| Mirage is an Autobot that has the ability of invisibility as the way Hound has this device to project small to large scale holograms, which both characters featured these in the original Transformers cartoons five-part episode “More Than Meets the Eye.” As a kid everyone warmed up to these characters because they were special but back then the toys weren’t as impressive as today.
The War for Cybertron: Siege delivers some of the best figures based on the classic cartoon, comicbooks, and recent iterations of the character into one package. Some areas impressive as bringing enough nostalgia and there are others that are half-baked run in the mill figures just made to add variety to expand the range of assortments. |
There have been different takes on the marketplace how well retailers bring the characters to the local shores. For someone who doesn’t complete the entire line just cherry-picked the best ones or those who really stands out doesn’t mean you’re getting the best and as any collector or fan you get the figure because either it is a display piece or the character is enough to use for photography due to the aesthetic nature of how it represents the fictional version on screen.
When the WFC: Siege assortment started showing up on Philippine retail it is not like those in the past when the country is ahead of its neighboring contemporaries that have Hasbro regional offices. Turns out the fourth wave that features Barricade, Autobot Impactor, and Mirage was supposed to show up back in October/November 2019. But turns out the last wave for Siege Deluxe Class of Spinister/Crosshairs assortment did turn up instead of the later.
Fast forward to February 2020 when all of a sudden all three figures did make it to local retail but did not last long enough to sustain demand. Of course, Autobot Impactor and Mirage were the favorites considering both figures were available as a three-pack exclusive that included a retooled Cog figure as a different character.
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Slow Reveal Unravels
This includes a translucent blue Mirage and a Decepticon Impactor with a different head design. Not everyone would want a translucent Mirage that would stay “invisible” forever as everyone would want a ‘normal’ figure, which turned up to be sold out anywhere in Metro Manila alone. But in a stroke of good timing passing through a Toy R’ Us Store, there was one hidden at the back of other Deluxe Class figures that have become recent shelf warmers.
At first, in packaging with box art and product photography Mirage is a thing of beauty. If I have a choice between Mirage and Impactor I’d pick the latter for being popular in the cartoons than the other that was purely created from the original Marvel-published series written by Simon Furman. When you unboxed Mirage you see the cartoon accurate aesthetics with little to minor differences like the overtly large Autobot faction symbol.
Cartoon to Figure
Of all the G1 characters from the classic cartoon that was released for the Siege toyline, Mirage got both of his weapons unlike Sideswipe or even Prowl. The screen-accurate aesthetics certainly captures nostalgia from head to chest, but when you finally look at the legs it’s in translucent clear blue. You look at the back there’s kibble and parts of the alternate vehicle mode.
But there’s no mistaking this figure looks really good it just that by the time you decide to transform Mirage into his signature race car form that’s where you’ll have your observation and critical reaction how well Hasbro and Takara Tomy designed and engineered the way he turns out on his vehicle mode.
Transformation needs a lot of care when you’re shifting one part to another folding them to avoid scratching sensitive parts or putting pressure on how to turn it into its vehicle mode. Some people don’t have sensitive and delicate hands in making sure the process won’t damage the toy as there are others who are actually heavy-handed.
Cybertronian Racer on Wheels
With Mirage, care must be applied in transforming this figure as you might scratch the tampographed art on both the translucent side of the car and the tabs that lock down the back part of the car and the entirety of the front part.
Speaking of the front part of the car you’ll find it in the photos that they don’t lock properly on mine. I don’t know if this is just my copy of this figure or the locking part is really that inconsistent on how they were molded.
The other surprising thing about Siege Mirage having something in common with Voyager Class Starscream is the concept of transformation as the robot chest does not exactly turn into the front of the car like how Starscream turns into a ‘Pyramid Jet’ that has become a shelf warmer in most retail stores in some markets in Asia.
Both characters have faux parts but that’s where the commonality is described to the figures as based on what I have heard the engineering marvel with how Starscream manages to use the chest into the jet thrusters sounds interesting. But for Mirage is a little of working around that his chest turns into the rear of his vehicle mode was something of a shock and curiosity on how the designer and engineers tried to work around in making it look that way.
Unless you’re just into collecting it with no care to have the figure only for your mantlepiece you’ll never truly going to appreciate what you paid for in terms of the way this was worth the price of admission how they tried at failing and at the same time invite curiosity on the concept made me like the figure more.
Overall Siege Mirage may not replace the Classics version for some who have that iteration of the character have its own nostalgia factor to each individual how they acquired that figure. For this one personally it was actually a friend who helped out in acquiring this.
It is one of the memorable characters from that series that gave Megatron and Decepticons the problem not getting away off-planet because the ship was full just like how this figure won the fan vote.
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