Rounding out the last of the original five Autobot Headmasters recreated in Titans Return is Chromedome.  A few years ago, Fun Publications made us a Chromedome out of Transformers Prime Wheeljack, with a More Than Meets The Eye-styled head.  Well, the MTMTE-styled head is back for this new toy, same as with Brainstorm.  The stars of the (ending yesterday but relaunching as Lost Light #1) MTMTE comic book series get to have MTMTE-inspired heads, while the other Autobot Headmasters get a mix of toy- and cartoon-inspired heads.  

Chromedome's body is also designed after MTMTE, but not on the modern-day body he has for most of the series, with the giant wheels on his shoulders and the skinny, streamlined appearance.  This is sadness to me.  I love that design.  Instead, his sculpt is based on the design he has in pre-war flashbacks, which was inspired more strongly by his original toy.   Which is okay, but, sure.  Whatevs.  

Beyond taking its cues second-hand from the original 1986 Chromedome toy, Chromedome is a very familiar figure.  He's not a retool of the Combiner Wars Dead End/Streetwise/Prowl/Dustup toy, but he has similar engineering, down to the chunk of bicep that's molded in nonpaintable nylon plastic.  Chromedome transforms essentially the same as Dead End, with the shins opening up so they can swallow the thighs, the chest flipping up under the hood (which stores on the robot's back), and the arms compressing into the sides of the car mode.  The lone real difference is the addition of a drivers compartment inside the car, which results in the roof folding up on the back of Chromedome's legs instead of flipping down behind the back like on Dead End.

Again, he's not a retool.  He's entirely new parts, just with a borrowed transformation style.  

Like the other Titans Return Deluxes, he has a smaller weapon and a larger detachable weapon/thing that his head can sit in when his head is a little dude.  Also like many of the other Titans Return Deluxes, his smaller weapon is a Starscream-style null ray.  Lotsa guys have this damn null ray -- Blurr, Brainstorm, Chromedome... I've got a pile of null rays now.  I wonder if this is a hint at a future Starscream/Seeker toy, or if someone just likes null rays.  

I got the American version of Chromedome because, duh, MTMTE head.  The Japanese version, which is not released yet, has a different, Headmasters anime-styled noggin, which itself is different from the American cartoon-style head.  I'm tempted by the Headmasters-headed one, if only because of the goofy English dub, but that would always have to be a secondary purchase.  Like Rewind, my heart will always belong to the MTMTE-style Chromedome first and foremost.  

I think the only other one is Tigatron.  And he was married to an actual lady tiger.  A lady tiger he scanned for his own altmode.  What I'm saying is, his crudely-sentient tiger wife was into banging herself, apparently.  Look, I know wildlife can get kinda inbred, but wow.

By comparison, Chromedome is your normal type of widower, the kind that isn't a clone of his other-species husband.  You see, there's some actual lawful consent going on in this situation.  

Anyway, ignoring all that, Chromedome is the guy I've been looking forward to the most out of this year's Subscription Service toys.  Other than a Transformers Jr which is... somewhere...? ... I don't own any Chromedome toys, and so ol' Domey fills a very important vacancy in my Lost Light crew.  What made me especially excited for him was that his head was designed by Nick Roche to reflect the look he has in the ongoing IDW series.  And with Rewind being the final guy in this year's subscription service (due next month) that means I can finally own a pair of gay-married Transformers.  (Okay, I own a few Rewinds, but not THIS Rewind.)  

The toy itself is a good enough match for IDW Chromedome.  He's got wide shoulders, though if you want to keep them from being gorilla-like, I'd leave them half-transformed so the elbows aren't down by his hips.  The new head sculpt is fantastic -- one of the best Fun Publications has ever done -- and it didn't come out all duckfaced or anything like this year's Devcon's did.

Short of being an entirely new toy designed to be IDW Chromedome, this is the best IDW Chromedome you could hope for.  He's a very pretty color scheme, put on a pretty good toy, with an awesome head sculpt, as a very engaging character.  Just ignore the swords.  And Stylor.