On further fiddling with the figure, there are more things I like and don't like. Like: 1) I like that while the design is functionally the same, she is a slightly different mold with smaller proportions. It's nice to have her be just different enough from Moonracer/Novastar. The bulkier upper arms and different hinging on her shoulders (as opposed to the ball/socket on the PotP gives her a different look that helps set her apart. 2) hinged ankles, including side-to-side tilt are a godsend. The ability to adopt a slightly wider stance and ave her able ot still stand flat-footed helps a ton. 3)I like the modular gun design in theory. Being able to go from a pistol and grenades to a super long rifle with a suppressor type extension or having a scope on top is a cool bit of functional versatility 4) I like the narrower, angular canopy from her vehicle mode is a cool departure. 5) While I don't like the entire shell of her car mode just being pinned to her back like all the others, I do like that they have little tabs to stick the rear quarter-panels to the canopy 6) Somewhat like #2, I very much like that she doesn't have "windshield feet" anymore. Those caused some balancing issues in the PotP pair for me. Dislike 1) the "panties" piece is so dumb. I popped it off mine not in the midst of transformation, but in trying to see what kind of twist I could get on the hip joints to help with standing stability. It's nice to be able to just pop it back on without incident, but really, if you look at how Moonracer/Novastar are made, it was easily possible to give her a good waist/hip design that didn't require such a flimsy tacked-on extra bit. 2) As much as I like the modular gun, I wish it fit together better. The large square notches on the Grenade stick up funny when they're set as added gun barrel extensions. And the suppressor-like piece doesn't securely fit when it's attached as a scope. They could've made a better system for attaching those, and maybe made the grenade chunks also be able to work like a scope. Then you could have a full "sniper rifle" mode with one grenade/scope on top and the suppressor piece on the end. Maybe it would've also been nice to make those notches round so that they could be used like small leading handles so that she could hold the gun two-handed at full length 3) As I said before, I dislike that it's the same Cybertronian car-thing alt mode. Why not change things up a little and let one of the fembots have the open cargo bed like Firestar in the cartoon? Why not make one of them a motorcycle using the Wreck-Gar/Groove mold as a baseline? A little bit of differentiation would've been nice because even with the differences noted in like #1, you can still blatantly tell that it's the same backpacky car mode on all three figures 4) On Moonracer/Novastar the front wheel wells/quarter-panels are able to swing all the way around to overlap on the sides of the bots' legs. Chromia's don't set that far out to the side, so they're stuck butting up against her calves and the back of her knees. Standing up this is no big deal, but it makes it really difficult to try and adopt kneeling poses. 5) I don't like the big ugly seam on the fronts of her thighs. It almost looks like the two pieces that make up her thigh are separating on mine. 6) Mine has really loose hip sockets. If I splay her legs out too far or have her lean too much in one direction or the other, she has a tendency to just keep rotating her hips out until she can no longer stand under her own power. 7) after seeing this concept art from TFwiki: I'm super bummed that they didn't figure out a way to make her vehicle canopy detachable and functional as a riot shield. That with the combo of the grenades and modular pistol would've really sold the concept of her as the most direct combatant of Elita's team. Given that she retains the big forearm peg slots, it seems like it would've been an obvious way to attach it to her arm with a proper embedded peg inside the canopy. It also makes me wish they had found a way to put those skirt-like hip plates on the sides of her waist, as they might've helped with some of the joint issues I noted above. 8) Somewhat along the lines of above with the sniper rilfe gun idea, if they had fleshed that out better, am I the only one who thinks this would've been better off if they had switched her and Moonracer's places in the product lines? Make Chromia the bigger, bulkier PotP bot and make noted marksman Moonracer the smaller WFC release with the big-ass sniper rifle. 9) I know it's an easy fix with the right tools as demonstrated earlier in this thread, but I wish they had put lipstick on her face paint applications like they did for the PotP pair. The light color of her face and positively tiny mouth make it really hard to see that detail. Just a bit of blue on her mouth would've made her face design pop all the better. This review makes me seem like I'm really disappointed and I'm not. I just feel like this design has a lot going for it and a lot that it just missed the mark on.
