Transformers: SIEGE Deluxe Autobot Chromia Video Review!

Wolfman Jake wrote:It seems like the Transformer: SIEGE line has just barely gotten the entirety of Wave 1 into brick and mortar stores in the United States, and already, we have some exciting stuff to show you for Wave 2, fellow Seibertronians! YouTuber TonTon has just published a video on his channel of the upcoming Transformers: SIEGE Wave 2 Deluxe Chromia! As usual, TonTon gives us a good look at the conversion of Chromia from Cybertronian car to robot and back again, giving us a good look at the detailing sculpted into this figure. Chromia may share some engineering inspiration with her forbearers in the Power of the Primes line, Moonracer and Novastar, and the upcoming Greenlight (and maybe Lancer too?), but there are some key differences with her transformation that set her apart form her teammates. As such, we know for absolute certain that Chromia has no Combiner Wars or Power of the Primes combiner compatibility. TonTon also gives us some size comparisons with other figures from various lines in both robot mode and vehicle mode to give you a good sense of scale. The video is narrated in English by a computer generated voice. Check it out below.

What do you think of this latest figure of Chromia? Will she be worth adding to your collections, or are you content with some previous releases of this character? Tell us what you think in the comments below, and keep tuned to Seibertron.com for the latest news on all things Transformers!

Man, I was honestly worried about Chromia. She didn't exactly look great in renders or in her product shots, but she sure looks great. Redesigned backpack and shin kibble. Yeah, to some this will still be inferior to T30 Chromia, but this is a pretty good alternative.

And despite her lack of a combiner peg, a real complaint with many, she still ends up being interesting. Her weapon is awesome. Seperating for a vehicle turret and back exaust, then combining for her robot mode to be a much better firearm.

But... does this mean Wave 2 is already out in the wild in sparce quantities? I doubt it but... who knows?

I was wondering how this OP mold might be used again. With any type of retooling the possibilities are definitely out there...how bout another Shattered Glass OP?

So they get rid of the combiner kibble but they still found a way for her to have a giant backpack!? All that retooling and she still has visible fists hanging from the back of her vehicle mode!? This was the perfect opportunity to fix some of the biggest complaints about that mould and yet they still struggle. I like that the feet look more like feet (because they’re no longer part of the windshield) and the new gun looks fab, but overall I’m a bit disappointed.

carytheone wrote:

Emerje wrote:

RodimusConvoy13 wrote:He's got headlights on top and on the front of his cab, so what are those circular bits on the lower corner of the cab? They kinda look like gatling guns.

I hadn't noticed these weren't lights until I had him in hand. They definitely look like guns to me.

Emerje

Well there is only one logical conclusion then!



The way his legs are articulated makes him almost infinitely posable. This is the figure (line) that just keeps on giving.

'MERICA
um...
CYBERTRON
F#$% YA!!

hmmm...
SKYTREAD
the gun mount in tank mode is too tight and aims down.
or did i do something wrong?

I finally opened both Prime and Megatron, and I have to agree with you guys on Prime being very posable. I was surprised how stable and solid he is. I wonder if the Magnus cab and Shockwave are the same way. I like Megatron as well, even if he's thicker and less posable. If his helmet was black, as in the comics, he would be near perfect in robot mode. I think the sword is too big for him, I'm considering giving it to another Megatron in my collection. Overall, I'm glad I got these, considering that my initial reaction was to pass on both due to the less than impressive vehicle modes.

It'd be sweet if magnus and the upcoming leader prime could wear each others armor (save cybertron prime wearing magnus' chest/head armor, that'd be weird), it's something I'm really hoping for

Nemesis Maximo wrote:How is Siege the perfect platform to do Trainbots? Jon Warden is hard pressed to do a reference to anything that isn’t super Geewun; we’re all super excited at the mere possibility that a future Leader Class Optimus Prime will be styled after Galaxy Convoy, and that’s a definite maybe. But you expect the TF Design Team to do Trainbots?

