Just for the heck of it, I went into Walgreens today and saw Chromedome. This was the 1 headmaster I wanted as a kid, and have been waiting for this release quite patiently.
And here he was. He was $20, so I got him. I'll wait until Target or Wally World to get his case mates.

Out of the package, he feels... kinda light weight. But I guess he's solid- more solid than Hardhead ( a figure I was not very impressed with).

Overall, not a bad sculpt. Pretty decent detailing in some rather basic- yet effective- engineering. The paint, where applied, looks rather nice.

1) Painted chest, a spot of silver on his ab, painted knees, face, blue headlights, some red and silver on the hood, roof, and side windows.
2) The head plugs in nice and smooth- with no floppy wiggle. Nicely molded and detailed. They got that one good. Plus, if you look at photo 10 you can see that the headlooks like it can stay on. But it doesn't. The chest flips up, so the head will be in the way. The photo is the way it is because I was trying it. It don't work. Photos 2 & 7 have good views of the head.
3) Each shoulder is on a ball joint. Photos 2 & 7 might convey that.
4) The elbows are like the Comber Wars Prowl (or any other car) elbows. See photo 3.
5) The wrists fold into the fore arms. No wrist swivel tho. See photo 3.
6) There is a waist swivel. It's actually a part of the transformation.
7) Hips are on typical ball joints with swivels just below- like your standard upper leg / hip swivel.
8) Knee joint.
9) His legs open up to collapse / fold up: think like the CW Prowl (car) legs. Or, a better example would be TR Blurr's lower legs. See photos 4, 8 & 9.
10) His feet... well, if ay part of this figure sucks it's his feet. They are thin, cheap, & hollow (photo 4) , and my Chromedome's right foot just pops right off when you roll it back to transform into a car. See photo 10. It's very lazy engineering yielding a very cheap result. See photo 9 for mid transformation.
11) The car's rear wheels are on the legs, and what surprises me about them is that they are a dark clear plastic, and not just straight black plastic. See photos 5 & 8.
12) On the backs of the legs are the windshield and car roof- split apart and each half on each leg. Now, as lazy as I thought the feet were, I think this roof thing was clever.
See photo 5 below, and photo 1 in my next post.
13) The hood of the car is folded up on the back of the bot, with dark clear front wheels. See photo 6.


The bot figure stands there nicely, about a pose-able as a CW car (altho, creativity may vary). Fot the most part the car mode tabs together really good- with the exception of the legs. Again, those dismal feet kinda interfere. I call 'design flaw' on the feet.

On the overall, I'm reluctant to say this is a great figure, but I don't mind saying that he is pretty darned not too bad. Quite a fun little guy if I might add. No buyers remorse here.

 

Nice review!

I'm going to pick him up but I just wish he had a more G1 head and wasn't so IDW influenced. Otherwise he looks great and knowing he uses a lot of tooling from CW Dead End, making me love him even more!

I like the Takara version but I don't want to pay that price with the tight budget I have just for a head. So right now I'll wait for the Hasbro one to go up on Amazon or Hasbrotoyshop, none of the stores around me stock Titans Return.

 

I heard that you can mount his G1ish gun on one of the tabs on his altmode. I'd dig seeing how it looks and if I should be tracking down a second gun.

 

Finally got the pics fixed.
Now to add a couple more:

1) Note the roof canopy: it is halved, with each side on the leg. They flip up and can be tabbed together to form the roof. See photo 1.
2) Now, be warned: the instructions look like you mount the sled / titan gun thing that Stylor can sit in mounts the way I photographed it. See photo 2.
I have to declare nuh-uh. If you want the wheels to roll, plug it in the other way. See photo 3. Either way, looks stupid to me. I understand the play factor, but I'm just not a fan.
3) Photo 4 has Stylor in all his detailed, unpainted glory.
4) Photo 5 shows a group shot.
5) Last photo: The instructions. Try and fold them back up. 

 

Huh... just realized he's actually based off his body from Shadowplay, which is closer to the G1 aesthetic. HasTak's attempt to find a middleground between G1 and IDW, I guess. (Although most of his arc plays through in his later MTMTE body.)

Either way, definitely excited to get my hands on this guy, as well as the rest of wave 2. I really like how well his backback collapses compared to the CW Ferrari mold. Can we get a pic of his interior?

EDIT: Felt like posting a pic of the body he's based off.

 

I was very unsure if I'd get him, but then I noticed his face looks close enough to G1 'toon Brainstorm.

...just need a Brainstorm to faceswap with.

 

Sure seems that way, looking at his roof detailing and the holes on his gun.

 

I don't think he is. While his head is obviously IDW Chromedome, I think his body is just a case of both this and Shadowplay's designs being based on the G1 toy.

 

I dunno, looking at the chest, crotch, and shins, they look to be parroting the same details, even if the paint/color mapping is wrong.

 

Thanks for the review! Can't wait to add this guy to my Lost Light shelf. Rewind is ready and waiting!

 

Here:

 

I'm undecided on him. Even though it's a new mold, it is basically Dead end again in many ways. Which I already own. And I'm not that big a collector to get 2 so similar. Plus I just got back from Japan and picked up a few Older tf's I thought I'd never own.
I Love him in mtmte though, and want a Rewind too. So maaaaybe.

 

Just like with Whirl, I don't feel that these toys would do justice to Alex Milne's streamlined, contemporary designs for the Lost Light Autobots. Chromedome here doesn't have the wide and round shoulder tires and sassy legs (in the words of my sister) that are prominent in MTMTE. So, just like with Whirl, I'm gonna have to pass on this guy. I like the inspection you did with this review though. Have any more?

 

Can't wait to get this guy. He's the figure I'm looking forward to most from this wave, after Astrotrain anyway

 

Sigh.

Let's face it, I'm getting him. I have no love for the character, but I own Rewind, I accidentally got every Deluxe from wave 1, he looks pretty neat, and I desperately want a Headmaster car.

 

Outside of all the prowl talk even ignoring it he just doesn't have many features that make chromedome who he is, at least compared to his headmasters look. His big shoulders are absent, his sleeker legs gone because of the car bot design he's based on, usually a little off color placement is fine but with everything else it just adds to the wrongness, and I am not a fan at all of the idw face at all but even that at least looked like some kind of chromedome.

He's my favorite guy being the main character of headmasters and all I just wish he liked more like himself.

 

You know, for all the complaints I've heard about shared engineering with the Dead End design, I don't think I've actually seen a picture of the two of them side by side yet. Can anyone satiate that curiosity?

I can see where people would be bothered, but I only have three iterations of it in Dead End, Wildrider, and Streetwise, so I'm not as burnt out on it as others that have gone more completist on the line.

All in all, though, I think Chromedome looks great and I'll be eager to add him into the collection when the wave arrives here.

 

I know there is a pic somewhere that showed a half transformed Smokescreen next to Chromedome and its practically the same transformation.

And I'm still not burnt out on the mold yet and I've just about gone completist! You can tell someone like me loves the mold if they own Dead End, Wildrider, Streetwise, Prowl, Smokescreen, & TFCC Bluestreak. Plus I still need to get Dustup & Lightspeed. So I don't mind seeing this used again as Chromedome & Getaway, its a really great mold/transformation.

 

I own Deadend and the boy owns Prowl (meaning I don't really fiddle with him much) so I am definitely not burnt out on that transformation scheme.

 

Checked the stores in my area this morning and nothing.