I have Seige Chromia and have had her for a week now and she goes great with my collection. I just don't have Elita 1 yet but not sure i want that mold. I dunno i might snag her down the road to complete my fembots. I just really don't like her mold cause of the sloppiness of the way her over sized arms and legs look. Just my opinion in too 2cents but i dunno i might have to buy her to say i have a complete fembot collection.
For whatever it's worth, Elita better "fits" the weird proportions of her mold than Starscream does. The big forearms are the worst part of it because it makes it difficult for her to properly hold her pistols, but it's not super distracting when she's placed up against the car-mode fembot companions, and at least makes her suitably bigger and bulkier as the commander of the group. In general I don't like that mold at all and I can't wait to get my hands on a Seige Starscream so I can swap him in for PotP Starscream, but with a gun to my head I'd say that the Elita version is at least acceptable whereas the Starscream one is just disappointing.
I picked this figure up with Six Gun and Prowl. She may have been designed to transform in a similar fashion to Novastar and Moonracer but the mold itself is much different. it can hardly even be called a heavy retool. it's a different mold all around. (yes, I own all 3) she has her ups and downs. she's def NOT worth the 20 I paid. neither is Prowl or Sixgun for that matter. They are made from super thin plastics, very light and brittle feeling to me. Like the kind of plastics you'd find on KO's sold at an indoor Swapmart. (just my opinion of course) This wave so far is not that good compared to the 1st wave deluxes.
Yeah your right but shes the only figure i don't have yet in fembots. I know I'm not crazy about the mold but I'm going to have to buy it to have all the fembots ya know what i mean my friend. I'm kinda stuck in a way,... you either buy the mold and be completed on that. Then have a skip it sorta in a way and go well...... 1 day i will get it if they are practically giving them away. I just don't know what to do on that mold. I've just watched way to many horror stories on YouTube videos where that mold was a mess. Do you think i would be ok in buying it in your best advice.
I think you make a good point that especially at the Voyager price point it's a hard decision. Do you pay a fair bit of money for a figure you're not thrilled with? or do you wait and hold out that they might get discounted enough to make it worthwhile. Personally I haven't noticed any too-significant problems with the Elita I have. There's some sticker issues on mine's wings, but it the problems with the Starscream mold's jet mode have been fixed (the problems of fit anyway. There's not much to be done about the janky proportions and lazy way that parts of the arms/feet aren't disguised in the vehicle mode) I suppose it all comes down to whether or not you're willing to gamble on it being cheaper later on or how much you value having a full batch of fembots together. It's a tough balance because I wager it'll be a while before Elita gets another figure. It's honestly not all that different from what I'd say about Chromia in the end, though she's a bit cheaper than Elita is.
Does the car mode roll properly? I quite liked Moonracer but a big downer was the two random bits of plastic by the rear wheels that stopped them making contact with the ground on hard surfaces.
On a smooth surface? No, as the toy does not have sufficient mass to pull it down and grip with the wheels. On a textured surface? Yes. It has clearance underneath it, even taking into account the pegs on the knees.
I got Chromia today and I have to say... probably the worst deluxe of the last five years. Nothing original, they took a good mold and made it worse. Stupid backpack makes kibble skyrocket, and the head is simply terrible and devoid of any expression. The combining weapons seem designed for the Heimlich manoeuvre. They should have just repainted the Moonracer mold for the Selects line, as they did for Greenlight. Terrible, terrible deluxe.
So the crotch piece on mine has cracked twice now. I may just go with a bottomless Chromia instead of gluing it together again.
I wouldn't have gotten her at full price but they had 2x1 at the store today so I brought a Chromia home. She's OK, but I'm intrigued at the crotch piece and I've seen comments in the thread about it so I don't want to mess with it. It seems to be hinged to allow use of her secondary waist swivel (since the main one is used for transformation but it's fixed to her backpack), but it doesn't really move out of the way or affect much of anything. I wonder if they just scrapped the idea halfway through and left the piece there. The waist can still rotate a tiny bit though. Overall she's quite fun and I think she looks better than her PotP predecessors but, as I said I wouldn't recommend paying full price for her. edit: weirdly, it flips up as intended when the figure is in alt mode, but it's useless there.
She kinda grew on me, but adding the two similarly coloured targetmasters makes a huge difference I find. I took these pictures a while back, but it's fitting to add them on this thread.
