A good thing about Transformers as a line of action figures is that it’s very conducive to just creating your own characters and stories. There’s shows and comics you can follow (and that’s usually how I approach it), but so much of it is just plastic robots with vague lore around them (or no lore at all, now that we barely see bio notes on figures), ripe to tell whatever stories you want, or even just adapt the figures into new characters. Case and point, one of the reasons I was so keen to purchase Toxitron Mirage was that I’d repurposed that particular repaint into a new character, N-Zap, with a new story around him. And today’s much older figure, which happens to share some tooling with him, is another such case.
His 60 seconds of fame.
So, on the Transformers: War for Cybertron: Siege Netflix show, Mirage, who has the power of holographic illusions, briefly disguises himself as a Decepticon. The ruse fails almost immediately, and the entire scene is less than a minute long. In fact, here’s the entire clip:
Despite how irrelevant this short digression was, the Walmart-exclusive War for Cybertron Trilogy (or Netflix) toyline did a repaint of the standard Siege Mirage in these colors, and it was something I passed on when it came out around 2020. But I’m not the only person to notice that this evil-looking repaint of the classic Autobot easily maps to being other characters, and I’ve seen fans use him as an update of the Generation 2 Decepticon Deluge, the Cyberverse Decepticon Shadow Striker (before the new Legacy Evolution one came out,) or someone original. Me, I decided he’s Grimrange, N-Zap’s edgy, dramatic, over-the-top-grim-dark rival, the Shadow the Hedgehog to N-Zap’s Sonic. And I knew someone who was letting a copy go for a good price, so I decided to bite, and see how the figure holds up in the space year 2023! That being said, I’ve talked about the Siege Mirage tooling a lot, in its clear holographic form, in its janky, bad Kingdom “Earth Mode” retool, and the improved-but-still-mildly-janky Toxitron version (linked earlier), so this’ll be a bit briefer, I think.
Robot Mode:
Just who are they?
It’s kind of funny how I just talked about how Studio Series Mirage was built like a broad-shouldered linebacker instead of his more svelte screen appearance, because for all the good aspects this G1-style tooling has, it also has that same physique. But the benefit of this reading as a different character is that it’s less of a visual issue here. Instead, I can just enjoy how this design hits the same vibes as the often-retooled Siege Sideswipe mold, of being the Platonic Ideal of an Autobot Carformer. The big difference here is that the car hood on Mirage’s chest is fake, the real one splits and hides in his legs.
If he kicks backwards, those wheels could do some damage.
Those legs are the only thing on him that isn’t super-clean, they’re a pile of vehicle parts inside hollow shins, with wheels sticking out of the back. Still, at least they hold together, something that would later be a problem on the Kingdom Retool and its derivatives. Aside from that, the only bit of car parts hanging off him are the panels on his shoulders, and they look more decorative than anything. Speaking of that, those panels are the most obvious visual difference between this Siege original and the later Kingdom tooling.
Not quite like looking in a mirror.
They changed a lot of parts, but most of those changes aren’t immediately visually obvious.
He insists he’s the superior one, and as per tradition, a race will prove it.
Uptop, his head’s got that funky sideburned Mirage helmet, with a curiously neutral face that I now think really fits this figure’s identity as a villain.
He’s just brooding about his tragic past.
But what really fits, of course, are his totally new colors. This is actually a really impressive paint job on a technical level, because, like Netflix Wheeljack, a lot of his more vibrant colors are entirely painted on.
“Hello, fellow Decepticons! How about those evil plans? Boy, they sure are evil. What were they, again?”
I’m pretty sure he’s actually just cast entirely in gray and black plastic (and even then, mostly gray). That’d be dull, were it not for the light blue and purple (including chest-mounted Decepticon symbol) across his body, which, as far as I can tell, is all paint apps.
He fits in surprisingly well with the Toxitron crew.
And it’s a good-looking color scheme, clearly marking him as a villain, while being a bit unique (I can’t recall the last time I saw that particular shade of blue on the figure). Shout-out to the little bit of yellow on his robot eyes, the general darkness of the rest of his colors make it seem like they’re glowing. And because the theme of the Netflix toyline was battle-damage, he’s got black scorch marks and cracks on his shoulders and legs, and both the purple and blue paint appear alternatively scuffed and scorched in different places, which is, like Wheeljack again, accidentally characterful.
