Cerebros (G1)

Cerebros is an Autobot Headmaster from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Must I always strike poses wielding weapons? Can I have no peace?! And can I have my legs transformed correctly?!

Cerebros is the robot that transforms into Fortress Maximus's head, and is itself binary bonded to Spike Witwicky.

Fiction

Marvel Comics continuity

Marvel The Transformers comics

He probably wouldn't get along well with his cartoon counterpart...

After Galen chose to flee Nebulos along with the rest of the Autobots under Fortress Maximus's command, the former pacifist had resigned himself to a life of war. He decided that all resources must be put into winning that war, so during the Steelhaven's journey to Earth, he ordered Fortress Maximus's body be doubled in size for greater power in combat. Now, Fortress Maximus's larger head transformed into the Autobot Cerebros, while Galen transformed into the head of Cerebros. (Cerebros was a robot entirely under the control of Galen.) Fortress Maximus's Universe entry

Once the Autobots arrived on Earth, they encountered the Decepticons under Scorponok's command. The Decepticons remarked that Fortress Maximus seemed larger than usual, but no matter—Scorponok kidnapped a young human named Spike Witwicky and retreated deep into the caverns of the volcano that housed the Ark. The caverns were too small for the larger Fortress Maximus to navigate, so he sent the smaller Cerebros in his stead. When the battle moved to a narrow rock bridge, Cerebros threw his own head into battle. Unfortunately, his head, Galen, perished protecting the human. Subsequently, Spike Witwicky assumed Galen's role as Cerebros's head (and through him Fortress Maximus's), hoping to aid the Autobots in finding his younger brother, Buster. Trial by Fire!

Cerebros doesn't get to do much beyond the same expository panels over and over and over.

After Spike had been surgically altered for the Headmaster process, Spike accidentally revealed his changes to his father Sparkplug Witwicky. He showed his father how he could transform into Cerebros's head and then into Fortress Maximus's head, and with the Autobot Targetmasters at his side, he pledged to his father to find his brother Buster.

Buster had been spotted on a tropical island, but Kup refused to let Spike participate for fear of his emotional attachments gumming up their rescue mission. So, Spike, binary-bonded to Cerebros, stood outside the perimeter of the battle. But when the mission failed and the island transformed into a space-faring vessel, launching into space, Spike took matters into his own hands. He and Cerebros recombined with Fortress Maximus and grabbed onto the spaceship as it entered orbit. In space, Fortress Maximus's body was dealt a serious blow from the spaceship through the chest, forcing Cerebros to disengage. This led to Decepticon leader Shockwave himself confronting Cerebros in combat, and the Autobot was deactivated in one blast. Spike, disconnecting from Cerebros, was eventually able to defeat Shockwave himself. The Desert Island of Space!

After Fortress Maximus was repaired, their group of Autobots met the other group of Earthbound Autobots led by Grimlock. When their two groups met, Grimlock belittled Earth's humans, and Spike showed Grimlock how a "worthless human" led his contingent of Autobots by transforming from Fortress Maximus to Cerebros to his own binary-bonded self. Grimlock laughed and challenged Fortress Maximus to a duel for Autobot leadership supremacy, but the recent damage to Fortress Maximus and Cerebros at the hands of Shockwave worried Spike. Fortunately, Blaster was called on to fight in place of Fortress Maximus. Totaled!

Later, though, they were a lot more efficient about it.

Later, Buster was found in the Arctic due to a distress signal. Cerebros was once again seen when Spike transformed from Fortress Maximus's head to Cerebros and again to Spike's binary-bonded suit to show Buster that he was his brother. Dark Star Once Buster was retrieved and home safe, Spike saw no reason to continue his campaign with the Autobots, and so he tried to return to his previous life. Unfortunately, Decepticons came looking for him, and Spike had to telepathically call on the power of Fortress Maximus's body from space. Cerebros was very (very) briefly seen as Spike transformed into Fortress Maximus's head. The Man in the Machine!

Cerebros was seen one last time, again merely as an intermediate transitional mode, when Spike was once again called back into action, this time against the increasingly deranged Galvatron. The Last Autobot?

Marvel Generation 2 comic

Spike transformed directly into Fortress Maximus's head, bypassing Cerebros. All or Nothing!

Classics

In 2012, Cerebros was stationed in South America along with Spike inside Fortress Maximus. His body was present behind Spike one day when Rad reported from the Ironworks base in Oregon about a foiled attack by Gigatron and his Decepticons. Soon thereafter, due to the actions of an evil Ultra Magnus from another dimension, a rift of space-time opened over Earth, causing catastrophes worldwide. Cerebros, merged with Spike, gathered civilians inside Fortress Maximus for safety. Invasion

The Transformers cartoon

Voice actor: Jered Barclay (English), Ken Narita (Japanese), Francis Lax (European French)

"I hate guns! I hate them so much!"

