Back in October MMC wowed me with their release of Bovis, the first figure in their take on the Predacons. “Not-Tantrum” was a big beefy figure with some very clever engineering, a fair amount of weapon layout options, and an all-around beautiful update to the character. Just about all of that can also be said about their second release, Fortis, which landed on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago. I’ve finally had time to open up “Not-Headstrong” and I’m almost just as smitten with this figure. I took two installments to cover Bovis, but since we’ve already been introduced to the packaging and presentation of this line, and since Fortis shares the same engineering as Bovis, I should be able to tackle this mechanical rhino in just one day. Besides, I already have a two-parter planned for this week.

Fortis comes in a large box with a front flap that opens to reveal a window, which in turn shows off the figure in his robot mode. It’s the same deco as we saw used for the last release only with new character art. I seem to recall being a little underwhelmed with the deco the first time around, and I haven’t really warmed up to it any. There’s nothing specifically wrong with it, quite the contrary, it’s a nice collector friendly box, and the flap that protects the window is appreciated. I guess, I’m just not feeling it from an artistic standpoint. I’d rate the presentation here higher than Toyworld’s , but not in league with TFC’s Uranos or most of what Fansproject has done. But in the end it all comes down to personal taste, so your mileage may vary.

Inside the box you get an illustrated cardboard tray that holds a clear plastic tray. Fortis has all his gear laid out beside him, including the massive foot and hand combiner part, which doubles as his BFG in rhino mode or backpack in robot mode. You also see the first piece of evidence here pointing to what a great company MMC is and how they listen to and care about their customers. There were some isolated instances of paint rubbing on Bovis while he was in the package, so Fortis comes with an extra piece of plastic taped over the tray to keep him from rubbing on the front tray. Classy!

In addition to the figure and accessories you also get a baggie containing a nice profile card and the instruction booklet-slash-comic book. And here comes the second piece of evidence of MMC’s caring nature. There were some instances of over tightened screws causing Bovis’ pelvis to show cracks or stress marks. Inside this baggie you get a replacement pelvis for that figure. You’d have to bum around some message boards to know why this was included, because there’s no documentation of it in the box. I quickly inspected my Bovis’ hinder to see if I had any problems, but so far I could not detect a crack in his ass. Last time I broke tradition and started out with Bovis’ robot mode, but this time I’m going start out with Fortis’ rhino mode.

As both Fortis and Bovis are going to form Feral Rex’s legs, it’s only natural that they would share much of the same body and engineering. Nowhere is this more obvious than in their animal modes. There are plenty of remolded parts on Fortis, but the limbs and back section of the animals are nearly identical with only the remolded front section, new head, and the rather drastic new color scheme to set them apart. I’m totally cool with that as it’s expected with combiners and the mostly shared body works fine for the rhino and bull alt forms. Fortis’ head is smaller than Bovis’ but it still sports that great angular cyber-animal sculpt. The single horn is painted black and I really dig the silver grill pieces on his cheek plates. As with Bovis, Fortis’ jaw can open and close, but if you look underneath you’ll see his robot face peeking back out at you.

The coloring on this guy is right in line with the original G1 Headstrong toy and that means that it’s a lot more obnoxious than the red and orange of Bovis. It uses the same beautiful red plastic as Bovis, only this time it’s paired with bright yellow and black. Initially I wasn’t sure the colors would transfer so well onto the toy, but I believe the finished product’s yellow is a tad duller than initial promo pictures, which I think really help it along. Again, the bulk of the toy’s coloring comes from the actual plastic, which is always a good thing to me, although there is some silver paint detailing here and there to help make the figure pop a little more.

As with Bovis, Fortis’ weapons can all be attached to his beast mode. There are pegs on the “shoulders” of all four legs for his guns and knives and you can attach his massive cannon onto the back to make him look all the more formidable. 

Fortis transforms exactly the same as Bovis, so if you’ve had that figure around the block a couple of times you should be good to go here. I haven’t transformed him since October, so it took me a little fumbling about to get it right. In theory, the transformation is pretty basic. The legs fold out from the back of the rhino and the arms fold out from the front legs. In practice, there’s a lot of extra tucking and folding to deliver on the kind of engineering that you would expect in a $100 toy. The result gives you all that extra articulation and makes certain that all those rhino bits peg in perfectly when you’re in robot mode.

The reuse from Bovis is most apparent in the limbs, although the recolor and some minor re-sculpting helps to set him apart, at least a little bit. The chest is a completely new design, and while I don’t think it’s quite as interesting as Bovis’ with his silver painted mesh screens, it still looks good and further helps to make Fortis distinctive. The head sculpt, complete with visor and organic looking face, is also quite similar to Bovis, which is probably what surprised me the most about this figure. Of course, then I referenced back to the original toys and found that the similarities existed back there as well.

Fortis features some new weapons. His guns are basically just boxes with little barrels on them. I wasn’t too keen on them at first, but I’ve warmed up to them quite a bit. He can hold them in his hands or they can be clipped onto his forearms. He also has a similar set of knives as the ones that came with Bovis.

Naturally, Fortis can also equip the combiner parts as a backpack in his robot mode. It looks pretty good on the figure and adds a great deal more bulk. He’s designed so that he can still stand reasonably well with the huge cannon on his back. He can also wield it in both hands as a weapon of mass destruction. I really dig the fact that even though these combiner parts are freaking huge, they’ve still been worked into the figure. Like Bovis, Fortis can be displayed either holding or wearing every last piece that he comes with and that’s very cool.

And that’s MMC’s second Feralcon in the bag. He’s another great effort, although I’ll concede I still like Bovis a smidge better. Fortis retailed at right around $100 if you got in on the Early Bird, but only add another $10 if you didn’t. In the realm of third-party Transformers, Fortis is a lot of figure for that price. He’s big and beefy, the plastic quality feels great, and he comes with a good amount of stuff to justify the purchase. Next up in this series should be the Feralcon Commander, Leo Dux, although this line has had its share of delays and slot-switching from the get go so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next. But that’s fine, with figures this good, I’m willing to wait.