps, compartments, elevators, guns, and crannies available on this toy. Cyborg 009 Dolphin II helps demonstrate scale in these pictures. I wasn't sure I'd like the new paint job, but it's honestly very cool. They've taken advantage of the horizontal grooves in the surface of the toy and painted in lighted windows, bright yellow against a dark blue surface, giving the impression that Cybertron City is composed of massive skyscrapers. It's quite effective, and adds to the illusion of scale. A couple of other gimmicks are worthy of note. Brave Max's head transforms into a small robot, Brave. Brave's head, in turn, transforms into a two inch tall robot, Plasma. If you've bought no other Transformers toys, at least your Cybertron City will have a couple of residents. The back side of the instruction sheet is a playmat to sit under Cybertron City, and extends his launching ramps into roads. It's just paper, tho -- nothing that will last if played with. Sadly, despite having powerful looking fists just crying out for spring-loaded fun, there is nothing on the toy that fires. However, his static armaments are mighty. Sure, he's a little boxey and awkward. In fact, at certain angles, his body strongly reminds me of the Macross. But, what I'd like to convey in words, if not pictures, is shelf presence. He's not an elegant thing, but when you've got him, you can't ignore him.  RUMBLE INDEX  |  CURRENT RUMBLE