It doesn’t seem fair, the repaint is easier to find than the original. If
you’ve got this battleship mold most likely you’ve either paid too
much to have it imported or you’ve gotten this figure. I’m not gonna
say which coloration is better since I’ve never seen a real Mirage, I don’t
think too many others have either.
Vehicle mode:
The Decepticons are building quite a navy. This is the fourth marine vehicle (Tidal
Wave, Mirage, and Sharkticon) in Energon alone with the only response from the
autobots being half of omega supreme and sentinel. Anyway… done is the stealth
bomber. The new incarnation is that of a battle ship…cruiser… yacht
I’m not really sure what kind of ship it’s supposed to be. The cabin
is too small for a traditional battle ship, that is why I said yacht but why would
it be a yacht? Don’t get your hopes up, he won’t float, so if you’d
planned on playing with him in the tub he’ll disappoint. You would also
ruin the electronics by getting him wet.
Back to the boat itself…. At first glance he looks monochromatic with his
light bluish colors making up the majority of the surface area. Mirage was designed
in the color scheme of Sharkticon, or the other way around maybe, with bright
oranges. Dreadwing looks like a naval color pattern that would blend in on the
open water. He has dark bluish fins that match the missiles. The rest is gray
or black with a little gold detailing thrown in here and there. The windows and
other clear parts are made in purple energon. On the bow (the bow is the front,
right?) is your first hint at the style of this figure, a splash of black in a
kind of half tribal sunburst… or maybe a spot that ran as the paint was
drying. I’m going with tribal since the gold is in weird tribal patterns
on the deck. The fins are removable as are the little depth charges/torpedoes
that attached to them or you can change their direction. If you take them off
you run the risk of losing them and having an extra slit in the hull... it looks
ok but is better with the fins. In the back of the cabin are two powerlink points
close together so be choose with your mini-cons if you wanna use two or just use
energon weapons. They’re actually on the forearms but at least the hands
slide into them and are hidden.
Hyper mode involves pushing the button on the deck to make the missiles rise to
the firing position and either pulling the rear quarter of the hull out into wide
wings or unfolding them down into water skimming hydrofoils. I’m not sure
which is the official hyper mode cause I’ve seen pictures of both. I’m
sure when you push the button it makes some cheesy ass sound but I don’t
know what it is cause I don’t wanna ruin a good figure by adding a bunch
of sounds and crap. I suppose that his hyper wings make him fly again because
they’ve got a badass tribal wing painted on each side when it’s opened.
Tidal Wave could fly why not this guy, right? It’s a good hyper mode except
that one of the launchers needs a shot of Viagra cause the missile points down
instead of level. The other flaw is that when the wings are spread it shows off
all the legs folded up underneath.
Transformation:
Now be gentle at this point cause like Snow cat he can be long and strung out
on the narrow pieces of plastic. To make him even more fragile they put his battery
compartment at one end of the plastic and the rest of the figure at the other
so the breakage possibility is definitely there. The first time can be tough and
the directions are hieroglyphics but once you do it a few times it flows fairly
naturally.
Robot mode:
Does this guy look like a butler or what? If he is I guess it makes since that
he’s a yacht. The only new color introduced is red in the painted eyes,
that’s right no piping. Mirage has piped eyes but for Dreadwing they opted
to put in opaque plastic and paint on the eyes. The hull halves drag behind like
really long tails on a tux. Or they can be moved to point upward so that he looks
like a grown up Terradive. Or they can be slid off altogether. The back quarter
of the hull hangs from his forearms like little French cuffs and the wings could
be cufflinks. He’s supposed to be an elegant artsy-fartsy warrior and he
does pull off the look. I don’t want to make it seem like it’s a bad
figure cause I really like it, it’s just easier to point at it and make
fun of things. He has long Gundam-esque legs. His whole body seems influenced
by Gundam. He’s lean, chiseled, and pointed everywhere. His articulation
is outstanding. He does have an extra joint in his elbow that is necessary for
transformation. His head still has the v shaped crest but instead of it being
a totally different color it has a tribal pattern going up each side like Mike
Tyson with his face tattooed. The body compared to Mirage is rather plain, fewer
painted details, stealthier, not the loud color abomination like Sharkticon. The
worst part about this guy is the hollow abdomen. It gets wobbly and I dislike
a wobbly upper body…. unless it’s boobs. The hull portions can be
a little awkward also, but I think they add a lot visually.
The hyper mode here is the same, press the button, now on the backpack, and the
missiles swing overhead like duel shoulder fire rockets, and the cuffs expand
into wings again. The one rocket launcher still sags…. Oh well. The wings
look stupid as a football bat in hyper mode, just push the button and leave it
at that.
Overall:
Despite what I’ve said negative it’s still a great figure and I’m
not sorry I bought it. It was on clearance at walmart.com for $9. Money well spent.
I might even pay $15 and be as happy. The only other way I could see to improve
this guy is to leave off all the electronic crap. Did I mention I hate electronic
crap? Imagine how much better this size figure would be without it. Shockblast
would have a more proportionate arm, Ironhide wouldn’t be gay (not that
there’s anything wrong with that), and bulkhead could’ve had something
better than his rocket boosting chicken walker. But those are reviews of another
figure entirely.
| Reviewer | slugpitcher |
| Date | May 23rd 2005 |
| Score |  (8 out of 10) |
| Reads | 10521 |
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