Reintroduce figures that never had one, with a Cybertronian altmode. Plus, just from the Bots mentioned there is one Triple Changer and Five Gestalts. The latter would really interest the Design Team, given none of the Gestalts have had modernisation since a minor retool in 2003 with Rail Racer, 2001 with JRX and 1987 with Raiden.

What can't they do with these figures? Certainly a bit more interesting than another naff car or truck.

Definitely buying her. Just not sure if I'll repurpose this one or the T30 Chromia as Velocity. Not a fan of the Fembot combiner mode so this chromia wont be missing anything in my collection.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Nemesis Maximo wrote:How is Siege the perfect platform to do Trainbots? Jon Warden is hard pressed to do a reference to anything that isn’t super Geewun; we’re all super excited at the mere possibility that a future Leader Class Optimus Prime will be styled after Galaxy Convoy, and that’s a definite maybe. But you expect the TF Design Team to do Trainbots?

Reintroduce figures that never had one, with a Cybertronian altmode. Plus, just from the Bots mentioned there is one Triple Changer and Five Gestalts. The latter would really interest the Design Team, given none of the Gestalts have had modernisation since a minor retool in 2003 with Rail Racer, 2001 with JRX and 1987 with Raiden.

What can't they do with these figures? Certainly a bit more interesting than another naff car or truck.

Trains would be pretty cool. They never really translated to the American market since rail transportation just isn't a big thing here like it is elsewhere, but Astrotrain was never limited to riding the rails even in train mode, so I think a train-based team would be interesting.

Stripping Chromia of a combiner mode has unfortunately dropped her into the "What's the point?" category, for me anyway. She looks like a limb-bot but isn't? Why? There's already 2 or 3 Torso-bots out there without enough team members to fill out a complete gestalt, so why would you remove the peg from a limb and drop it on the market in a line that has no combiners in it? Re-tool her from something else or add a possible weapon alt-mode for Orthia to carry like Powerglide has in Combiner Wars. This just feels like a waste of a character and an opportunity.

A Chromia that uses the Moonracer mold, but has NO combiner limb capability? That's like being served a pizza without any cheese or toppings. Pass.

Z3ROhour wrote:hmmm...
SKYTREAD
the gun mount in tank mode is too tight and aims down.
or did i do something wrong?

Take any of the Pretender Prime Master figures (that become guns) and plug it into the hole for the central tank cannon. Not only will they fit perfectly, but the rotating peg on the pretender armor means you can tilt the cannon up and down! Pure win...

DeathReviews wrote:A Chromia that uses the Moonracer mold, but has NO combiner limb capability? That's like being served a pizza without any cheese or toppings. Pass.

It doesn’t. It’s a new mold that uses the same transformation.

Transformers fan who don’t look at figures closely or check out the information on the figures and just look at pictures and make assumptions without all the info.

That’s like being served a pizza without any cheese or toppings

It's not a fully new mold from what people have determined; it's got a tiny handful of recycled parts similar to PotP Jazz recycling a few of Drag Strip's parts.

Regardless, the backpack isn't due to the combiner limb nature of the Moonracer mold's engineering. The backpack is due to the fact that Floron the Moron Dery gave the Female Autobots curvy robot modes and angular vehicle modes and the designers are trying to accommodate both.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:It's not a fully new mold from what people have determined; it's got a tiny handful of recycled parts similar to PotP Jazz recycling a few of Drag Strip's parts.

Regardless, the backpack isn't due to the combiner limb nature of the Moonracer mold's engineering. The backpack is due to the fact that Floron the Moron Dery gave the Female Autobots curvy robot modes and angular vehicle modes and the designers are trying to accommodate both.

In fairness to Floro, given that Chromia wasn't based on an existing toy and was never intended to have one, I imagine he was told to basically make something up (with a rough outline from the higher ups) with Chromia being the result. After all, nobody expected that over 30 years onwards people would be expecting fully articulated transforming figures of characters that only appeared in a few episodes.

