Last Thursday I checked out the long awaited official Hasbro release of Arcee, but she didn’t come alone. Nope, her gal pal Chromia arrived with her. I was originally going to pass on Chromia, as I wasn’t all that smitten with the official Hasbro pics that I saw on the InterTubes, but it was actually easier (and almost cheaper) for me to get these ladies as a set so I figured I might as well add the pair of them to my shelf. She’s apparently built off a heavily remolded version of TF:Prime Arcee, which is one of the few figures in that line I don’t actually own, so she’s actually going to be one hundred percent new to me.

Chromia comes in her robot mode in the usual delightfully G1-inspired IDW Comic Pack. I probably don’t have to go on any more about how much I love these things. Seriously, Hasbro, if you have any love for your fans you won’t keep these comic packs out of circulation for long. Bring them back as soon as you can!

Starting out with Chromia’s alt mode, she spends her time cruising the backstreets of Cybertron as a futuristic looking motorcycle. The analogies to a Tron Lightcycle have been done to death and for good reason because they are certainly warranted. It’s a great looking alt mode and I particularly like the translucent plastic pieces used to mount the front and back wheels. It almost creates the effect that they’re floating. I also dig the fact that while she’s got a clear “cockpit” it’s clearly not designed for an occupant, which reinforces that this is indeed a Cybertronian mode. The bike stays together quite well and it even has a little kick stand to allow it to be displayed in this mode without toppling over. I love the coloring here, but since it’s practically the same as in her robot mode, I’ll hold my gushing until then.

You also can attach Chromia’s gun to one of the sockets just behind the front wheel. It’s probably not the best looking or most strategic place for a gun, but it works OK for me.

In robot mode, Chromia is drop dead gorgeous. There’s a great blending of feminine form and great Japanese robot design. In fact, let me just get the only thing I don’t like here out of the way and that’s the back kibble. It’s not as bulky as Arcee’s, but it does look more awkward and that’s probably because it doesn’t form anything looking like a conventional backpack. I can get behind the two pieces angled over her shoulders, as I’d like to think those are thrusters for a jetpack, but the one wheel just hanging off of her puts me off. Fortunately everything else about this figure is just so beautiful that I can easily turn a blind eye to her backpack-kibbly-blemish. The bulkier aspects to her arms and lower legs feature some striking contours and they gel really nicely with the more womanly nature of her torso and thighs. She kind of reminds me of those Gundam Girl figures that I have sitting around waiting to be featured here.

The head sculpt is also great and very evocative of the G1 Autobot Femmebot aesthetic from the Sunbow cartoon. I like the complex nature of her “helmet” and while the amber light-piping in the eyes isn’t terribly pronounced, it looks mighty nice when I can get it to hit that sweet spot.

And then there’s the deco! Chromia is a mix of blue, powder blue, and white with a little red and black thrown in. She really reminds me of a female Blurr. The colors here are simply exquisite and the paint job is phenomenal. It’s not often these days that I can gush about the coloring on a Hasbro Transformer, but Chromia definitely deserves props for being one of the most strikingly colored Hasbro bots that I’ve seen in quite a while.

Chomia is slightly more articulated than her Autobot sister. She has ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, thighs, and neck. Her knees are hinged and she also has swivels up near the hips.

If there’s one place that Chromia is lacking its in the accessories. Then again she does come with a gun and that’s about what we usually get with our Deluxe Transformers. I think the only reason it seems conspicuous here is because Arcee came with so many weapons. There also isn’t as much interaction between accessories and figure, although Chromia’s one gun can clip to her lower legs for storage. The option is there, but I don’t fancy the way it looks too much.

Needless to say, Chromia is a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t terribly keen to get her, I wasn’t expecting much from her, and yet she really is a gorgeous figure and lots of fun to play with. If Hasbro could have found a way to make that back kibble work a little better for her, that could have helped. Surely, they could have turned that windshield into a shield or something? Ah, but why focus on one little flaw when the rest of the figure is so nearly perfect? I’m very glad I got her and I do hope that Hasbro takes a stab at delivering some more femmebots in the future because they certainly have a knack for it. What’s that? What about Windblade? Yeah, they can’t all be winners and I’ll get to her eventually.