On Cybertron in 2007, Cerebros observed a race between Blurr and Hot Rod, the latter of whom was assisted by Daniel Witwicky, an experiment by Brainstorm to show the advantages of a unity between the humans and Autobots. Cerebros would express concern regarding humanity's growing involvement in the Transformers' conflict. The debate was cut short, however, when the Decepticons attacked Cybertron, with the intent of unleashing the Plasma Energy Chamber on the Autobots. During the conflict, Cerebros, eleven other Autobots, Spike and Daniel took a ship to the chamber in pursuit of Scourge, who unwittingly unleashed the power of the Chamber. As Scourge was overloaded by the chamber's power, Cerebros took back the Key to the Plasma Energy Chamber and returned to the ship. A bolt of energy hit the ship and sent them flying across the galaxy to the planet Nebulos. Cerebros and the other Autobots wandered around the planet looking for a way off, but were captured and almost destroyed by Nebulon rebels who mistook them for Hive machines. When the Decepticons attacked, the Nebulon leader Gort freed them and they counterattacked. Unfortunately, this resulted in six Autobot's being captured, and Daniel getting injured. Brainstorm's idea of merging humans, or in this case Nebulons, with Autobots came up as a solution, and five of the six remaining Autobots agreed to become Headmasters. Cerebros refused to undergo the process, reiterating his belief that human(oid)s shouldn't endanger themselves by fighting alongside Autobots. The Rebirth, Part 1 As the new Headmaster Autobots attacked the Decepticons and rescued the other Autobots, Cerebros wandered off exploring the planet, but came across a Hive city and was attacked by them. He barely escaped with his life and managed to make it back to the cave, wounded. The Rebirth, Part 2

*cry*

When he awakened, he found out things had gotten worse. The Decepticons now had Scorponok (controlled by Zarak) as well as Headmasters of their own, with the addition of Targetmasters. At Spike's insistence, he and Cerebros remained behind on Nebulos as the other Autobots departed to stop Scorponok. The two made their way back to the city where they were chased by Hive machines, but Spike was able to gain control of them. The two used the machines to create Fortress Maximus. Cerebros finally underwent the Headmaster process, with Spike as his partner, and was further modified to become the head of Fortress Maximus itself.

When the city was completed, the duo left for Cybertron to repel the Decepticon invasion. Though Cerebros was less than thrilled with the idea of fighting again, Spike assured Cerebros that it would be the last time. Maximus was transformed into battle mode and engaged the Decepticons, but Scorponok quickly followed suit. Soon the two city-bots revealed their secrets and transformed into two gigantic robots, engaging in combat. Scorponok was about to deliver the final blow, but Spike managed to distract Zarak, allowing Maximus to force him back into city mode. Cerebros then detached and infiltrated Scorponok to retrieve a captured Daniel and Arcee. Soon after, Galvatron unleashed the Chamber and took out every Autobot, including Cerebros and the Decepticons themselves. However, Spike and the Nebulon rebels were able to save Cybertron and restore it to its Golden Age. Cerebros was reawakened by Spike (who was unable to see the planet in his alt mode) and both were congratulated by Optimus Prime. Cerebros questioned the Decepticons' fates, with Prime stating that they may always be around but had a more important task. Cerebros, Optimus, the other Headmasters and Targetmasters took Maximus back to Nebulos were they all vowed to stop the Hive's machines. Optimus promised that when the machines were gone, Cerebros would live there in peace as the planet's guardian. The Rebirth, Part 3

Kre-O online manga

Among with other Autobots, Cerebros was facing against the Alligaticon to get Optimus Prime's body/parts back. Negligence Is the Greatest Enemy! Optimus Became a Monster!?

Transformers vs. G.I. Joe

Cerebros was infiltrated and corrupted by Blackarachnia, causing Fortress Maximus to deteriorate into a mindless zombie-like state until the spider was defeated. He was then ripped off of Maximus's shoulders in battle with Trypticon, only to transform in the dinosaur's mouth and hold its jaws open while his own head, Galen, detached and led several Autobots and Joes hidden in Cerebros's body to infiltrate Trypticon. Everybody Hates Metroplex

Beast Wars: Uprising

Cerebros, binary-bonded to Spike Witwicky, was turned into Fortress Maximus when MegaZarak threatened Nebulos, but the destructive power of the cityformer ultimately destroyed the entire planet's capacity to support life—an event remembered infamously as the "Scouring of Nebulos". Head Games A Brush With Infamy–Prologue The existence of Maximus and weapons like him was a major reason why post-singularity humanity confined the Transformers and their war to a small region of space. A traumatized Cerebros was fully in favor of this. Head Games

When the Decepticons unleashed MegaZarak on the colony world of Rebirth, Cerebros and Daniel Witwicky deployed Fortress Maximus against their old foe. Their destructive battle ended with Rebirth devastated and MegaZarak triumphant, forcing the Autobots into a retreat. A Brush With Infamy–Prologue

At some point, presumably after Daniel's passing, Cerebros binary-bonded himself to Galen Witwicky, the third and last in a line of Witwickys. Head Games

Cerebros contacted the humans when he learned of their plans to resurrect all pre-singularity humans and while they wouldn't hand that knowledge over, they did help him create the Maximals and Predacons so his race could have a future. The self-styled "Builders" used them to have brutal bloodsports but, to Cerebros, this was acceptable as it was a smaller and more formalized conflict than the Great War.

