TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

Alternate Mode:

Box Art:

Blackjack's review: Chromia

Name: Chromia
Other name: -how do you pronounce one-thirds of 'Arcee'?-
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Being the subject of debates
Accessories: Gun Stand

"Locked and loaded."

Chromia is one of the Arcee bikes. As of now I'm still confused whether they are three separate Transformers, or they are all Arcee. The toyline claims that they are three separate Autobots, though. Chromia is the blue motorcycle, and took her name from G1 cartoon Ironhide's girlfriend. G1 Chromia appeared in one episode of the season 2 cartoon, and never appeared again until a planned (and subsequently canceled) Dreamwave comic. Chromia had a Fun Publications repaint of Energon Arcee for a toy. Then, in 2009, ROTF Chromia was introduced.

With the new movie, Chromia is part of the three Arcee bikes. Both the comic adaptation and novelization confirms the three bikes as being a single entity (Arcee) with a tripartite mind (a la G1 Reflector, and to a lesser extent, Sky Lynx, Omega Supreme or the Duocons, to name a few.), but the toy bio thinks otherwise. Still, marketing each bike as a separate character does motivate collectors to buy them instead of naming them 'Arcee pt 1', 'Arcee pt 2' and 'Arcee pt 3'. While in the toy line the bikes are named Arcee, Chromia and Flareup, in reality, they are all Arcee, until some other fiction proves otherwise. In the movie, Chromia/Blue part of Arcee first appeared in the Shanghai scene alongside the purple and pink Arcee. They took part in the chase against Sideways after Skids and Mudflap fudged it, transforming into their unicycle modes and blasting the crap out of Sideways until Sideswipe arrived and sliced Sideways into two pieces. The Arcee bikes appeared again mostly in group scenes, and had few dialogue. Her big role is in the final battle, where the pink and purple bikes are seemingly blown up by a Bonecrusher doppelganger. the blue part of Arcee was not shown being destroyed, but whether the death of the other parts of her body would affect Arcee, or Chromia if the bike is a single mind now that her other parts have been destroyed, have not been revealed... yet.

Ah, identity crisis. You got to love 'em.

VEHICLE MODE

Chromia transforms into a predominantly blue motorcycle, based on the Suzuki B-King motorcycle. The secondary colour is black, while silver and gray adorns the details. Like all other Movie/ROTF molds, Chromia's amount of detailing gives her a very realistic look, although her front is a bit wide for my liking. Still, a respectable representation of her character model, unlike most of the recent motorcycles, which looks too cartoony for my tastes.

Four Cybertronian symbols adorn her body. Now, unlike Starscream's overzealous tattooing, Chromia's are more subtle and look more like a custom paint job than voodoo tribal markings—a gigantic symbol near the handlebars, a small one on either side, and one on the left side of the back part of the bike.

No robot mode kibble can be seen—mostly because there is none to be seen. The head, torso and right hand are tucked firmly within the cycle's body, while the rest of her robot mode body is made up of motorcycle kibble.

Chromia comes with an accessory — a gun stand. It can snap onto her afterburners to point forward, or onto her bottom to help her stand better. Chromia's guns look bad ass. Not as large as, say, Classics Jetfire's or Movie Ironhide's, but hey, they're guns! She also has a kickstand, which, unlike Movie Arcee's, is just about the right size for her to lean on. Coupled with the gun stand, she's very stable. Two rubber/soft plastic handlebars are adjustable.

She rolls around fine due to not having her wheels split into two (*coughs*KnockOut*coughs*Energon Arceee*coughs*). Not much you could do in cycle mode, but roll her around and imagine her to be swerving and stuff, but the gun stand is fun.

