That's one Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil Glint!

EDIT:
Start your day the Chris Evans-approved way!

 

@Yankee0 that is beautiful! Especially I love the co-ordination with Brunt and Nausea or whatever he's called. How did you do it? Airbrush over primer?

 

Looking fantastic. Excellent work.

So atmospheric. I like it. I've got some japanese zen garden music playing at the moment, and it's making me think Drift is around a campfire meditating in that shot.

 

I'll see if I can get some batteries for my bigger camera tonight and have another go. I don't tend to use it because it's so much quicker uploading straight from my phone, but we'll see if the bigger lens can work better in the dark.

 

Just gets better and better. Seriously impressive work, man!

Mirage
Function:Spy
"Who and what I am I hide from the enemy"


Mirage is a toff. He thinks Thatcher did a lot of good for the UK. He thinks the free market is good. He thinks unionisation and nationalisation are terrible ideas. He believes in social hierarchy; god, queen, and country...if you will. He thinks the countryside alliance is good. Rio by Duran Duran is his favourite album. I'm buggered if I know what he's doing with a bunch of collectivist liberals like Optimus Prime and his bunch, but then half the time it seems like he doesn't either.

It's the beauty of Bob Budiansky's character profiles that it's so easy to...well, profile these characters so beautifully. From just those six sentences on the back of his box I come away with such a rich idea of this robot. I can imagine how he interacts with his allies, and how they regard him; the simmering resentment on both sides. I can imagine the ... decision making his mind goes through on the battlefield. I can actually even imagine him having a great time at one of Ratchet's parties.

So it's just a bit of a pity that, aside from him maybe being a TRAITOR, none of this really made it into the fiction. Maybe Bob was just a bit too ambitious with these profiles. After all with the monthly comic having to promote so many new toys, year after year, we all know there wasn't the page count to give every 'bot a featured role.

My main memories of Mirage are of him stowing aboard the Nemesis and scuppering it in the final episode of 'Arrival from Cybertron' (I'm sorry, More than Meets the what?), looming silently along the English landscape in 'Man of Iron', and losing his temper with some narky humans in Decepticon Dambusters. And, for all the reasons previously stated, I think that's a shame.

I remember seeing my friend's Mirage in 1987, in that little pocket of time between the Movie characters coming out the arrival of the Headmasters. Mt head was full of images of Rodimus Prime and Wreck Gar, as they appeared on the adverts on the back covers of the UK comics. Compared to those 'modern' figures, Mirage looked painfully old fashioned. And small! Like, really small. I still marvel at how surprisingly small the '84 cars feel to me. Inevitable when the 'bots you had as a kid were the likes of Starscream and Grapple.

As a figure, Mirage is both weird and brilliant. The thing that I find most striking about him, as an adult, is that headsculpt. I don't really get where this 'sphynx' (SPHYNX!) like design came from, perhaps it's a presented itself due to the space left by the way the hood folds down. 'How do we do something cool with that peculiar arch?' (SPHYNX!). It's way cool.

I really like the rest of the design, but for me no feature jumps out quite as much as that. I love the hunting rifle(!). Those big rubber wheels hanging round his shoulders are great, and that racing car nose on his chest are lovely details. But those aside, he doesn't totally work for me. And I feel like I'm being unfair, because my complaints are pretty generic and can be applied to so many of the '84 cars; that chest is massively wide and those arms are hella spindly. But, un like Jazz or Sideswipe, even the complete picture doesn't quite do it for me.

And as for that alt mode; robots in disguise my arse. Unless there was some tactical advantage of having Mirage stationed at Silverstone there is naff all benefit in disguising one of your warriors as Ligier JS11. Such are the problems of basing your fiction around an existing toy line. C'est la bloody vie.

And as if you cared about that sort of pedantry as a kid. With those old Diaclone bots, the robot was often a secondary consideration to the vehicle mode (or so it seemed to my adult eyes) and a LOT of of love and attention has gone into this vehicle. For one thing, it's incredibly playwithable in car mode. Those lovely big rubber tires are a joy to me know, and would have been infinitely more joyful if I'd got this as six year old. And it's cool. So very, very cool. I think perhaps only the Porsche and Lamborghini are quite as...attractive to an 80's kids eye as a formula one racing car.

And the detail is magnificent. from the little chromed engine, to the spoiler, to all those wonderfully accurate decals and stickers. There's no doubt in my mind when I say that Mirage is a better toy as a car than he is a robot. And that's not even a slight on the robot mode!

So, in case you didn't know, Mirage won the War For Cybertron fanvote along with Impactor. Now, call me cynical, but I'm pretty sure that most people were voting for Impactor and Mirage just kinda got lucky with the pairing. Maybe I'm wrong. Either way, as a consequence of winning, we didn't see any renders of Mirage until quite late in the game, bringing an air of slight mystery to him. And when we did see them that air got...thicker? I mean man, was there a lot of head scratching trying to figure out how that alt mode turned into that robot!