As energy became scarce, Fortress Maximus could no longer move and ground to a halt in robot mode in Tarn, where his frozen, towering form was repurposed as a prison by the Builders. Cerebros himself died at some point, but his consciousness remained active within Maximus through three Cyberdroids: Gran, Kord, and Plasma.

When Lio Convoy's rebellion started, Cerebros saw it as a threat: if the Resistance won, Lio Convoy would take the Transformers back off Cybertron and potentially upset the vastly superior Human Confederacy. When rebels broke in to free prisoners, he launched psychic attacks to brainwash them into turning on each other. The third raid took Buzzclaw as a patsy, hoping Cerebros would target him and thus, when they killed their comrade, the rebels would be able to kill Cerebros. It worked, ending the 'bot forever. Head Games

2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: More than Meets the Eye #46 (mentioned); #56 (on-panel)

Cerebros was a mental health specialist who used to work for the Institute in some capacity. He maintained that he wasn't one of the mnemosurgeons responsible for the infamous shadowplay procedure. At one point, he worked for Prowl. Ten to Midnight

In the present day, Cerebros was stationed on Luna 1. Red Alert suggested to Fortress Maximus that he could have a look at the mentally damaged Grimlock, but this didn't come to pass. Animals Swerve struck a deal with Cerebros to send bottles of engex from Luna 1 to the Lost Light via subspace. Silent Light

After Fortress Maximus brought the Roboids with him back to the moon, Cerebros turned his talents toward helping the mutilated Transformers, repairing their transformation cogs one by one while restoring their higher functions. It was a slow, laborious process, and months after their arrival Cerebros had only cured a fraction of the afflicted Transformers. Cerebros woke Red Alert from a nightmare, and the two of them visited the moon's space bridge chamber to bid farewell to Bolt, the most recently treated Roboid. Inspired by Rung's recent encounter with Sunder, Cerebros voiced a controversial idea: developing a brain implant that would remotely repair the brain damage the Roboids had suffered. Neither Red Alert or Fortress Maximus were on board with the idea—Red Alert brought up Cerebros's shady past with the Institute to make a point. The debate was cut short when Prowl bridged through, Cerebros calmed down Maximus long enough for Prowl to reveal the reason for his visit: Sentinel Prime had returned to life and was intent on bridging to Luna 1; Prowl theorized that he was planning to find a Titan to follow through with his original plan, which Cerebros dismissed as impossible.

The quartet traveled to the Titan graveyard, where they discovered that Sentinel had followed through on his plan, having hijacked a dormant Titan. Worse yet, Red Alert seemingly changed sides, shooting Prowl down. Ten to Midnight While Sentinel was busy explaining his evil plan to resurrect the dead Titans as zombies and use them to attack Cybertron, Cerebros used his implant on the unconscious Prowl, taking control of his body and distracting Sentinel long enough for them and Fortress to escape. Transforming their own Titan base into robot mode, they used the implant to have Fortress take direct control of it, allowing him to battle the undead Titans while Cerebros and Prowl confronted Sentinel Prime and Red Alert. After Sentinel was defeated, Cerebros's invention had proven its worth and he was allowed to use it to cure the remaining Roboids. Last Light

Oh god, what am I doing??

Having traced a distress call from Rodimus, Cerebros accompanied Fortress Maximus and the others to Necroworld. There, they found the planet overrun by Decepticons that had long been thought dead. They fought their way through the 'Cons and reclaimed Necroworld, but only after most of the Autobots that had been present were dead. Cerebros then attempted to free Tailgate from the isolation chamber he had been trapped in, only to find that the Mini-Bot was gone. Sardines

Having returned to Luna 1, Cerebros was washing their Titan-base's t-cogs when Prowl returned and announced he was staying there for a brief while. Fortress Maximus told Cerebros and the others he was grateful for their company now that most of the Roboids had departed after having been cured. Last Light

After receiving a bizarre message from Rodimus, Fortress Maximus had Luna 1 enter the Warren, through which Cerebros and the others stumbled into a battle against a giant Primus avatar controlled by the Functionist Council. After crashing Luna 1 into the back of the avatar's head and forcing it to assume planet mode, Cerebros and the others looked on from above as Rodimus' group managed to end the threat, which also had the side-effect of re-igniting Luna 1's dormant hot spot. A Spark Among Embers

Titans Return marketing material

The legendary Fortress Maximus, accompanied by Cerebros and Emissary, had slumbered underneath Cybertron until the battle for the Titan Masters roused him from his slumber. They awoke just in time to witness Soundwave's attack on Cybertron, frightening the Decepticon communications officer something fierce. Titans Return: The Power of the Titan Masters

Toys

The Transformers

This little gun couldn't hurt anyone! I'm cool with it.