ROBOT MODE

Apparently Michael Bay likes Beast Machines. Or the Vehicon designs, more specifically. The Vehicons have the notoriety of having non-humanoid (and downright cool) body designs. The first movie's transformers are mostly humanoid. Perhaps some unconventional hands, beast modes, or wheels for legs, but mostly they are humanoid, barring Scorponok or the four-armed Frenzy and Dispensor. Now ROTF takes inhuman designs to the next level. First, we have the Scavenger/Demolishor character model. His body is basically two giant wheels, a head and hands. Epic cool. Rampage is either a centaur or a pogo stick with crab arms and whips. Ravage. The Marble-things. And the Arcee bikes. They take cues mainly from Beast Machines' Thrust, one of my all-time favourite designs (and, owing to the fact that he's Waspinator, one of my favourite characters. I love BM Thrust too).

Chromia's legs (and indeed, most of her lower body) are replaced with an entire wheel like an unicycle, and the front wheel hung on her back. Her left arm is a simply gigantic gun, looking like a shotgun or a big rifle. Her blue/black colour scheme translates nicely into her robot mode.

Also, owing to the fact that she has an inhuman body, her posability and alternate designs are limitless. The back-mounted wheel can point up or down. You can adjust the angling of her torso and the entire lower body section as you wish, to create slightly different Chromias. Well, not exactly limitless, but it's still nice to fiddle around with her.

The fun doesn't end there, folks. Recent toys never had big enough guns. Look at the Animated Autobots. And Universe deluxe toys. Pathetic dinky handguns. Not Chromia. Taking cues from her boyfriend partner Ironhide, she wields a gigantic missile launcher. Even her Mech Alive feature is located on the 'elbows'. Move the elbows, and the pieces move like some sort of piston. Chromia's Mech Alive gimmick is one of the better ones—simple, not obtrusive and doesn't feel forced. Also, the missile fires! A long distance too, I might add.

Overall, I like Chromia's overall impact. An inhuman body shape that translates nicely into the toy, yet not too unconventional like ROTF Arcee. The gun stand also could be held in her right hand, or attached to her unicycle wheel, to help her display better on the shelves. Now that's very thoughtful of Hasbro. Also, undocumented in her instructions, you can place the weapon stand backwards to support her, so from the front it seems that she's standing on one wheel. That's how I pose her in the shelf.

The biggest (and possibly only) gripe I have with this toy is that the two chest pieces don't latch to each other at all, and often separate during posing, but this is not such a major issue.

Nice poseability, nice transformation, big guns, a wicked robot mode, could things get better? Oh, yesss. If you go to her back (in robot mode; bottom in motorcycle mode), right where her kickstand is, you could lift out a little hinged piece. What's that for? Now we know Hasbro. They wouldn't put extra hinges in for poseability, so this additional, seemingly non-functional hinge must have some use. The answer? Combination is the most likely. Well, many early reports, and even the comics and novelizations, refer to the three Arcee bikes combining into one large Arcee bot. Hell, even concept arts of the combined Arcee had made it into this very site, thanks to Clay. Now while this feature is not featured in the movie (possibly due to budget or time restraints), concept arts have evidence of it. The toys may well have the combination gimmick, but nothing is certain until the purple and pink bikes are released, so stay tuned! One thing is for sure. If she does combine... well, let's say the Arcee trio would be much better toys than Supreme Class Devastator.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation: 6/10 Not too hard as long as you know what she's supposed to look like in the end.
Durability: 9/10 For a unicycle bot, she's pretty sturdy and steady too. Only problems you'll face are loose joints, if any.
Fun: 10/10 She's a unicycle-bot. With a big, honkin' gun. Go figure.
Price: 10/10 Because, like Soundwave, the shopkeeper mis-labelled her as a Scout class. Hahaha.
Overall: X/10 It depends how you like Bayformers, really. For me, I like robots with weird proportions and unusual features. Besides, I'm a Vehicon fan. For me, she's a solid 9/10, the one point cut off for her loose chest halves. She would easily score a full 10 if she does combine, though. However, if you don't enjoy Bayformers, or you hate Arcee, I reckon it's about 5/10, and 7/10 if she combines.