Let’s put a simple one out there before I leave for TFCon. Luckily for me, a surprise arrived in the mail, a little bonus included in a package with another figure I was after, so let’s look at this guy.
Rise of the Gimmicks.
So, Rise of the Beasts. Outside of the Studio Series, it had a pretty diverse mainline made up of both normal Deluxes and Voyagers, and a whole lot of gimmick toys. Battle Changers were some of the smaller releases in the line, simplified versions of some of the film’s main cast, including its breakout star here, Mirage, a character I surprisingly grew to love (as I talked about in my review of the Studio Series figure, here). Now, I talk about the Rise of the Beasts toyline in the past tense, but really, it’s still all over store shelves in Canada, to the point where we didn’t really see many figures beyond Wave 1, including this guy, so him making his way to me gives me the bonus of grabbing something I wouldn’t normally be able to. And I’m going to bet this figure probably wasn’t on your radar, either. Let’s see if he’s a hidden gem.
Vehicle Mode:
Good enough to steal.
It’s funny, I’ve seen other Battle Changers with my own two eyes on store shelves, and yet I still picture these guys as being tiny little minifigures every time I see photos of them. That’s not the case with any of them, and that’s not the case with Mirage, here. Basically, he’s the size of an undersized Deluxe mainline figure, like modern Generations and Legacy Deluxe Minibots.
A lost G1 character, perhaps?
The notoriously picky Porsche people only gave out the license for the altmode to the Studio Series toy, so this little car is specifically Not A Porsche (™).
Ceci ne’st pas une Porsche.
That being said, put it side by side with that Studio Series toy, and it’s, like, really close. The spoiler’s a slightly different shape, there’s different lines here and there, but the overall outline’s basically the same, and to my eyes, it looks basically correct.
Really, really close.
If HasTak’s allowed to get the altmodes this close without being sued, they ought to be more open to just not pursuing the official branding, I think.
Pre-cracked.
Like the Studio Series one, though, it’s a very seam-y car, thanks to the transformation. At the same time, there’s a lot of nice detailing here, including windshield wipers, headlights, the works. The only thing that looks cheap about it is the rear wheels, which are on mushroom pegs.
Not his greatest strategy.
Technically, the paint job’s also cheaper, in that it’s not covered in silver paint, it’s just made of shiny gray plastic, but I like this better, for practical reasons. Studio Mirage’s slathering of silver is prone to chipping and scratching, and makes him feel fragile. The color on this version looks nice enough, and doesn’t make me afraid to handle him. He’s got a good amount of other color on him, too, including darker grays for the windows and wheels, blue striping on the hood, and painted orange rear headlights. Again, it’s not as ornate as it could be, his rear window and front headlights are unpainted, and the movie design had more blue striping than what’s here, but it looks decent at a glance. I’d say the front headlights are the only bit that really bugs me.
Importantly, he’s small enough to fit in the Earthrise Optimus trailer.
In terms of build quality, he already feels sturdy by virtue of just not having all that silver paint, but he also holds together really solidly, too. I carried this guy around in my pocket for a little while the day I got him, and felt secure doing so. And, for features, he rolls really nicely, which is about all you can ask from a car like this.
Transformation:
All tucked in.
The idea is that Battle Changers are simplified robots, and this is a heck of a lot simpler than the Studio version. There’s also more going on here than I expected from something this simple. I got him loose, with no instructions, and it actually took me a minute to figure out his waist twist, mostly because you’ve got to move the car’s rear section in the opposite direction it needs to go for robot mode, for clearance for the twist.
Figuring out that I had to do this was the only challenge.
That said, this is a really fun transformation to go back and forth on, and the reason I carried him around in my pocket when I first got him was specifically because I was flipping him back and forth.
Also, you can make a silly walking car mode.
Robot Mode:
Short Stack.
Well, the car mode was clearly the priority here. Maybe that’s a bit unfair, all of these Battle Changers have proportions that are a bit chibified, but based on photos, it looks like he got way more chibified than his line-mates. Mirage is a long, slim robot onscreen, which is hard to translate into a working toy, and the Studio Series one was built more like a linebacker instead. This guy’s a bass-boosted version of that, a wide, short, squat guy, and one that has a big, sticky-outy pile of car parts behind him, too.
He probably knocks so many things over whenever he turns around.
Still, this comes with the territory of simplified figures, so I’ll try not to hold it too much against him.
Varying degrees of non-screen-accuracy.
The proportions do distract from the fact that he doesn’t really meaningfully resemble his onscreen model, though. Again, this is just how movie toys wind up going a lot of the time, since toy designs have to be locked in well before the actual movie designs are finalized, if they want to be manufactured and shipped in time for the movie to launch. The designer commentary on the Studio Series version even talked about Mirage’s onscreen design in particular going through a lot of late-game revisions that they struggled to keep up with. So, no typhoon belt on his waist, no orbs on his shoulders, no other specific details that match, beyond them giving him the same headlight-pecs. Still, I do like the implied design here, screen accurate or not.
It’s his stunt double, or something.
In particular, the head definitely doesn’t match the smiley Pete Davidson man, but unlike the mainline Deluxe figure they also put out, he has a proper face with a mouth, not a battle mask, so it scans well enough to me.
The knees on this boy!
For colors, he’s mostly the same, just with a bit more blue and gray on his body, and for build quality, he’s still rock-solid. He’s a little bit back-heavy given the pile of parts behind him, but his feet are big enough to mostly compensate for it. As befits a simplified figure like this, his articulation’s a bit limited, but also a bit less limited than I was expecting. He’s got ball-jointed shoulders, as well as transformation joints next to them that let them raise and lower, if you want him to shrug.
Those pistons look good for kicking.
Down below, he has waist articulation thanks to his transformation, albeit in limited form thanks to car-part collision. His hips are ball-jointed, and he’s got knee joints, again thanks to the transformation, so he can actually do a walking pose pretty well. Honestly, better than I was expecting. It does make me wish his head rotated, though, just because then he’d feel basically complete.
Defending the honor of the Studio Series version.
Surprisingly for a figure this basic, he has an action feature, too, albeit a simple one: You can rotate his left forearm, and switch it to a hand-cannon, like he has in the film. His left hand’s sculpted differently from his right, presumably to facilitate this.
It has a shotgun-like spread.
And the cannon is a 5 millimeter port, meaning you can put blast effects in there if you have them, and even jam an accessory in there, if you can find something that works.
The thing is, he would do the lame “axe you a question” pun.
This could’ve saved him from Scourge.
Overall:
This guy’s supposed to be a basic little figure, something you can give a kid (or an adult) who wants something they can knock around. And it succeeds at that part of its job. He’s sturdy, has a great car mode, and he’s fun to transform. His robot mode’s a bit messy, both in proportions and design, and while I keep thinking of little things that could have made it better (folding away the backpack more, adding neck articulation), I don’t think that’s really in the cards for something this simple.
Defending controversial Mirages everywhere!
He might be good value, though. Gamestop has these guys for $14.99 Canadian, while Core-Class mainline transformers go for around $16.99 there, and higher in some places. Core-class guys have more joints, and are less chibified, but are a fraction of the size. Feels like you get a little more for a little less with Battle Changers. Heck, I might have gone all in on this range if they’d done the full cast of the movie, instead of tapping out after Mirage, Prime, Bee, Rhinox and Scourge. But as for this guy, he is what he is, and what he is is, ultimately, fairly fun.
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