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Transformers Energon Transformers Mirage (4/2004) |
Energon & Superlink |
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Decepticon Mirage
Tech-Spec Card
Note: Some Energon toys came with Fleer Collectible Card instead of the Tech-spec Card.
Scorponok Spec.
Strength : 9 Intelligence : 7 Speed : 5 Endurance : 5 Rank : 5 Courage : 5 Fire blast : 9 Skill : 7
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Decepticon Mirage |
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| Transformers Energon Mirage was released in Spring of 2004 as part of the Mega ($19.99) assortment. The toy came package in standard Energon window box. Mirage was the first Decepticon in the Mega size to be release for the Energon line. Being Decepticon, Mirage did not have the Powerlinx combiner gimmick instead he possessed the Hyper-Power mode for both the vehicle and robot forms. The Hyper-Power mode was a little less than spectacular on most of the Decepticon released thus far and Mirage Hyper-Mode (both the vehicle and robot) was probably the weakest of the bunch. His Hyper Mode involved flipping up the missile launchers. However, what the Decepticon lack in the combiner gimmick they did make up in the cool design (so far anyway) and Decepticon Mirage was no exception. In his vehicle form, Mirage was attack boat, in the line where most of the toys were either jet or land vehicle it was nice to see another water bound vehicle got added to the rank. The missile attack boat had futuristic look with color scheme that pay homage to some of the early Transformers. |
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Mirage design shared many similarity with the recently release Autobot Landmine and probably was done by the same designer. In robot mode, Mirage resembled giant robotic insect (A grasshopper come to mind) due to the boat hull "shell" that hung off his side and back. At first the design appeared to be a little cumbersome with two giant pieces hanging off the robot but the hull were mounted on a ball joints that had great degree of movement and the "shell" can be position in various way which help when one display the figure. The ball joints assembly was exceptionally well engineered and hold the hull part up quite well so the robot rear do not actually rest on these hull sections. (I wish the shell section can be attach together to form a shield that would also eliminate the problem with finding the place for the ship hull in robot mode) Mirage, being a Mega size toy, featured sound effect and required two AAA size batteries. The sound effect however can not be turn off and can be a bit annoying after awhile especially while transforming Mirage. Due to his long boat shape his transformation can be a bit confusing (remind me of that shark from Beast Wars Transmetal 2) and it did not help having the repetitious sound effect kept going off. Mirage had very nice mecha design with many of the design elements taken from the show like Gundam series. He had nice poseability and look good even with the hull parts hanging off him. The toy had minimal amount of clear parts and these for some reason were not done in neither yellow nor green color that found on other Energon Decepticon toys but rather the clear part was done in pale clear blue-green plastic. His eyes, like Landmine, featured light-port design and this really added to the look of the figure. I am not too sure who Mirage suppose to pay homage to but his design reminds me of Scourge from G1 Transformers especially the light blue hull that hung off the back in robot mode especially when the hull sections were put in upward position. | ||||||
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Energon
Mirage in vehicle mode. |
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Mirage Hyper Mode was rather weak for both the vehicle and robot. In boat mode, this simply involved folding up the missile tubes in the front and folded out the two wings in the rear section that transformed the boat into some sort of flying missile boat. Mirage came with four spring loaded missiles (two for the wings and two for the front guns). In robot mode the missile (and battery housing assembly) folded up onto the back of the figure and the Hyper Mode the missiles just pop up over the shoulders which was hardly exciting giving such a formidable looking robot mode. Despite the weak Hyper Mode, Mirage was very well design toy, and since I was already a big fan of the Landmine style of design it was easy for me to like Mirage. Energon had turn out a lot better mecha designs than Armada with fresh new modern take on the 20 years old series. I was especially happy to see less of the floating head design, and more added articulations, something that was sorely lacking in Armada series.
Below - Mirage in Hyper Power mode. |
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