Glad you like it, and happy to help. The person I sold my extra Ford to said the head was fine on theirs too so luckily it’s not a problem they all have.

Gave mine the Kabaya sword, which is too small but fine until something better comes along.

 

I think that sword is pretty good! Maybe I’m easily pleased? LOL

I ended up just taking the gear parts out on mine. He still has plenty of friction to hold his arms out. I saved them and can always sand them down if he later needs it. Honestly I think they are just made from plastic that is too stiff. If they had just a little give to them they’d work better as springs.

 

I received mine last week. It's a nice figure that fills my need for an articulated, g1 accurate Fortress Maximus. The paint looks good but I have the feeling that it's messing a bit with the tolerances since some parts of the figure are very tight. I'd also wish that there were more locking points for the arms and legs in the alternate modes.
I tried the TR Fortress Maximus sword (the first two segments) and it fits but there is a small tab at the end of the handle that prevents the sword from being oriented properly.
In summary it's not without its flaws but for the price I paid I can say I'm satisfied.

 

Is there a similarly sized Scorponok to go with this?

 

sadly no

 

The one from printformers and I think the Energon's version too.

 

This is what I did for my boy , so he could have a black zarak to fight his grand max version of this toy. Its a combination of the cybertron Dark Scorponok and the botcon double punch toys and a third party head and claws with just a little painting and 99 percent of that was on the claws the other places were just a tiny bit here and there.

 

The Energon figure with the Perfect Effect head is probably the best option. Reminds me I need to fix my black Scoponok. His shoulders disintegrated when I disassembled him to do the headmaster conversion. I got the replacement parts from Shapeways but haven’t gotten around to reassembling him.

Speaking of those Perfect Effect Headmasters, I just replaced my Ford’s head with the Perfect Effect one and it looks good. BBTS is apparently restocking the SD figure that includes the head if anyone was interested in doing the same.

 

The Master Made Scorponok should be very similar in size but even with the additional non SD head the aesthetic and proportions are very different. It's a shame that it's often hard to find Fortress Maximus and Scorponok figures correctly matched. Especially since I'm starting to realize that city bots in this size would male for a nice display with Haslab Unicron.

 

I finally got around to trying to fix the rocketing head problem, but lost one of the springs forever. It flew at my face and I wasted an hour with a flashlight trying to find it. So I had to take them all out, and it just looks fucking awful. There’s a huge and visible gap above the tech specs thing. Since the chest panel is translucent you can see it all the time.

I’m really bummed out by this. Shit like this happens any time I try to fix or mod anything. It’s not as bad as the laptop that died right after I put a fresh install of Windows on it this summer, mind you. Or my dad having some mysterious throat problem that they’ve been trying and failing to diagnose since January. or all the other depressing hellworld 2020 stuff going on. but the big problems make everything harder to cope with, even dumb things like this.

The worst part is that the problem was caused by a huge piece of sprue on the bottom of one of the parts, so if I hadn’t lost the spring, he would’ve been fully functional.

I’ve taken apart a bunch of ballpoints but the springs are all too big. I bought the toy from Toy Dojo but it’s been sold out there since like June so there’s no way they’d have a spring. I can’t find a way to contact Zeta outside of Facebook and I deleted mine years ago. I don’t really want to make one just to ask if they have any springs. He’s just going to have to be like this forever.

 

Just buy a replacement spring.

 

I put a shorter review of these Ford upgrade kits on another thread but I thought I would add some pictures here.

TRANSFORMERS 3D upgrade KIT FOR ZETA & TW G1 Fortress Maximus Head & weapons | eBay

TRANSFORMERS 3D upgrade KIT FOR ZETA & TW G1 Fortress Maximus guard GUN radar | eBay

Overall I think these little kits look good but not worth more than Ford itself.

Cons: The arms of both Cog and Cerebros fall off even after some floor polish treatments. Mostly a mess there.

Neither the antenna nor blaster have a real place to peg on in either bot or base mode. They look odd jammed onto the side of the base mode tower. Options are limited.

Cerebros' legs are a floppy mess. When transforming into a head, one leg will work itself off the hip pegs. The arms don't stay on so the head comes out very flat looking.

The neck connector is too long and too thick. Insanely tight.

Pros: The colors of the antenna and blaster match well. Cog and Cerebros look classic sitting next to Ford.

Cons: (continued) 'pros' list was too short. I really wish they had copied the Zeta/TW Cerebros, changed the face design and give him a 1mm grip so he could hold the blaster and sword. It would have blown my mind if Spike had been able to transform.



















Lastly, an image with Dr. Wu's new mini bots.

 

i wish someone would have done a pretender shell for grand max head

 

Thanks for the feedback, I saw the head on eBay but passed on it due to the price. Now I know I won't regret the decision.

 

Marvel Comics Fortress Maximus arrived today from TCP!

Shoulder ratchets are tight, but I don't think I need to do any modifications. Head stays on, and he looks absolutely fantastic in hand! Super pose-able, plastic quality feels top notch and he has some weight to him!

With fellow Marvel Comics Transformers, Sideswipe and Straxus below!  

 

Some places seem to have this for preorder again?

Pre-order Zeta EX-09 EX09 Ford Matellic Edition Reissue

 

Oh hell yeah!

 

Fuck yeah!!! Been really wanting this guy for a minute now.

 

Max cannot catch a break. Brave had no accessories, TR had none but 3rd party made one of his guns. This guy has one.

LOL WHY MY BOI CAN'T HAVE TWO PEW PEW?!

 

Still wish they would upsize it somewhat (25% or so). It always was a bit too small. I use him, gladly, with my FP Headmasters, but even then I consider him just a bit too short.