Of course, the answer was painfully and disappointingly simple.

Since the dawn of time (dawn of time is c.1988 release of Powermaster Optimus Prime) there has been no greater sin than the fake chest. Like, hand on heart, I find it antithetical to the whole endeavour. The whole point of the characteristic kibble that defines any given transformer is that it's a consequence of the transformation, as the bonnet or windows of a vehicle form the chest, or whatever. And we'd never have wound up with this annoying quirk if we hadn't reached the point where the designers wanted to/felt duty bound to give us updates on old characters. You know, the thing that actually brought me back to collecting modern toys. Hoo boy!

So yeah, Mirage has a 'fake' chest, and that's not the nose of his race car mode. And, rather frustratingly, the benefits of this are clear. Mirage looks every inch a near perfect rendering of the animation model. Well, you know...an update of that model. Unlike the original, it feels pretty clear that the 'bot mode came first. WfC Mirage is a well articulated, dynamic, handsome action figure first and a transformer second, because woo...some of these engineering choices suck a bit.

Since the dawn of time (dawn of time is probably around G2 this time, I dunno) there has been no greater sin than using flimsy transparent plastic on the limbs, or other key areas, of a transformer. It's an accident waiting to happen. and despite having had Mirage for several days, I've only just worked up the nerve to transform him. Those calves are giving me the heebiejeebies.

Now, I'm being a bit harsh here, perhaps, but drama is the writers purview (Writer! Give me a break. Learn the basic rules of grammar first, you twat). Mirage has one of the more inventive,yet still satisfyingly intuitive transformation sequences in WfC:Siege. It's very clever and equally well realised, but I think it might flatter to deceive. I'd be just be more impressed if it did the classic 'front of the motor folds down to chest and there's his heid' design. I mean, if nothing else, it'd make that vehicle mode look less rough.

And yes, the vehicle mode is a bit of a dog. Ok, it's got neat bits. I like the way their forearms form the engine vents, the way his feet fold in a way that's so integral to the structure of the car, and front wheels are great, but otherwise? Yeessh! No thank you. And maybe I don't know all that much about physics on Cybertron, but I'm pretty sure having a solid block as a spoiler is nothing but a hindrance. I dunno, the whole thing has the stink of someone trying too hard so they've got something to talk about in their annual performance review.

I do want to love this version of Mirage, because it is by far the best Mirage we've had in Generations, but there's so many things that bug me about it. He'll stand tall and proud on my shelf, featured prominently and not obscured or tucked away, looking every bit the handsome toff with his beautifully spot on shoulder cannon (did I mention how good his weapons are? They're great. There, done.) but I don't think I'll ever love him. But hey, like the badge on my girlfriend's jacket says; 'never kissed a tory'.

 

Cheers again chaps, you are all far too kind! @Hubcap no airbrush here, I do have one, but am terrible with it... All done with a brush and a lot of thin layers, the effect on the hips was hardest, took about 30 separate paint applications to get it just right. Not quite finished yet though, still some touch ups and a bit of work for city mode to go!


[QUOTE="Seeaich, post: 17322316, member: 98268"

Start your day the Chris Evans-approved way!
[/QUOTE]

That works bloody well, great timing too, needed that to motivate me to get out of bed after slightly too much wine last night...

 

Did you forget? You owe him a debt.
When he comes to collect, you will regret your neglect!

Lovely write up again dude. You've sold me on those Shockwave labs hands.

I got their shoulder cannons for Rodimus Unicronus -they certainly help a bit with the shoulder issue. Can't udnerstand why they haven't done them in red though.

Kill it with fire and large heavy stones.

Dude, your trypticon is pure sex.

Love it. Great write-up as usual dude. And you are naturally right about the great crimes of transparent plastic and fake chests.

To be fair, I'm never all that annoyed about a fake chest. But it baffles me when 3rd party Powermaster Primes do the fake chest thing. Surely toy engineering has moved on. But it baffled me as a kid why PM Prime did the fake chest thing. Surely it wouldn't have made much difference to have the front of his cab.

There are a few figures where I think the fake chest thing is acceptable. First Edition Prime - Prime for starters. And twice over on this boyo.

 

I'm fine with a fake chest if it's something that can't realistically be done. Like Prime Ratchet, or something where the chest is crumpled up a little. Like MP Cheetor or Dinobot. It's nice if it can be done with the proper kibble, but it's never really bothered me.

 

So Star Convoy. He won't be everyones cup of tea.

But I like him. To me this is what POTP Optimus should have been in the first place, his supermode being one of Primes actual super modes like PMOP or Star Convoy, but we got Orion Pax who upgraded to a giant 'stock' Prime. It was fine.

