Thrilling 30 Chromia

Robot Mode: In the past most Chromia figures have simply been blue repaints of whatever Arcee figure was currently available. This time, though, Chromia gets a mold all her own... well, kind of. Actually Generations Chromia is a rather extensive retool of Arcee from Transformers Prime. Most of the legs and a good portion of the torso are taken from Arcee, but different wheels, a new head, and some other assorted changes suffice to make this a semi-new figure, I guess.

Seeing as Prime Arcee was a pretty great figure, it comes as no surprise that Chromia does very well for herself, too. A very nicely articulated robot, a stable stance despite having high-heeled feet, and while the paint job as such is a tad bit boring, those are Chromia’s traditional colors, so it works. The only slight downside here is that Chromia carries a very big rucksack, composed of her vehicle mode’s front wheel and canopy. In the comics (see below) Chromia was able to detach the canopy and use it as a shield, but sadly that does not work for this figure here.

One little oddity: on the back of her package, as well as on the cover of the accompanying comic book, Chromia is shown with two handguns. The figure only comes with one handgun, though, and there is a tiny little sticker applied to the back of the packaging, telling everyone that the additional weapon is not included. No hint that this exact weapon actually comes with Generations Arcee. Did the photographer mess up here when taking the stock photos of the prototype? Did they think Arcee needed more weapons, given that she only has two swords and a big gun already? Whatever the case, it seems some last-minute changes were made here.

Oddities aside, Chromia looks very good in robot mode. Nothing particularly spectacular or outrageous here, but a good, solid robot mode. No complaints.

Alternate Mode: Like roughly 90 percent of all female Transformers ever made into toys, Chromia transforms into a motorcycle. In this case, though, it’s a futuristic kind with a canopy, somewhat reminiscent of G1 Afterburner. The motorcycle looks pretty cool, has a flip-out stand, and can be armed with Chromia’s handgun for vehicle mode firepower. Little else I can say here that the pics don’t tell better. A good, solid vehicle mode. Nothing more, nothing less.

Remarks: Chromia originally appeared in the second season of the G1 cartoon as a member of Elita-1’s Autobot resistance cell on Cybertron. Seeing as that was the 80s, she naturally had to be the girlfriend of one of the male Autobots, in her case Ironhide. She has since appeared in a number of G1-based comic books, most recently in the IDW comics where she is a member of Windblade’s group and serves as a body guard for the city-speaker.

When the Generations wave containing Arcee and Chromia was first announced, many people (including myself) figured that Chromia would simply be an Arcee repaint. Turns out she isn’t, at least not of that Arcee, and not simply a repaint, either. Of the three fembots released in the Thrilling 30 subline (Arcee and Windblade being the other two) I consider her the least interesting. That’s not to say she’s a bad figure in any way, but she’s... well, kind of boring. It doesn’t help, of course, that she’s the least-developed character of the three. Anyway, as a toy Chromia is good and there aren’t enough female Transformers anyway, so I recommend you buy her. Won’t call her a must-have, though.

Rating: B-