Mirage [Cyberworld/Cyber Changers]

I remember during Robots in Disguise 2001, occasionally people would take their Spychanger Mirage toys and custom them into Starscream or other jet characters. The F-14 racer body made for an easy jet. Take out the wheels, glue on wings. Neat. Well, all these years later and we've got a jet Mirage whose mold is also used for Starscream. I'll be getting to that Starscream later, but today we'll be looking at Mirage.

Unlike his normal race car based bodies, Mirage turns into a jet. It's an odd choice for a character who even appeared as a race car not long ago in Rise of the Beasts... but I dig it. Sometimes reinvention is a good thing and this Mirage looks pretty neat. I make older robot toy comparisons all the time with these Cyber Changer toys, and because of his head, I think this mold would make a good Fitor. Also due to the head and colors, I'm reminded of Cop-Tur. Oddly enough, it's also making me think of Machine Wars basic figures. Combined with all the other old robot toy comparisons and I am all over the map with Cyberworld. I love it, it's fun when a toy makes you think. It's also fun when such a simple toy line is so full of old robot toy DNA that it adds to the convo. Other sites you'll be getting affiliate links, here at Zone Base you got a crazy old man telling you he saw Elvis.

I love the red, white, and blue (running through his veins) colors  on this toy. They contrast so nicely with the design. It's a good looking toy... even if they didn't paint his eyes. He has the same basic universal articulation and size the other Cyber Changers have, which I absolutely don't mind. However there's an elbow joint sculpted into his arm, which kinda irks me. It's just a design choice, but seeing as these toys don't have an elbow joint... *sigh*. Overall, it's a good looking robot mode and I really like it. In the show, Mirage is a bit of a trickster and is initially sided with the Decepticons. At this point, it's not completely clear what his intentions are. In prior cartoons, other characters have thought Mirage was a traitor... a Cliffjumper or Ironhide to call him out in Cyberworld would be great.

We've got a new alt mode type in Cyber Changers... man, what if the line was just called Cyber Changers? That way the plot and cartoon could change, but the mainline could stay consistent for awhile. Anyway, Mirage is the new jet type and the engineering isn't too different from the other types. Man, they've really stretched out the budget on these guys. Jet nose folds up and the body accordions itself. The arms fold into the body and the legs form the tail end and fins of the jet. The jet is a unique looking jet with folded wings. I can't exactly place where, but it's a familiar design. Looks out of a video game, which is appropriate as the Cyberworld is seemingly a video game/computer simulation.

Autobot Mirage [Transformers One/Iacon Race 3-Pack]

One Step Changers/Turbo Changers are a fun little aside in Transformers toys that I enjoy quite a bit. They're very basic and inexpensive toys that remind of various older toys and are fun to collect. Almost a side quest to the main story of my fandom. This neat Iacon Race 3-Pack exclusive to Target stores features Optimus Prime and Megatron with a Mirage figure. These are remolds and recolors of prior releases that are pretty neat. Since the movie revolves around Optimus and Megatron, it's obvious they'll be dominating much of the merchandise. The inclusion of Mirage in this pack is a fun one that we'll be starting our look at the set with. Mirage uses the Blurr mold from the Robots in Disguise 2015 One-Step Changers line. This was a really likable figure and one of the better One-Step toys of it's time.

It's reuse here works very well. Mirage was given a new, more 'G1' head sculpt and is painted in a deco similar to his classic toy. It looks great in robot mode and outstanding in vehicle mode. That's one sharp car! Transformation is in one step (obviously) as the car opens up into Mirage. It's pretty pleasant. As I've mentioned before, these often remind me of older Transformers figures. Mirage strongly feels like a late Euro G1 or G2 toy. The Machine Wars/RID/Robot Masters race car mold also comes to mind as well (albeit with more articulation) as it began life as a unused G2 mold which is from that same early 90's era. Blurr has limited articulation like some of these older toys too. I know that turns off some people, but in cases like this, it doesn't bother me at all. I do wish Mirage had some sort of weapon. A solid white rifle would just round him out a lot. He's a cool simple little figure that really stands out in the early Transformers One figures I've picked up. He feels like a more special exclusive item that would be available at an event.

Bios: Mirage

Function - Race Car

Mirage is the fastest of the Spy Changers and an excellent marksman. His speed makes him great at spying out enemy plans - he's in and out before anyone's the wiser. His distinguished services include bodyguard and spy. He uses a sniper rifle.

 "You can't hit a speeding target!"

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Mirage (Battle Changers/Beast Alliance)

Returning to our looks at the Battle Charger class is Mirage from Rise of the Beasts. Like the others before him, he's a simple figure to scale with others in the Beast Alliance sub-line. He's also a lot like the Bumblebee Battle Charger in that there's no interacting with Beast Battle Masters unfortunately. One can't be held nor one cannot be plugged into a port. Ignoring the gimmick incompatibility, Mirage is still a neat little figure. I'm not the only one who has noticed Mirage's toys aren't exactly screen accurate. Like some of the Cheetor toys, I'm guessing this is another result of designs getting changed during toy production. Maybe one day we'll get a more screen accurate figure, but honestly... I like the look of the current toys.

