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'.

 

Ive heard using a light grey or a silver on the dark sections is a good way.

 

Picked up Starscream and an very impressed. Only downside is the chest connection could be better(although it locks fine in both modes) and the Siege mud is overdone but not as bad as I thought it would be. I noticed too most of the other figurers have hollowed out thighs and no panels to cover the forearm gaps. Starscream does not suffer from this, in fact it even has spring loaded panels to fill out the rear legs. I suspect more money/effort was put into this mold because of the multi use repaints. Articulation is just about perfect and I dig the Tetra jet mode.

 

Lucky you. Mine falls off if I move it a little.

 

I just got mine a few days ago so maybe they did something in newer batches to help the issue. It will still come off during transformation if not careful but once locked/tabbed in, in either bot or jet mode, it's fine.

 

can siege prowl/barricade swap heads with TLK barricade easily?

 

I don't see why not. Same mold same ball jointed head piece. Worst case scenario you might have to get out a hair dryer to soften the plastic a bit but I don't think that would be necessary.

 

I meant with TLK barricade. must have hit enter on an incomplete post.  

 

I'll look into that. Especially the light grey or bue-ish grey to accent it.

 

If I can get only one, would you guys recommend Mirage or Impactor first?

Something like this?



Not gonna lie, it's weird.

 

Still no U.S Ratchet sightings?

 

You have just sold me on Mirage

 

Hahaha this immediately came to mind

 

personally while i like impactor better, i think mirage is the stronger figure of the two

 

Reminds me of the episode where the Autobots were aliens in a movie.

 

I forgot how generic TLK Barricade's face was.

 

My apologies because I'm sure this has been asked and answered already, but how are you copying the blast effects? I assume you're making molds, right? What materials are you using?