Wave 2 of the Titans Returns line wraps up the redesigned versions of the original 7 Headmasters from G1. Today’s review is for Titans Return Chromedome with Stylor. There haven’t been a whole lot of easy to get options for an updated Chromedome since the original Generation One release. There was a repaint of Transformers Prime Wheeljack for the Collectors Club, and at least one 3rd Party figure in Fansproject CODE. He’s a fairly popular character in the IDW comics but he is admittedly kind of a bland design with all of his squareishness and brown shades. It’s understandable that he’s not the first choice for a toy.
If you’re familiar with the previous Transformers line, Combiner Wars, you might look at this figure and see it as a remold of the overused Breakdown/Prowl mold. While Chromedome certainly has a lot of design queues from that figure and a very similar Transformation, he is a very different figure and doesn’t seem to actually share any parts with that older mold. It’s an understandable mistake, but it’s not an accurate one.
The differences are kind of similar to the old complain that Transformers Cybertron Starscream was the same toy as G2 Smokejumper, which share a transformation but are totally different figures. I feel like Hasbro does such a good job of making every transformation unique despite how many Transformers there are, it tends to just stick out on the rare occasion that they reuse a Transformation.
He’s a nice solid toy as well, there have been some budget cuts on the Transformers design process in the last few years (mentioned by the design team) which resulted in a lot of hollowness and weirdness for a few years but it’s starting to really be apparent with this line that the designers have managed to get a good hold on working within these confines. It kind of feels like it’s helped the line as well, we’re starting to get a lot of good designs that still have simpler transformations with less random flippy bits.
The headmaster Stylor is identical to all of the other Headmasters. The fit on the head peg is solid, which tends to be the biggest issue on some of these figures (say hello Scourge). The fit of the smaller robot in Chromedome’s cockpit is nice and solid as well, the cars are particularly great for the little guys to drive around in.
The colors are definitely Chromedome’s colors, but it does make him pretty bland. He’s not a flashy sports car, he’s not a sleek looking car, he’s just a very, brown car. There is a bit of an issue with his hood being a little tricky to get lines up but otherwise it’s an alright design and rolls along easily.
Titans Return Chromedome isn’t an amazing entry to the Transformers line but he’s not a bad one at all either. He’s pretty middle of the road with no major flaws but nothing that makes him stand out.