Personally I'd rather have a slightly curvier/sleeker alt mode and preferably an original transformation rather than being a recycle of Moonracer's engineering, as quite frankly G1 toon Chromia's alt mode was not exactly iconic, whilst her robot mode was actually pretty cool. That said, Chromia looks better than I expected, but I kinda wish we'd gotten somebody else as the "starter" fembot- if they had to do a Moonracer retool/reshell/engineering recylce/whatever it is, Arcee might have made more sense as she at least has a backpack in her character model (also the only other Generations toys of her are the T30/Legends mold, which is hard to find now, and the exclusive TR figure which is an exclusive and...doesn't look very good...).

Z3ROhour wrote:hmmm...
SKYTREAD
the gun mount in tank mode is too tight and aims down.
or did i do something wrong?

Its a problem everyone had, you have to cut off two small parts for it to work well. It is explained vhere:
http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/w ... t-16296545

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Nemesis Maximo wrote:How is Siege the perfect platform to do Trainbots? Jon Warden is hard pressed to do a reference to anything that isn’t super Geewun; we’re all super excited at the mere possibility that a future Leader Class Optimus Prime will be styled after Galaxy Convoy, and that’s a definite maybe. But you expect the TF Design Team to do Trainbots?

Reintroduce figures that never had one, with a Cybertronian altmode. Plus, just from the Bots mentioned there is one Triple Changer and Five Gestalts. The latter would really interest the Design Team, given none of the Gestalts have had modernisation since a minor retool in 2003 with Rail Racer, 2001 with JRX and 1987 with Raiden.

What can't they do with these figures? Certainly a bit more interesting than another naff car or truck.

I’m not saying it wouldn’t be cool, I’m saying that the current TF design team, led by ‘Geewun Jon’ Warden is about as likely to start making new toys of obscure (even by obscure standards) characters as Santa Claus is to start delivering presents in August.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Nemesis Maximo wrote:How is Siege the perfect platform to do Trainbots? Jon Warden is hard pressed to do a reference to anything that isn’t super Geewun; we’re all super excited at the mere possibility that a future Leader Class Optimus Prime will be styled after Galaxy Convoy, and that’s a definite maybe. But you expect the TF Design Team to do Trainbots?

Reintroduce figures that never had one, with a Cybertronian altmode. Plus, just from the Bots mentioned there is one Triple Changer and Five Gestalts. The latter would really interest the Design Team, given none of the Gestalts have had modernisation since a minor retool in 2003 with Rail Racer, 2001 with JRX and 1987 with Raiden.

What can't they do with these figures? Certainly a bit more interesting than another naff car or truck.

I’m not saying it wouldn’t be cool, I’m saying that the current TF design team, led by ‘Geewun Jon’ Warden is about as likely to start making new toys of obscure (even by obscure standards) characters as Santa Claus is to start delivering presents in August.

Are you forgetting all the obscure characters we've gotten in the past few years? Skylynx, Sky Shadow, two different Metalhawks, all the fem bots, punch/Counterpunch, both duocons and on and on. There's no real reason to think that train bots are any more obscure than anything we've gotten recently. Hell we even got (a version of) Liokaiser. Nothing is off the table.

Well, I don't know that you can call Astrotrain or Team Bullet Train "obscure" Although honestly, I think Team Bullet Train would be best served by a reissue - they're modern-design toys already and their molds are still viable. The RiD characters that most need remaking are in fact cars - the Autobot Brothers' molds have been confirmed as too degraded, and Prowl and X-Brawn's designs had some ill-advised use of clear plastic (especially Prowl).

I would like to see modernized versions of the Trainbots even if it seems unlikely with Warden's biases, since as Diaclone-originating bricks they need it the most. Even if they were going to be made, I doubt it would be during SIEGE simply because there's no room left in the line for them

There might possibly be room for Astrotrain, but then again maybe not. I wouldn't mind getting a new toy of him at some point in the WFC trilogy - if and only if it was Earth-modes. For one thing, we already got a Cybertronian mode Astrotrain during Titans Return. For another, steam locomotives are super awesome.

steals_your_goats wrote:Are you forgetting all the obscure characters we've gotten in the past few years? Skylynx, Sky Shadow, two different Metalhawks, all the fem bots, punch/Counterpunch, both duocons and on and on. There's no real reason to think that train bots are any more obscure than anything we've gotten recently. Hell we even got (a version of) Liokaiser. Nothing is off the table.

