War for Cybertron Mirage Mayhem
I am not going to beat around the bush this time, if you read last week's blog all the way to the end you know that this week I am looking at Kingdom Mirage. This is because he comes packed with Grimlock in the first Battle Across Time Set. Now I did say that there would be a twist this week as well, and it came about while I was talking to a friend. I realized I had an opportunity to do a couple figures in my backlog and while it did triple my workload as far as pictures go, but I am really happy with how everything turned out. So not only am I doing Kingdom Mirage this week but I am also looking at Siege Mirage and Siege Holo Mirage.
If you recall, a while back I did a full review of WFC Trilogy Decepticon Mirage, and because of that I won’t be doing full reviews of any of these figures just to make sure I don’t repeat myself. I will for sure be skipping the articulation and transformation unless it is something I forgot to go over before or in Kingdom Mirage’s case new articulation entirely. I am also going to be skipping the weapons as they all have the same ones just in different colors. With all that out of the way let’s get right into it starting with…
Siege Mirage
Siege Mirage here was the only retail release of the mold, and is done up in his standard colors of white, blue and silver with some black and red accents. This color scheme is absolutely gorgeous on this figure. The head sculpt looks flawless in this royal blue and silver but I wish the eyes stood out more. The stark white chest with the fake car front looks quite nice and is broken up by the giant Auto-badge and silver front wing. Something I did forget to mention on my previous look at this mold, is that thanks to transformation he does have some forward butterfly joints, but they can look a bit wonky depending on how far out you move them. Not much going on in the arms, but the black and silver are a nice break from the white and blue of the rest of the figure. I know a lot of people worry about his legs since his shins are made of translucent plastic but I really like them. I think the clear blue on top of the white plastic just looks really nice, as it adds some nice depth and color variation. Vehicle mode also looks incredible in these colors and I especially love the cybertronian writing on the sides of the car. Luckily this version does not have the paint chipping issue Con Mirage does but he also doesn’t have nearly as much paint though.
Siege Holo Mirage
Moving on to Holo Mirage, who was released via the Amazon exclusive Fan Vote 3 Pack, which came with him, a Decepticon version of Impactor and Aragon, a character that NO ONE saw getting a new toy. Usually I would review multi-packs together but I sold the Impactor right away and since Aragon is just a Cog repaint I think splitting them up like this is just easier. Clear Mirage deco’s have become a staple of Mirage molds since they are pretty easy and make sense since his canon ability in the original cartoon was invisibility. This one is notable as it is done up in translucent blue instead of the smokey translucent plastic they have used on the others. Interestingly it is actually a different blue than the one used on the retail release as it is slightly lighter, also they used a solid light blue plastic for most of the joints which I think is smart as it should prevent breakage. The major difference here is the toy accurate head which has yet to be used on any other figure and that is a shame as it is incredible looking. He does have clear tampographs in various places, such as the chest and spoiler, but they are hard to make out unless they are in the right lighting. I should mention that the shoulder ports on my copy have both cracked just from putting the launcher in, I am not expecting any more cracks there as the launcher fits quite well now. Nothing too spectacular in car mode, just a two-tone blue space race car.
