Minimus Ambus

Minimus Ambus is an Autobot from the 2005 IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

I'm here to subvert your Dreamwave-spawned expectations.

Minimus Ambus (aka Minimum Ambus), true to his name, is a tiny dude. This diminutive robot has always had big dreams, however, wishing to be the kind of venerated Autobot who holds the line against evil and serves as a soldier in the Great War. Despite his small stature, Minimus Ambus is a type of Point One Percenter. As a "load-bearer", he has a specially-empowered spark that allows his body to survive drastic physical augmentations.

He is the spark brother of Dominus Ambus, with whom he shares their House's distinctive facial insignia and presumably his birthplace, Ambustus Minor. While Minimus does love his brother, he's also always felt overshadowed by Dominus's long string of accomplishments. It probably doesn't help that Minimus is usually a stiff, laconic sort, not very good at expressing what feelings he has.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

Main article: Ultra Magnus (G1)/2005 IDW continuity

First appearance: Escalation #1 (as Ultra Magnus); More than Meets the Eye #17 (as Minimus Ambus)

I'm full of tinier mes!

Having devised the Magnus Armor as a way to keep the legend of the "immortal lawman" Ultra Magnus alive after his passing, Chief Justice Tyrest selected Minimus Ambus to be the latest Autobot to wear it and serve as the duly-appointed enforcer of the Tyrest Accord. As Magnus, Minimus had many adventures, incluing hunting Scorponok across the galaxy and helping co-ordinate the counterattack against the encroaching forces of the Dead Universe. Following the end of the war, he befriended the human Verity Carlo and travelled with her for a time, but when Magnus transported the Wreckers on their disastrous mission on Garrus-9, she left him to take part in the action.

Magnus rejoined the Autobots on Earth, causing ructions as he attempted to arrest Rodimus for working with Decepticons. After a failed assassination attempt on Bumblebee, Magnus took command of the Earthbound Autobots as they dealt with the return of Megatron. When Optimus Prime took most of the group back to Cybertron to handle the threat of Galvatron, Magnus remained on Earth with a few other law-enforcement Autobots to investigate Spike Witwicky and his secret dealings with Swindle.

When Cybertron was reborn and Rodimus declared his intentions to seek out the Knights of Cybertron, Magnus signed up for the mission, becoming second-in-command of the ship Lost Light. Unfortunately, an inability to deal with peacetime led him to suffer a nervous breakdown; he became increasingly obsessive-compulsive about ridiculously minor things, and made life hell for all aboard the ship. The existence of Minimus Ambus was revealed to all aboard the vessel when Magnus was critically injured by the rogue Decepticon Overlord, and the recall trigger built into the Magnus armor returned his body to Tyrest on Luna 1. Though healed by the lawmaker, he realized his former superior had gone insane, and helped thwart his plan to exterminate all Constructed Cold Cybertronians. His identity now exposed to his shipmates, Minimus grappled with the fact that he felt they had lost respect for him, but with a little help from Ratchet and new admirer Ten, he has come to accept his change in circumstance and now splits his time between wearing the Magnus Armor and publicly going without it. Regardless of who he might be underneath the armor, to his friends and crewmates, he is still, and has always been, the Ultra Magnus.

The Functionist Universe

Sharp-looking Ambus, but can he transform?

In an alternate timeline, Minimus never had to become Magnus and served as a soldier in the Primal Vanguard. After two million years offworld, keeping in touch with his brother Dominus by video, he finally returned home after a peace deal. He was sickened to see the oppression and casual genocide of Cybertron, and to see his brother had been made an empurata victim for speaking out, but was unsure about whether to become a full-on rebel. Minimus was not given the chance to decide as a few hours later, the Council began the "mass recall" of all memory sticks.