But this one has shiny bits. And slick new shins, shoulder cannons and abdomen bits. And while he maybe isn't a significant enough remold for some purest, I think enough has been done to keep me happy given I had little connection with Star Convoy before hand. All the joints on mine are tight. His ankles hold better than my POTP Optimus or Nemesis.

The smaller boy totally gives me Actionmaster Prime vibes. The remolding to the fake chest, arms and legs certainly work better for me.

The grey fists are still annoying.

The silver matrix is a thing. It is silver. Isn't PM compatible as it connects (for some reason) to Prime's gun. Fun but frivolous. Honestly - I would rather this guy had come with a Primemaster Hot Rod/ Rodimus, with a matrix in place of his 'rune'. Or fuck that, we've Micromasters doing the rounds, give us a repaint of one of those to homage Micromaster Hot Rod that came with the original SC.

Ooooh Prime Ratchet is a great example.

 

I think they said somewhere that the inner robot is based on the actionmaster prime, so it's good you get that vibe from it. For micromaster hot rod, there's always that combiner wars legend one that could be repurposed? Or are you after an actual micromaster? Which I guess it should be, since micromasters are the 'in' thing at the moment.

 

"Transformers I forgot I owned #1" Deluxe Cybertron Unicron.

 

Defintely would prefer a micromaster - I never really warmed up to CW Roddy. But tis not happening, so I'll enjoy big chunky leader Starman Prime for what he is.

I could see Brunt being the basis for an easy homage to this. That skull face it great.

 

There's that wonderful bit in IDW's Escalation when the Autobots show up in their earth modes in Eastern Europe, and just confuse the hell out of the locals by engaging in battle as American police cars, military jets and space shuttles showing up out of nowhere. A nice bit of Furman poking fun at the limitations of robots in disguise.

I wouldn't have had an opinion on this until TFN this year, but I kinda feel that Classics Mirage might still have a place. Not for me exactly, but I picked up the marvellous Gobots Crasher repaint (incidentally, still not fully certain if it's a KO) and I really love how mental they got with the robot mode. I do hope that 'updated' aesthetics will make a comeback after WFC folds because there's some great design touches there. Like CW Magnus it has a kind of forced perspective to it, with huge wide feet and a tiny head making it loom and seem taller than it really is. Also Crasher is pure sex.

Fuck me, that's really intimidating.

Can't remember if I talked about them here - might have done. But a word of caution, in that they don't have individually articulated fingers. I was a little disappointed, after the Overlord hands were really great. They don't take much effort to install, though you do have to unscrew the forearm pieces obviously. As for the shoulder cannons, I don't remember seeing any, but there were little handgun things I think. Can they also fit to the shoulders?

If a 3rd party company were to make better shoulders though, it would require replacing all of Hot Rod's lower legs, and part of the thigh as well. The problem is that the joint just doesn't bend the way it needs to, and this could probably have been done with a bit more time spent on the engineering. It's a shame, but it's what we have.

Weird toy, that. I get why it was made, being the 'affordable' Unicron for kids that really wanted one but couldn't get the full size version. But it's not really suitable for the Chaos Bringer to just be the size of a regular guy. I'd have liked to have seen it with a new head and colour scheme as someone else. Squeezeplay, perhaps.

 

You've just reminded me how much I enjoyed Furman's -ations stuff. I may go back and immerse myself in it all over again. Then weep bitter tears about how it ended.

 

It starts well, and to be honest, gets a bit gash even before he was forced to rush it. I think he bit off way more than he could chew, and ended up with so many subplots that it would have taken years to sort it all out. I don't blame the editors for pushing for a new direction, but they still should have given him longer to wrap everything up. And kicked Shane McCarthy in the balls for cruelly killing off Hunter for no reason whatsoever.

You know what really annoys me though? No-one, not Barber, Scott, Roberts or Costa, no-one tried to give him a proper happy ending. Just say his brain patterns lingered on in Sunstreaker or something. But no, they just... left him with the nastiest death possible. Ugh.

 

For me, Star Convoy needs to transform into Star Convoy rather than another PM Op, but I like that Hasbro are reaching more and more for the obscure. Want to see more of the MMC. Wouldn't be surprised if Fans Hobby took a run at him at some point. I don't do many 3P these days but I could be tempted.

 

At least it finally led to 'More Than Meets the Eye'. Well... the first half, at least... Swearth my arse...  

 

I've been meaning to customise one of these into Tarantulas to go with the Botcon 2006 boxset since, well, 2006.

 

Those eyes are great

 

I gotta admit, I enjoyed it right up until those last four spotlights. Now, I wouldn't die on the hill defending how well it was done towards the end, but I still liked it. It was going pretty batshit but I was enjoying the ride.