- "Hi-five, MAX!"
— Brains
MAX is the robotic assistant of Brains from the Thunderbirds Are Go! television series. Created by Brains, its name is an acronym for "Mechanical Assistant, eXperimental". MAX lives on Tracy Island and is usually tasked with assisting Brains with any projects he is working on, as well as performing maintenance on the Thunderbird craft. Occasionally, he is also involved with household chores and menial labor. Despite being a robot, Max is considered a member of the Tracy family, especially to Brains.
Design[]
MAX is an advanced artificial intelligence capable of replicating emotions. Curious and jolly, he is often seen around the living area with other members of the Tracy family when not having some more science-and-engineering-like task to attend to, at times even picking up skills he doesn't need to. He is very empathetic, and he always looks out for the residents of Tracy Island. In Breakdown, he saved a slice of birthday cake for Virgil when the rest of the family couldn't wait for his return to eat it, and he helped Grandma cook a good apple pie in Runaway. However, MAX's sensitivity makes him rather cowardly despite his capabilities, and whenever he is scared, he shakes rapidly. He is shown to be capable of love, showing to have a crush on Fritzy in Volcano, and playing music matching his moods like how it is often seen in romantic movies, albeit unintentionally.
MAX's body has four adaptable all-terrain mobility limbs, two utility arms, a communications array, an optical and thermal scanner, an autonomous power and control module, and a spherical storage pod. Outwardly, MAX resembles a spider, with his "abdomen" pod holding numerous gadgets and gizmos within to help around the Tracy villa, like assisting Brains with his experiments, helping Grandma cook, or even making a drink. MAX is also used as a test subject for Brains' experiments. MAX is not programmed for speech, communicating only by makes strange beeping noises that only Brains can understand. However, he is capable of listening to and understanding commands and requests.
MAX's CPU is not hardwired to his body. As such, while his personality is considered a member of the family, his body is considered to be just another tool, ready to be disposed without any hesitation when it outlived its usefulness or when the situation calls for it, as seen in Recharge where MAX's body is entirely destroyed, with only the CPU chip salvageable. While Scott and Virgil were visibly saddened thinking they lost MAX, Brains went on immediately to just assemble him another body. This unique feature allows him to easily interface with any piece of technology he can connect with, allowing him to assist on rescue missions the Thunderbird craft are on in one way or another.
Variations[]
When MAX and Thunderbird 3 were combined in Up from the Depths Part 2 and Crash Course, it was named Maximum MAX.
In Hyperspeed, a mini version of MAX named Mini-MAX appeared as a small sized version of MAX that could hover in mid-air. It could be stored in Scott's sash.
Rescue Missions[]
MAX is rarely used in rescue missions. Sometimes he would like to go but cannot for whatever reason, while other times he is just too scared.
His very first rescue mission was in Recharge, where he was upgraded to survive temperatures below -150°C. Brains created a special head visor that allowed him to talk to MAX and see whatever he sees in the Arctic Circle. Despite his body was destroyed in the mission, his CPU chip remained unscathed, allowing his knowledge, memories and personality to remain intact in his spare body.
His second rescue was in Up from the Depths Part 2, where Thunderbird 3 was configured to battle against the Mechanic and rescue Ned Tedford. MAX was combined with Thunderbird 3, and it was named 'Maximum MAX'.
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