• Fortress Maximus (Headmaster Base, 1987)
  • Japanese ID number: C-114
  • Accessories: Mini-Laser Rifle

• Known designers: Kōjin Ōno (TakaraTomy)

An accessory to Fortress Maximus, Cerebros is a large Headmaster unit whose head is formed by the Spike toy. In turn, Cerebros transforms into the head of Fortress Maximus but does not actually need Spike to do so. Cerebros can also take the shape of a "communications room" when Maximus is in city mode.

The Japanese release of the toy also included a sword accessory for Cerebros (a.k.a "Fortress").

This mold was also used to make Super-God Masterforce Grand, Car Robots Brave, and Robotmasters Zebres.

• More information on Cerebros at TFU.info

Titans Return

Oh god, you made me look like my "The Rebirth" pacifist self while also giving me a much larger weapon! Why would you DO this?!?!

• Emissary & Cerebros & Fortress Maximus (Titan Class, 2016/2024)

• Known designers: John Warden (Hasbro), Shogo Hasui (TakaraTomy), Marcelo Matere (packaging artist)

Only available with his partners (both large and small), Cerebros once again forms the head of Fortress Maximus in the Titans Return subline of Generations. He retains the double Headmaster gimmick of the original by having a small robot, Emissary, form his head. Cerebros is based entirely on his US cartoon model, complete with the chest details and mouthplate, and the black-and-silver coloration to match. Titans Return Cerebros has electronic lights and sounds, and stores the two AAA batteries in his chest which power the rest of Fortress Maximus's electronic features. While flipping Fortress Maximus's face cover, Cerebros activates a transformation sound, and then while in robot mode, pressing down on Cerebros's head, first a robotic "CEREBROS" is uttered, and thereafter a sci-fi-y laser noise. A red light on his chest flashes while sounds are played.

Cerebros, as a part of Fortress Maximus's base mode, technically is a component of the Cybertron City combination, as depicted on the box and instructions.

Fortress Maximus was reissued in February 2024. This mold, with the Emissary mold from the Convention Edition below, was also used to make Legends Fortress and into Transformers & Downtown No Gaki No Tsukai Ya Arahende! Crossover Donarimasu and Guchirimasu.

• More information on Titans Return Cerebros at TFU.info

Well now I don't even know WHO I am!

• Fortress Maximus Convention Edition (Titan Class, 2016)

Available as an exclusive for San Diego Comic-Con 2016, the Cerebros included with Fortress Maximus Convention Edition is a slight repaint of the above toy featuring additional paint details. He also has a different head, owing to this version of Emissary being retooled to resemble the appearance of Fortress in The Headmasters.

Notes

So Fortress Maximus is a robot that turns into a base whose head is a robot who turns into a base. Inception Maximus.

• In "The Rebirth, Part 3", Cerebros is depicted as having an alternate mode. Curiously, it is in fact Fortress Maximus's city mode. Whether Spike based the larger Transformer's design on Cerebros, if it was a side effect of the binary bonding process, or yet another mistake from the wonderful world of AKOM is unknown.
• Cerebros's character model's head bears more resemblance to Cog's, as opposed to the Cerebros toy's, which is functionally a smaller version of Fortress Maximus's head.
• As you'll probably figure from its absence on this page, Cerebros doesn't really "exist" in the Japanese Headmasters cartoon. There, as with all Headmasters, Fortress Maximus's head is not a separate character, but actually the same guy as Maximus himself, going by the diminutive name of "Fortress". To keep the characters distinct, in the way we normally do here at TFWiki, we've listed all of the exploits of "Fortress" on Fortress Maximus's page, and refer to him with that name, which was also used by Metrodome and Madman Entertainment on their DVD releases of the series. The reason we point this out is because the subtitles for the Shout! Factory DVD release, which used naming conventions established by Hasbro,^[1] refer to the character as "Cerebros". That has made our position (which was in place for some years before Shout! Factory's DVD came out) seem a bit confusing, but it's the most straightforward way of distinguishing the characters.
• Like other cameo Kreons before him, Cerebros is made up from existing Kre-O parts, in this case the famously generic Hound helmet.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Cerebros (セレブロス Sereburosu)
• Hungarian: Cerebro
• Russian: Celebros (Целеброс)

References