In the original G1 days, Chromia was a member of Elita-One’s crew who often fought alongside the Autobots. She also may or may not have been Ironhide’s “girlfriend,” whatever that means in terms of giant Cybertronian transforming robots. In fact, gender has often been a bit of a curiosity as far as the Transformers go. In the comics, Arcee’s being “female” was the result of experiments conducted on her, so it seemed that “female” was not a natural state for any Cybertronian. But then Windblade, Chromia, and Nautica showed up — they came from a colony that had evolved apart from Cybertron, so it would appear that gender is something that exists in the Transformers world. And I have to say, I think it’s pretty cool we’re seeing more female characters released in the Generations line. It adds a lot of diversity to a display comprised of shelves and shelves of very male-looking robots, and Chromia is certainly one of the cooler females to be introduced in the fiction.
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Chromis comes packed with a copy of Dark Cybertron #11, with a custom cover featuring artwork based on the character and figure. Now, this is something that’s grating on me — you’ll note in the character art for Chromia on the cover of the comic that she’s wielding two guns. Flip the packaging over and the figure is also seen wielding two guns, BUT — note the disclaimer hovering over the second gun. She doesn’t actually come with two guns, just the one, lone pistol. So she’s packing two weapons in all the marketing images, but only actually comes with one. C’mon, Hasbro…
Anyway. Her brief bio definitely gives the impression that she’s a warrior, which she is. What it doesn’t mention is that she’s also one of Windblade’s bodyguards, protecting her while she navigates the battlefield populated by the warring Cybertronians (I’ve yet to read the Windblade miniseries, but it’s next on my list).
Chromia is… blue. There’s a lot of blue here, but fortunately there are several shades at work here, which actually makes her a pretty interesting figure, visually speaking. She reminds me of Blurr in a lot of ways, but I’m betting that’s just because of the colors. Her colors also help in distracting from the fact that she’s a retooled Transformers Prime Arcee, but I think the changes made benefit the figure immensely. She’s much more natural-looking, and her overall design just feels “cleaner.”
Looking at her head-on, she looks good. Her proportions are definitely “female,” and there doesn’t appear to be much kibble. When viewed from any other angle, however, the kibble becomes much more evident. There are motorcycle bits hanging off her back and from the backs of her legs. None of it gets in the way too badly, though, so it should just take some creative posing to mitigate its presence.
Her head sculpt looks slightly less “robotic” than what we often see in Transformers figures, but the softer edges of her face serve to reinforce the idea that this is a “female” character.
Her posabillity is better than expected, though her kibble can get in the way some. Fortunately whatever gets in the way can be moved so as to allow for a better range of motion. This is particularly true of her hips, which can be easily obstructed by the bit of bike kibble that hangs off her lower back. Otherwise, she’s an easy and fun figure to pose.
Chromia comes in at about 5 inches in height, which keeps her in line with any other current Generations deluxe class figure. She looks good posed next to Windblade because their colors complement each other well. They’re almost opposites color-wise.
Her alt mode is one of the more unique designs from the Generations line. It’s some sort of futuristic motorcycle that instantly brings to mind Tron or something similar. I love this alt mode and can’t decide if I’m going to keep her in her ‘bot mode as I usually do with all my Transformers figures.
II think Chromia is a nice addition to the IDW Generations collection. She’s much more satisfying a figure than Windblade was, and she’s an easy one to pick up and just transform for kicks. Her plastic quality also feels better than Windblade’s, so she’s got that going for her as well.
Chromia, along with her wave-mate Arcee, is currently popping up at stores across the country. I happened to snag mine from Amazon, so that’s an option as well, providing she’s in stock, of course. She’s worth picking up for sure, so don’t hesitate to give her a shot if you see her.
love the colors on her. for she looks like a female version of blur with more strength and attitude