Thanks the silver, Mirage makes me think of Baron Von Joy. His simplicity goes with that comparison. I initially thought there was a mouth plate instead of the face we all know... but was wrong. He's got a mouth, just not a super obvious one. Admittedly... I kinda like the idea of a mouth plate. It may not be screen accurate, but it'd match this design. Mirage turns into a Porsche 911, which looks pretty great. We've all had the Jazz conversation before, it just is what it is. I don't mind it so much here. Maybe because it's so hard to hate on Mirage after seeing the movie. Like other Battle Changers, a hand will flip out into a weapon. It's a harmless way to give Mirage a gun that won't get lost and works well on such a simple toy. I like the gimmick. I like this Mirage, he's a simple little toy for not a lot of money.

Blue Mirage Isn't A Pair Of Vans

Of course my usual weekend trip to Walmart for groceries and other household needs resulted in a trip to the toy section. The new Netflix Siege Transformers are starting to show up across the country and mine had most of the deluxes. My store is a little odd that it's usually a little behind other stores in stocking, but has plenty of what it does stock.

I grabbed Mirage as I've been looking most forward to him and Scrap Face from the deluxe class. They didn't have Scrap Face sadly, but one out of two ain't bad. Not to mention, I'm moving next month so not wanting to pack so much keeps my toy purchases down for the time being. I'm usually happy to buy just one a week anyway most of the time aside from occasional splurging. Keeps from having weeks on end without anything new to look forward to.

Mirage is a repaint of the standard Siege Mirage from last year with his deco playing into the upcoming Netflix series. I really like this mold and the new colors look fabulous on it. The colors invoke a late G1 vibe and on this mold make me think late Euro-G1 for some reason. It just looks wonderful. I like the multiple weapons allowing for a traditional Mirage look, while also allowing for them to be held in a manner of ways. I've always been partial to the shoulder mounted rocket launchers, for me there was no other option.

Being a Siege toy, Mirage transforms into a Cybertronian version of his classic F-1 Liger race car. Cybertronian is a nice catch all wording to describe a more sci-fi spacey look, which is one of the reasons I liked Siege so much. I like sci-fi spacey looking Transformers. Mirage doesn't too far different from his Earth based car mode here if that's not your thing.

If you didn't like the 'battle damage' paint from normal Siege, you'll probably not like it here. I either hardly noticed or thought it was neat when I did. I think it looks great here. Mine didn't snap together well in a few places during transformation, not sure if that's just on all of them. Can't remember it being an issue on my regular version offhand. It's not too bad, just a little bit of an annoyance in an otherwise great figure.

By now I'm sure you've noticed his Decepticon symbol. Siege is a prequel of sorts, taking place during the early days of the war. I haven't seen the show yet (because it hasn't aired) but presumably Mirage starts off as a Decepticon and switches sides at some point. This plays pretty well into Mirage's classic bio in that other Autobot's don't trust him. Being a former member of the other team is a pretty good reason for that. I'm pretty interested in seeing what causes him to change sides.

If you haven't noticed, I like this toy. I've always liked Mirage's Egyptian inspired looks. It's something Takara used a lot on older Microman and Diaclone designs. Seeing the merge of that classic Diaclone design and an updated sci-fi spacey look is great. The more imaginative colors on this repaint is welcome too. I've always been fond of those late G1 colors and they work well here. It's nice when you like a figure so much. I prefer to spend my leisure time on things I actually like, and this guy's a great use of that time.

An Energon Mirage

One of the more interesting toys from Energon was Mirage. A Decepticon, Mirage turned into a boat. His 'hyper mode' (one of the gimmicks from Energon was Hyper Mode, a sort of attack form for the Decepticons) was wings that extended in boat mode for a flight mode. Mirage was a pretty unique toy to say the least.

In fiction, Mirage had sort of a dual persona. According to the toy packaging he was an individual Decepticon, while on the cartoon he was a new form for Tidalwave. Common complaints for Mirage were the complex transformation and those who didn't like established names being reused. I liked a lot about Mirage. He looked like a holdover design for a Beast machines Vehicon, or maybe even a planned design for Transtech. He had this neat armored alien look and his boat bits always gave me the impression of a cape. I could easily imagine him as an higher ranking officer. Not to mention, I loved his colors.

As you could expect, Mirage's toy mold got reused later in the line as Dreadwing. Dreadwing was a straight repaint of the toy as a new character. Cast in lighter blues with some purple and yellow highlights, Dreadwing is a really nice looking figure. He shared the same complaints as Mirage, so really it was a subjective at best if you took issue. Some fans used him as a new Scourge toy, which paired with Energon Galavatron and BotCon 2002 Cyclonus worked pretty well. Dreadwing didn't show up in the cartoon, but did make an appearance in a Fun Publications story.

A few years went by and it seemed like the mold had been forgotten when it popped up as a BotCon exclusive in 2009. Serving as a new Banzai-Tron toy... it worked pretty well. Another straight repaint, in the colors it looked like Banzai-Tron so much one has to wonder if that was the character the toy was originally intended to be. Speculation aside, it was nice to see the mold get another use. I doubt they'll ever be any sort of homage to Mirage, which is a shame as it was such a neat and different looking toy.