Kingdom Mirage
Finally we reached the main event, Kingdom Mirage. This figure is actually quite a bit different from the Siege mold but still uses a lot of the same engineering and, if my counting is correct, the two molds share about 20 parts. The one part I can’t tell if it is remolded or not is the head, as it looks slightly thinner, which would make sense considering the new chest transformation but it might just be the brighter blue used making it look that way. His chest is significantly thinner, leading to a better proportioned robot mode. He does still have the fake chest but this time in an Earth mode flavoring, and thanks to transformation this figure has an ab crunch which is SUCH a fantastic addition. The arms are probably the most changed, specifically the shoulders since they are a big part of the new transformation scheme mentioned above. Not only are the spoiler shoulder pads (spoiler pads) in the new Earth aesthetic, you can untab the shoulders from the torso to give him more fluid looking butterfly joints that go in both directions. This does come with a caveat though, because of these new joints, he no longer has any shoulder ports for his launcher, but he does have some ports on the back of his shoulders and I actually don’t mind this look. The legs aren’t that much different. A substantial amount of the parts are new but they all function the same. The first thing you will probably notice is that the lower legs are no longer made of clear plastic, they are solid blue. While it is a nice shade of blue they feel kind off plain and I think they could have done from some more paint such as the silver on the knee pads. Overall I don’t have a lot of complaints about this robot mode. My 2 main ones would be the 5mm port on his back is too big to hold anything, but that might just be my copy. My other one is more of a long term concern, as this figure has a lot of paint, specifically the chest, forearms and thighs are all white paint on blue plastic. I have already chipped some off the fake spoiler when I first transformed him, but it doesn’t seem or feel as fragile as the paint on Decepticon Mirage. Transformation is the same as far as the legs go, but the arms are the main difference, even though they end up in essentially the same spot. Vehicle mode is very nice, the back is much cleaner and thinner than the Siege version. The colors are very nice in this mode too but like in robot mode I find the blue kinda barren. You have probably already noticed that the autobot tampograph on the front of the car is off center, which is unfortunate but easily fixable. You can plug the guns in this mode, they go on the sides of the car now which I actually like a lot better than on top of the spoiler.
Overall I think that Siege Mirage has the better colors but Kingdom Mirage is the better figure overall. And Holo Mirage exists if that is more your style. That being said though all of these are good figures so take your pick of any of these and I am sure you will be happy. As for ratings, base Siege Mirage gets a 6.5 from me, Holo Mirage gets a 6, and Kingdom Mirage gets a 7. As far as this Battle Through Time set with Grimlock and Mirage the score averages out to a 6.5/10 which is pretty fair, nothing too special going on but the figures are good. And with that I have covered every version of the Siege Mirage mold, as well as done galleries for all of them. If you want to check those out then you can click here, here and here for the 3 I covered today and here for the Con Mirage Gallery I did back in May. As for next week it is the first Commander Class figure I have bought and I am having a hell of a time with him. I hope you are all looking forward to it and I will see you all next week
Transformers War for Cybertron Trilogy: Decepticon Mirage
Another week, another review, and I think I might finally be getting the hang of this whole blog thing. This week's subject is War for Cybertron Trilogy Decepticon Mirage, which is a very unique figure. As always check out the gallery after you're done reading.
Before we start on the figure, the War for Cybertron Trilogy toy line is kind of a weird one. It is entirely based around the War for Cybertron show on Netflix and includes characters and decos that are supposed to be accurate to the show, but it is rather hit or miss if they actually are though. This line was supposed to come out the same day as the show on Netflix, but when the first season of the show got delayed, the toy line didn’t so the entire first wave just kinda came out months earlier than the show and i am pretty sure a lot of these toys just kinda showed up at retailers before being officially announced, but I might be wrong about that part.
Like I said this is a very unique figure as when it first was revealed, spoilers for the War for Cybertron: Siege Netflix show, as everyone thought it was a spoiler for Mirage getting brainwashed into becoming a Decepticon at some point during the show, but that was not the case and it was just a disguise Mirage uses in one episode to discreetly get some information out of some Decepticons, which is honestly a really unique take on Mirage’s powers.
Mirage’s head is his classic sphinx-like dome with the tall trapezoidal side vents and the half mohawk head crest, but it is all painted up in a nice dark lavender. The paint allows for all the molded details to be extremely visible, all of which are very nice. The face is done in a very nice gunmetal silver making all of the minutiae on the face very defined but the stand out part of the face is for sure those stunning yellow eyes that just stare into your soul.