....Are you entirely clear on the meaning of the word "obscure"?
Sky Lynx and Punch/Counterpunch aren't obscure. Sky Lynx featured heavily in Season 3 of the G1 cartoon and was featured in the Marvel, Dreamwave, and IDW comics as well. Punch/Counterpunch was prominent in The Rebirth. Black Shadow was brought into western fans' awareness more prominently by the IDW comics. Metalhawk was similarly lifted by both Wings of Honor and the IDW comics.
The Duocons are a bit more obscure, but were still known to western fans from the Marvel comics, the IDW comics, and their original toy commercial.

Raiden on the other hand has never shown up in a western continuity, although he's at least well known to Japanophile G1 fans.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Well, I don't know that you can call Astrotrain or Team Bullet Train "obscure" Although honestly, I think Team Bullet Train would be best served by a reissue - they're modern-design toys already and their molds are still viable. The RiD characters that most need remaking are in fact cars - the Autobot Brothers' molds have been confirmed as too degraded, and Prowl and X-Brawn's designs had some ill-advised use of clear plastic (especially Prowl).

I would like to see modernized versions of the Trainbots even if it seems unlikely with Warden's biases, since as Diaclone-originating bricks they need it the most. Even if they were going to be made, I doubt it would be during SIEGE simply because there's no room left in the line for them

There might possibly be room for Astrotrain, but then again maybe not. I wouldn't mind getting a new toy of him at some point in the WFC trilogy - if and only if it was Earth-modes. For one thing, we already got a Cybertronian mode Astrotrain during Titans Return. For another, steam locomotives are super awesome.

steals_your_goats wrote:Are you forgetting all the obscure characters we've gotten in the past few years? Skylynx, Sky Shadow, two different Metalhawks, all the fem bots, punch/Counterpunch, both duocons and on and on. There's no real reason to think that train bots are any more obscure than anything we've gotten recently. Hell we even got (a version of) Liokaiser. Nothing is off the table.

....Are you entirely clear on the meaning of the word "obscure"?
Sky Lynx and Punch/Counterpunch aren't obscure. Sky Lynx featured heavily in Season 3 of the G1 cartoon and was featured in the Marvel, Dreamwave, and IDW comics as well. Punch/Counterpunch was prominent in The Rebirth. Black Shadow was brought into western fans' awareness more prominently by the IDW comics. Metalhawk was similarly lifted by both Wings of Honor and the IDW comics.
The Duocons are a bit more obscure, but were still known to western fans from the Marvel comics, the IDW comics, and their original toy commercial.

Raiden on the other hand has never shown up in a western continuity, although he's at least well known to Japanophile G1 fans.

One man’s obscure Transformer is another man’s favourite. We don’t all consume the Transformers franchise in the same way (thankfully). Some of us are more into the Japanese G1 shows (where Raiden featured prominently) than they are into the UK comics (which is the only place the Duocons got any sort of characterisation). Many fans (going by the readership numbers) don’t read the IDW comics. There are undoubtedly Transformers out there which are more familiar to me than they are to you, and vice versa. Personally, I would say that Raiden is less obscure than, say, the Micromaster Autobot Battle Patrol, but then that’s only my opinion. Hell, if nobodies like Fearswoop, Crosscut and Acidstorm can get homages at retail, then all bets are off.

Regardless, it’s dangerous to lecture people on which bots ‘ought’ to be more or less well known, because we’re not all the same. No-one here is the gatekeeper or arbiter of what we should or shouldn’t know as fans. If someone wants to argue that Metalhawk is less well known than Raiden, let’s hear them out and consider their perspective, rather than hit them with a diatribe.

Because that’s why I read these forums, to listen to and consider the views of fellow fans.

Peace and love.