He fits in with the Generation 2 Decepticons, too.
With Jackie, it made him look like a grungy mechanic-inventor, and it makes this version of Mirage feel like an edgy villain with a deliberately messy appearance For the Aesthetic, which fits the personality I invented for him.
“Hey, bro! You know what takes my mind off my tragic past? Racing!”
“No! Leave me to be edgy in peace!”
In terms of build quality, this is The Good Version of the tooling, so everything’s nice and tight, all the joints are good, and he stays standing perfectly. His articulation’s of the standard (good) level for modern figures (minus his wrists), which is particularly impressive considering his bulk. A little bonus I’ve always appreciated on this version is that those shoulder panels are on a joint that lets you flare them out, keeping them out of the way.
He’s using his articulation to really milk the emotions.
For accessories, he’s got the same loadout as every other version of the tooling: An impressively large rifle, a shoulder-mounted missile launcher, and a removable rocket on the end, with its own handle, if he wants to hold, or mount it.
The classic Mirage loadout.
And (I’m never going to let this go), the launcher can actually fit on his shoulder, unlike later retools. The funny thing is that all three accessories are totally unpainted gray, but they happen to balance with the main figure’s colors in such a way that they don’t look dull, unlike Netflix Wheeljack.
Dynamic posing certainly helps.
There’s enough 5-millimeter pegs on these weapons (including on the backs of both of them) for you to assemble them a bunch of different ways, and he’s got 11 whole ports across his body to add them, or other accessories to, which is especially handy if you’re repurposing him as Shadow Striker.
“Flamewar, why didn’t you bring any guns?”
“I was just gonna steal one of yours.”
Transformation
It’s good, folks. Out of all the things the Kingdom retool wrecked, this was the most egregious, because this original version of the transformation works so well. You unfurl his torso, fold it in on a ligature, fold his arms to turn them into the top of the car, then fold out the car’s front from his legs, before snapping it all together. It’s fast, intuitive, and everything works. There’s not really much else to say about it!
Vehicle Mode
The Phantom Racer.
Mirage has nearly always been a Formula-1 racer of one kind or another, and this version’s no exception. It’s hypothetically a Cybertronian design, but the whole thing looks earthly enough to my eyes, even with details like the enclosed bubble cockpit.
Not much of a difference. And they’re both in wild colors, anyway.
The only part of this tooling that isn’t clean is the pile of arms beneath the spoiler (the Kingdom one fixed that), and, I guess, the robot chest with its fake vehicle hood poking out of the back.
He keeps his logo there for all the cars eating his dust.
Otherwise, this is a clean car mode, one that holds together really solidly (that’s what Kingdom broke). The colors are mostly the same, maybe with a bit more visible gray. One thing I like about the color layout here is a ring of purple around the cockpit that looks worn down by the elements.
Time for a race!
Outside of that, he rolls really well (considering he’s a low-riding vehicle, that’s pretty exceptional), and you can mount his weapons on pegs on his spoiler, if you want.
Twisted Metal mode.
There’s almost not much to say here, this is just a good altmode. Maybe I can talk about the character I made up?
This race has turned deadly!
Grimmrange, like N-Zap, is from the planet Velocitron, and isn’t a part of the war. Instead, they’re both Battle Racers, a sport that’s half racing, half combat, and has its own vibrant sports culture. I like Splatoon and Mario Kart, and the whole thing’s a bit of a pastiche of that to me, full of colorful characters, and (relatively) low stakes. And this racecar mode works well for that!
Overall
The Ripe for Repurposing Squad.
Siege Mirage was a pretty good carformer, with a bit more sauce to him than the standards of the line (and the standards were already high), and all that goodness is preserved in this form, which, by the way, is the only non-retool version of the tooling that has no translucent plastic in it. As for the colors, I guarantee no one bought this because of its little one-scene appearance in the TV show. If you’re interested, it’s because it’s an unusual, wholly original deco, the sort of thing we don’t really see on a lot of mainline figures anymore, and the kind of thing you can easily repurpose into the character of your choice. Plus, it just looks good. If you have a shot at a well-priced aftermarket copy of this like I did, I say go for it, let your imagination run wild.
Eternal rivals, to me.
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