The chest is very interesting as it is clearly a fake chest but it has all the right details and molding so it ends up working really well even if it is considerably wide. The colors are very nice with the primarily sand blue torso that gradients into the same dark metallic grey as the face on the centerpiece. He does have a nice semi circle of dark lavender that homages the original toy’s cockpit section and a rather large Decepticon badge right smack dab in the middle. Both of these really help break up the rest of the colors. One of my main issues with this figure is that it is pretty much entirely painted, anything not black or a solid shade of grey is painted on and while that is not inherently a bad thing, the paint isn’t sealed at all so it tends to chip and scratch fairly easily. I have quite a few chips and scratches on the chest section just from messing around and transforming him. His back isn’t too interesting, just some wheels and a support beam.
The arms are actually pretty interesting as they aren’t quite what you might expect. I mean the articulation is pretty standard for a modern day deluxe, 90 degree outward movement, full shoulder and bicep rotation, and a 90 degree elbow, it’s everything around the joints that is interesting. Starting up at the shoulder, he has half of the vehicle mode spoiler as a sort of shoulder pad, which is quite different from the standard Mirage design, but it works really well for a Cybertronian version of the character, plus it is on a separate hinge than the shoulder so it can move out of the way for posing. The forearms are pretty interesting too as they aren’t your standard rectangle, they are very curved and oddly shaped, not only that they also have a 5mm port on the bottom instead of the side like most figures. This allows for under slung weaponry which gives him a very unique look when it comes to posing and weapon placement. Unfortunately the forearms are probably the most scratched up when it comes to paint scratches and again these are just from normal play, but at least in this instance the add to the look as it is a battle damaged deco
The legs aren’t really as interesting as the arms. Full hip movement in the hips, a decent thigh swivel, 90 degree knees and the feet can move inward and back and forth, as well as a full waist swivel which I think I forgot to mention earlier. The shins are done up similarly to the head with the dark lavender and gun metal gray, with some dark grey peaking through, but it can be a little hard to distinguish from the gun metal at certain times. Turning him around and you can see that the backs of his legs are weird. They look both hollow and not hollow at the same time. I mean it is pretty clear that the front of the car mode is folded up back there and while I don't hate it, the wheel struts just kinda hang there and don’t tab in well so they tend to flop around a bit.
Obviously I am going to quickly mention the weapons before moving onto vehicle mode. First off is the rifle, which looks very cool and is pretty accurate to what his G1 toy’s rifle looked like but with some added fins on the back, which is a neat addition that gives it some uniqueness. Moving onto the launcher, which is made up of two parts; the missile itself and the actual launcher base. Both parts are very nicely molded and can be used as separate accessories if that is what you want, but obviously they are meant to be combined together, but they are a little bland since both are molded in a standard grey plastic. It should go without saying that both of these weapons can be plugged into any of the 5mm ports that are scattered over the figure.
Transformation is very cool. The two torso halves are connected by a single beam that allows each section to be transformed separately and then be connected back together in a different way. The legs end up becoming like ¾ of the car mode just by acordianing out, meanwhile the torso just flips around becoming the back end, while the arms tab together to form the spoiler and air scoop. Vehicle mode itself looks really nice for the most part with the big exposed wheels and general F1 car body shape, although not the most aerodynamic considering the large blocks that sit behind the shoulder. While he is pretty solid in car mode not everything likes to tab together or stay that way or at the very least the tabs don’t go in all the way giving him some pretty small gaps that are honestly pretty unnoticeable. You can plug the weapons in in this mode but only on top of the spoiler as all the other ports have been hidden by transformation.
I think that is everything I want to cover about this figure, I don’t know why this one got hard to write at times, guess I was just having trouble finding the right words. I do like this figure a lot and he is a great figure to repurpose, I personally plan on using him as Shattered Glass Mirage, I know quite a few people that are, but I have seen others use him as a modern take on Deluge from the G2 line or even just a random goon to fill out the Decepticon ranks. With that being said he also has a lot of faults and minor annoyances that keep him from reaching his full potential so I give him a solid 6/10
Apologies for this one being a little late, this week was pretty busy and this just ended up being pushed due to time constraints. Hopefully the next one will be up on Sunday but it is quite a glorious figure so there is a lot to cover. Here is the link to the gallery if you fancy a gander and I will see you all sometime within the next week.