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