Galaxy Force Chromia White Version

(Femme-Bot Friday #62)

I've waited quite a long time for this one... Originally released back in 2005 and packaged with part of the Japanese DVD release of the Galaxy Force TV series, Chromia White Version is a homage to the Japanese G1 (specfically Super-God Masterforce) release of Minerva - a toy which was repainted and released in the West as Nightbeat.

Rather foolishly, I decided against ordering this figure when I first became aware of it because I hadn't quite got to the stage in my collecting habits where I wanted to try to focus on Femme-Bots and, let's be honest, Chromia was hardly the best toy to come out of Galaxy Force. Nevertheless, she became one of my Holy Grail figures a few years later - after I'd bought a BotCon repaint and the standard version - but became impossible to find online until earlier this year, when a pair of them turned up on eBay, minus the packaging and the DVD.

It's entirely possible this is actually a knockoff... though I'm not aware of this figure having been knocked off, let alone this version of the figure and, to be honest, cost aside, I'm not too fussed.

Let's have a closer look...

Vehicle Mode:
Funnily enough, Chromia White Version is instantly more believeable than the standard version just because her hull is white - you don't get that many dark purple speedboats, in my experience (which is admittedly limited, but I've visited several harbours in my time and taken many speedboat tours, and don't believe I've ever seen a boat with a purple hull, let alone been on one myself). A red foredeck is not uncommon, however, and the cockpit area can often be decorated according to the owner's preferences so, as speedboats go, the Minerva colourscheme works very well.

As with the DVD version of Exillion, the layout of her paint applications remains the same, it's only the colour that has changed. For the most part, what was silver on the original has been painted red here, but the protrusions on each side of the hull, which hold the missiles, have orange paint while, if it followed the pattern of the original, it would be red. Also the tip of the bow, gold on the original, is painted red to match the foredeck. Additionally, the painted detail on the weapon, in front of the key slot, is basically identical to the original - red with a silver frame. Similarly, she features a single, tiny Decepticon insignia on the foredeck just in front of the windscreen and behind the machine gun.

Of course, having that honking great missile rack mounted on her stern is about as ridiculous as ever, and the fact that it's white with patches of orange means it stands out even more starkly... but I was at least happy to find that the spring-loaded gimmicks work properly on this version - on my original, the key had trouble deploying the concealed, spring-loaded missile launcher, which then sometimes didn't want to close up again, but this one works perfectly. I also find the mounting more inclined to rotate - it's a bit creaky sometimes, but it doesn't feel as if it's about to break.


Robot Mode:
There's something strangely angelic about Chromia White Version in robot mode. I'm not aware of the character in the TV show ever having used her unfolded hull as wings, but they certainly look the part. The gold panels on the original version are painted orange here, and much of the figure's colourscheme is a straight palette-swap with no new applications. However, it's not an exact palette-swap - red on White Version is substituting for both gold and silver at various points, while orange substitutes for gold only on her torso and head. The Matrix-like detail on her chest is largely painted red with silver on the central 'jewel', where he original had a purple 'jewel', and the dark, brownish grey from her belly painted into the two recessed areas on either side.

The upper arms, groin and belly are the same brownish plastic as the boat's foredeck machine gun and the mounting for her missile launcher - essentially a warmer version of the original's metallic-looking grey plastic. The brown paint on her belly is a decent match, but far glossier.

Probably the most interesting aspect of this version of the figure is that it features the fixed Thunderblast/Hasbro version of the head sculpt, so her eyes are more even. The central crest features orange paint, and her face is a slightly lighter shade of orange - not used elsewhere, as far as I can tell - which works well with her bright blue light-piped eyes. The Minerva homage could have been further emphasised with a few applications of red around the helmet, or warm grey on the 'horns', but it's surprisingly effective as it is.


Naturally her transformation and poseability are essentially the same as the mainline version, the only difference here being that I find her arms are more inclined to stay in place when extended, even with the additional encumberance of her weapon.

Galaxy Force Chromia is never going to win any awards for the intricacy of its transformation and the fact that it's little more than a fairly basic action figure attached to the inside of a boat's hull is a huge turn-off for many TransFormers fans. I hope, one day, we get a new version of this character with a bit more to it. Personally, I think she's a lot of fun, and I'm really pleased to now own this hard-to-find repaint, even if it did come loose and without the DVD.

I think it's a real shame that we don't get more homages like this. Hasbro ended up releasing their interpretation of Takara Tomy's DVD-boxed Exillion repaint as G1 Hot Rod, but clearly didn't feel this one was worth following suit with. Then again, G1 Minerva was a Japan-only release, and Hasbro could hardly be expected to repaint this mold into Nightbeat - making the Autobot gumshoe a femme-bot just wouldn't make sense. While she's technically a Decepticon, it only really needs a Reprolabels symbol placed over the tampographed insignia to turn her into a proper Minerva.

I'll be (one would hope) pleasantly surprised if Nightbeat, let alone Minerva, were to appear in any upcoming TransFormers toyline but, for the moment, this one is all I really want... I certainly wouldn't want Power of the Primes Moonracer repainted into Minerva.