Here’s one I got mostly for the colors, because I love some Synthwave-type future aesthetics. But it being a figure of a good character doesn’t hurt, either.
One of the gals.
So, Chromia. She started out as a character with outsized importance in the franchise, as one of the few female Transformers present in the original cartoon. She, and a whole crew of ladies, appeared in a single episode of the 80s cartoon, “The Search for Alpha Trion,” as part of a resistance cell on Cybertron. She had no toys, save for a convention exclusive repaint, and only had little cameos for several decades, until IDW Comics got a hold of her, and gave her some real screentime (well, panel time).
The Cooler Chromia (well, except for that one thing. You know the thing).
As depicted in IDW’s post-2014 stories, Chromia was a tough-as-nails warrior-bodyguard, who came from the colony world of Caminus, and was Windblade’s sworn protector and close friend as she navigated the complicated political situation on postwar Cybertron. And then, when IDW rebooted the continuity, she was there from the jump, as a security chief on pre-war Cybertron. Both of these appearances came with new figures, in the Thrilling 30 and Siege toylines, respectively, and the Thrilling 30 one was decent, while the Siege one was, well, not great, as you can read in my review.
Just, a real mess.
This new Legacy version, meanwhile, is based on her last television appearance, in the Cyberverse animated series, which loosely adapted her initial IDW Comics role (came with Windblade from Caminus), with the big difference being that the war was still on. However, it’s really a case of the “Cyberverse Universe” part of the packaging being kind of a nameslap, because this version of Chromia is a retool of a whole different character, Animated Universe Prowl.
She was this guy, first.
But, as I’ll get into in my review, whether she did or didn’t look like the Lady from the Show was a little bit immaterial to me.
Robot Mode
The Bodyguard Ninja.
So, yes, this figure’s actually an Animated Universe Prowl with a new head, which means she doesn’t really resemble the Chromia of the Cyberverse TV show, or any other previous Chromia, really.
For reference, she’s supposed to look like this.
She’s got the wheels in her shins, her head sculpt’s kind of there, and that’s really it. But here’s the thing: I like this design anyway. It’s not always about screen-accuracy, it’s about vibes, and for a very long time, the ongoing Transformers Nostalgia Line that eventually became Legacy operated this way, instead of trying to look as much like a show or comic as possible. It’s a design that makes me nostalgic for a different era of Transformers.
In which I try to replicate a comic panel that isn’t just The Three Ladies Walking.
So, Chromia’s a slim, lithe robot, with some bulk on her forearms and lower legs, making her look fast and athletic, but with the force to hit hard. She’s got a fairly clean design, with the big exception being two panels of Motorcycle Exterior that fold upwards behind her head, and look like deliberately decorative fins.
“Wha’d you say? Was it about my fins?”
If you want, you can always fold them down into a sort of petticoat-type assembly, though I think they look better upwards.
Formalwear mode.
One thing I like about the design is the way her wheels form part of her lower legs, it makes her look more “high-tech” than a standard Transformer, if that makes sense. Also, in this era of figures having all kinds of odd scales and heights, I appreciate that she’s just a standard, no-frills Deluxe-sized gal, pretty much of standard height, back-fins aside.
“She’s right behind us, isn’t she?”
Uptop, her headsculpt is the one thing that’s got traditional Chromia hallmarks on it, including the round, winged helmet, that odd forehead projection she always has, and a portion of her helmet hat covers her nose in a way that reminds me of one of those Roman Soldier Helmets. It actually makes me think more of her pre-reboot IDW Comics design than anything else, which is what I’m basically repurposing her as.
The Overeager Guardian.
So, her colors. Like I said up top, these are what drew me to the figure more than anything else, because of how Synthwave-y they are. Chromia’s typically a few shades of blue, with some red bits. This version is a bit hue-shifted, though. There’s like three shades of blue on her, and a fourth shade, mostly on her limbs, that’s typically either light gray or blue, but on this release, is now a light purple. Plus, her brightest shade of blue is this light, neon color that almost glows, and pops against her darker shades. And speaking of that, most of the red accents on her are now translucent, on and around her chest, which pops even more. There’s a bit of painted red, and some silver for her face, and other areas.
If Prime Arcee had a more appropriate name, and slightly cooler colors.
Basically, there’s a *lot* of different colors on her, and they all make her look a bit different from the standard Chromia colors, a bit cooler. It’s like something out of Tron, or a Cyberpunk story in general, or anything that’s aiming for an 80’s technology look, and it really appeals to my sensibilities.
Mistress of Martial Arts.
For build quality, everything holds together solidly, with the big exception of her accessories, which I’ll get to further down. But the core body itself is fine, and she stands really well, which is critical when she’s got oversized wheel-shins like that. Her articulation is also really good, and this is where you can really spot that she began life as Animated Prowl, the Cyber-Ninja.
Leaping into action!
Basically, she’s incredibly bendy. Her feet are on ball joints that give them full motion, her mid-shin wheels are on a swivel that combines with her actual knee joint to give her extended leg motion, her wrists can dip, she’s got all the expected arm joints, and her neck’s on a ball joint (there’s a waist swivel in there, too). What makes it all come together is the fact that she can balance on her feet very well, plus something about her sculpt. It all combines with her articulation to make her the kind of bot that you naturally want to place in dynamic physical fighting poses.
Or Karate Kid stuff.