He drove through streets littered with Cybertronian corpses to warn Rewind and found Dominus's vocabulary had been deleted by the Functionists. Via Dominus's face, the Council taunted him that they'd replaced his optics with cameras on his flight home and he'd been unwittingly spying on his brother. The Custom-Made Now

Beast Wars: Uprising

Minimum Ambus was goalie for the Throttlebot Wanderers and a Cyberdroid from Master. He was saddened by the news that Cyberdroids could not play in the Maximal/Predacon Games, instead being restricted to the Micro Division. Broken Windshields

Ask Vector Prime

Various versions of Minimus Ambus across the multiverse were Nebulans, Cyberdroids, Mini-Cons, and Micromasters. One Cyberdroid known as Minimum Ambus underwent the Bravemaster process to binary bond with Ultra Magnus. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/07/15

Toys

Combiner Wars

Judge me by my size, do you?

• Ultra Magnus (Leader Class, 2015)

• Known designers: Marcelo Matere (packaging artist)

Minimus Ambus is a very small mini-figure that comes with Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus. Despite its tiny size, it is based on his "middle" augmentation armor rather than the tiny innermost robot. In robot mode, Minimus can "pilot" the Ultra Magnus robot; he even "wears" the Magnus head like a helmet. He cannot remain inside when the "Magnus Armor" is transformed, but he can transform into a Cybertronian hovercar which can then tab into a set of three grooves on the lower level of the Ultra Magnus trailer.

Andrew Griffith worked on the design of the figure and its "cockpit".^[1] Many Ultra Magnus toys feature Minimus toys with poor joint tolerances, causing his arms to pop off with minimal resistance.

He was redecoed into Legends Alpha Trion.

• More information on Combiner Wars Minimus Ambus at TFU.info

Platinum Edition

He was in the movie, he was just inside Ultra Magnus the whole time.

• Autobot Heroes (5-pack, 2016)
  • Accessories: Springer's weapons (dual missile launcher, two missiles, rotor blades/sword), Arcee's weapons (2 swords), Kup's "laser musket" rifle/exhaust pipe, Ultra Magnus' 2 guns, Blurr's weapons (Sniper rifle, left & right pistols), Minimus Ambus figure

Part of Hasbro's Platinum Edition offerings for 2016 intended to commemorate the 30th anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie, Minimus Ambus (who never appeared in the movie, due to not having been conceived as a character until 2013) is a minor redeco of his original version that was available with Combiner Wars Leader Class Ultra Magnus. Like the white parts of the redeco of Ultra Magnus he comes with, he is cast in white plastic that is now truly white, compared to the more creamy color of the original version. In addition, he features more light and dark green paint operations on his torso than the original release, both of which are considerably darker and more saturated than the original's lighter, "pearly" green paint operations.

Ultra Magnus and Minimus Ambus were released as part of 5-pack with Arcee, Autobot Springer, Sergeant Kup, and Blurr. The set also included a recreation of the theatrical poster for the 1986 movie. In the United States, this set was officially a Target exclusive, but was only available via the company's website, never sold in stores. It was also released in Singapore, although it's currently unknown whether it was exclusive to any particular stores there or not. In Canada, it was available via the Canadian Walmart website but never found in sold, whereas in the United Kingdom, it was available via the UK Toys"R"Us website but again never sold in stores. In Spain, it was available via the Spanish subsidiaries of both Amazon and Carrefour, as well as the department store chain El Corte Inglés, supposedly also only available online. In Germany, it was available via retailer Real and specialty store Rappelkiste Ahlen, also only available online.

Notes

• In More than Meets the Eye #35, Minimus is shown capable of transforming into a minesweeper while wearing his secondary augmentation layer. James Roberts states that Minimus's true alternate mode is a smaller version of his brother Dominus's turbofox form.^[2]
• In Latin, "minimus" means "the least, smallest" and "ambus" probably comes from the prefix "ambi-" and so would mean either "both" or "around", thus resulting in a name meaning something like "around the least" or "the smallest of both". Either way, his name contrasts starkly with "Ultra Magnus", which translates to "beyond great".

Foreign names

• Japanese: Minimus Ambus (ミニマス・アンバス Minimasu Anbasu)

References