First, let me relate a little story. . . From the mid 80s to late 90s, my parents and I would take a trip to Norway almost every year, usually for Christmas, to visit my mom's family. As you might imagine, a number of my G1 TFs were bought in Norway; I can remember the Seacons, Spinister, Landfill, Sinnertwin, a few Combaticons, Wheelie and Cindersaur off the top of my head. During one of these Christmas trips, I received enough gift money from various relatives to buy Fortress Maximus from a toy store in Sandnes, Norway. If I remember correctly, he cost 1000 Norwegian Kroner. At the time, I lived in Germany, and Fort Max sat next to me in the back seat of our car for the whole drive home. A few years ago, a member of alt.toys.transformers named Lars Erikson, who lived in Sweden, informed me that Hasbro shipped only 10 Fort Maxes to all of Scandinavia. This sounds really farfetched to me, so I was wondering if anyone can confirm this statement. Fort Max says "God dag"
I grew up in the Stockholm area (capital/largest city of Sweden) during this time, and I have a very vivid memory of the transformers display at the biggest toystore in central Stockholm (a now-defunct chain called "Stor & Liten"). For a good time this display included a Fort Max in base mode, strung from the ceiling so it was "hovering" over the rest of the toys. However, during all my years there I -never- saw a Fortress Maximus for sale. Not there, not anywhere else I went with my parents. It always mystified me, because he was in the (american) toy catalogues that we got with the toys, and of course prominently featured in the media. Then, only last year, I attended Auto Assembly Europe in Uppsala (with Lars being among the arrangers). At the convention, another fan was selling a Fortress Maximus. I decided to ask on how rare this piece had been, and Lars told me the same thing, that the company who imported Transformers had only taken a very limited amount of them in. He also told me that the sample sold at the con had been a display piece at a Stockholm toy store and never sold. We are almost certain this was the exact same Fort Max that was on display that I gawked at as a kid! And I finally got to touch the damn thing (someone else already bought it). It was kind of cool to realize that childhood dream. But to answer your question, UnderTaker, I never saw it on sale anywhere and I just always assume it was the same as Omega Supreme, and just never issued here. But the "10 samples" thing may be true, in which case you are one very lucky chap. Treat the big guy well!
Yeah, i grew up in Oslo, and never saw one. Don`t know about the fact that only 10 was imported. Sounds a bit weird, but it may be true. Also, are you sure it cost 1000 kroner back then? That sounds extremely expensive, even consider the prices here in Norway Pretty cool you got your G1`s over here, nice story man. Do you still visit?
Considering Lars Eriksson is the owner of this site and even has an account here at TFW, I'd say it'd be rather easy to ask him to provide a source for his statement.
I would not doubt it. Take into consideration, as I am sure their marketing did, the population and average household income. I've already considered the lack of variety in anything, compared to the U.S., here in Sweden is due to a populace of 9 million (a little over the population of NYC) and in the 80s , I would think, the population was even smaller. There is only so much money to be made here in material goods. As much as I hope to spot an MP in Toys R Us I keep thinking it's not going to happen.
Yeah, that's just how it goes. Europe in the 80's ended up having very spotty Transformers distribution, sometimes very haphazardly. As often quoted, the UK got all the dinobots EXCEPT Swoop. They also didn't get the Predacons, Omega Supreme, etc I wouldn't take that bet no.
I knew Lars was a fairly well-known member of the fandom, but I didn't know he was a convention organizer. Anyway, cool story. I've only been to Norway once in the last 10 or so years. I got to bring my wife, though, and she had never been out of the US, so that was fun. Much of my family lives in Stavanger, and I was downtown there shopping many times as a kid. There was a 2-story toy store there with a big troll statue outside. The troll was still there when I went back in 2007, so that was cool. I may have gotten my numbers mixed up. I think I may have received 1000 kroner total that Christmas, and Fort Max was around 750 kroner. That makes more sense. I remember him being the equivalent of about $100. Amazing that no one else ever saw one. Maybe this story is actually true. . . Danke for the info. I had forgotten that Lars was also known as Groundsplitter. Maybe I'll send him a message.
I bet the "only 10" comment was just to over-exaggerate the fact that not many made it. I doubt it was actually that small of a quantity.
Thanks for the responses. I checked the copyright stamp on my Fort Max. I tried to get a picture but my camera wouldn't cooperate. It said: C 1986 HASBRO C Takara 1987 Macau The 1987 was stamped over one of those oval shaped things, showing that some other date had been covered up. I don't know if this is relevant, but I thought I'd post it anyway. Some pics that might bring back memories for the Scandinavians on here: 55 kroner for each of these minibots. This Tailgate now resides at the bottom of the Main river in Germany
very cool to see those pictures, none of my boxes survived the "MUST UNWRAP AND PLAY WITH THIS TOY RIGHT NOW" mentality i had as a kid. thanks for sharing!