She’s a puncher and a kicker, a practitioner of martial arts. This might not seem Chromia-like at first, but that initial IDW Chromia was a physical fighter (Camians didn’t use guns), and a bodyguard, so the implied personality of this figure fits that version’s written personality pretty well.
This ain’t G1.
So! Onto her features and accessories, which are one area where I think they’re a little too Animated Prowl: She’s got a pair of Ninja Stars.
For all your long-range bodyguarding needs.
They’re cast in that bright, day-glow blue, and have a nifty-looking storage spot, on the sides of her leg wheels. And that’s where I tend to leave them, because I swear, they’re magnetically attracted to the floor. No less than five times this week, when they’re not stashed, they’ve gone spinning out into the abyss, and I’ve had to find them before my cats bat them into some unreachable corner. I don’t know what it is about them.
They’re supposed to go flying, but not like that.
One cool thing, though, is that they have an actual geared gimmick: Grab one of the blade-fins on the side, and they unfurl from hockey pucks into proper three-bladed throwing implements of doom. To be honest, though, I don’t think they unfurl quite enough for my taste, and I tend to force them out a couple clicks more against the gears, which probably isn’t good for them in the long run.
Nothing lasts forever, especially her offscreen opponent.
Her left hand, specifically, is sculpted with a smaller hand-holding gesture than usual, so you can get her to hang onto one by the blade, while her right hand’s got a more open sculpt, good for other accessories, but bad for hanging onto one of these.
For example.
I’ve been giving her Netflix Optimus Prime’s Eneraxe and Shieldron Battlemasters, because they suit IDW1 Chromia more than the Ninja stars, and she’s got a convenient 5-millimeter port on either forearm that the shield can clip onto, though its weight means it sometimes wriggles out of the socket.
For all your sparring-with-exposition needs!
She’s got a few more of them on her, too, including on her shoulders, one on her back, and one under each foot. However, the ports on her shoulders are kind of shallow, so it can be challenging to put weapons and whatnot there.
You can still do it, though!
Transformation
This one’s a real mind-bender for me, and I had to keep using the instructions and checking photos to figure it out. Basically, the upper torso goes sideways and makes the upper half of the bike, and then the legs form the lower half.
The halfway mark.
There’s some complicated inverting going on with the top half, and it always throws me. Not that it’s a bad transformation, or too difficult, it’s just tough to wrap my head around, especially figuring out how the legs are meant to be laid out.
Vehicle Mode
A reference photo for myself the next time I transform her.
At the end of it, you get a cool Retro Wave-looking high-tech motorcycle. It’s a nebulous enough design that the folded-up legs in the middle of the bike body can be passed off as Future Engine Details, too.
The Cooler Prime Arcee.
There’s a bit of that Transformers Animated-derived rounded smoothness to the rest of the bike’s proportions, but it only enhances the general vibe. One little bit of sculptwork I appreciate is that the back of her robot head copies a trick from Studio Series 86 Wreck-Gar, where she’s got little speedometers sculpted in.
You can literally see how fast she’s thinking.
Again, though, it’s the colors that really make this work for me. It’s the same set of them, but the way the bright blue is laid out on the wheels, and along the motorcycle’s body, it gives the impression of glowing “Tron lines,” which I really dig. Between that, the clear red on the windshield, and the rest of the deco, this is a handsome layout of colors.
Perfect for Cybertron.
It’s a shame I can’t really get anyone to ride the bike, though.
He’s getting ready to swing out of there.
Something about how low the handlebars are, and how high the seat is prevents any decently-scaled figure I’ve got from hopping on.
The Riker Maneuver won’t help him.
Oh, well.
Samus is the best at it, but can’t hold the handlebars.
She’s also got a kickstand that’s not as long as I’d like, she’s got to do a pretty deep, precarious lean to stay standing, and I’ve had to make micro-adjustments to the pile of foot and leg it’s attached to in order to get it low enough to keep her supported.
It’s tricky, but not impossible.
Beyond that, her wheels spin really nicely, and you can clip the ninja stars onto them for storage, as in robot mode, though I prefer leaving them off, so I can see the nice deco on those wheels. You’ve also got access to some of the 5-millimeter ports still, with two at the back of the bike serving as ideal weapon-mounting points, plus one more behind the windscreen.
“No guns? No, guns!”
Overall
I like this figure, but I understand that, conceptually, it’s probably a bit of a leap for some collectors. This is basically a straight headswap of an unrelated character, and she doesn’t really look like the specific Chromia she’s supposed to represent, or any specific Chromia, in general. But me, I like what they’re doing here. It reminds me of the state of the Ongoing Nostalgia Line from around 2006, to the end of the Prime Wars Trilogy, where it wasn’t usually about strict media accuracy, but vibes. In fact, I put her in the same box as Legacy Evolution Bludgeon, another example of this. It does read as Chromia, to me, specifically, the initial IDW Comics version, so I’ll pair her with my Windblade, especially since I just got done re-reading their original IDW miniseries. And beyond that, it’s a good figure. She’s got a good transformation and altmode, she’s really fun to put in fighting poses, and her ninja stars have a fun gimmick, even if they’re attracted to the ground. If media accuracy isn’t a priority for you, there’s a solid figure here, with a great colorscheme, and good vibes.
Cross-dimensional Overzealous Bodyguard Convention.
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