This weeks review is another Combiner Wars figure. I almost didn't get him. If it weren't for the sage council of Tricky and the supreme sneakyness of my wife I wouldn't have got him.
This week I'm talking about another Wave 4 CW Deluxe, Mirage.
He's a blue and white repaint of Wave 1's Dragstrip, so he transforms from a F1 style race car, to a leg, an arm and a robot.
He comes with a silver Hand/Foot/Gun and a weird sword gun. I hate the gun. It's got nice detail on it and as a sword it looks and works perfectly. As a gun it has a major problem. The gun handle is angled (at 45 degrees?) and it does not work with this mold. Mirage can't hold it properly.
He's a blue and white repaint of Wave 1's Dragstrip, so he transforms from a F1 style race car, to a leg, an arm and a robot.
He comes with a silver Hand/Foot/Gun and a weird sword gun. I hate the gun. It's got nice detail on it and as a sword it looks and works perfectly. As a gun it has a major problem. The gun handle is angled (at 45 degrees?) and it does not work with this mold. Mirage can't hold it properly.
I hear some of you asking "But Stu, why don't you use it as just a sword?" I could but Mirage doesn't feel right with a sword. He needs a gun. The sword handle butts into the arm and because of the angle you have to use with it. You can't even store it properly in any of his alt modes. You can either have a sword poking straight out of the side of your car or at that funny angle. It's not completely in the way in arm mode but you'll struggle in every other mode.
At the time of writing this review I haven't modified it but I'll be looking into it. I'd like to keep the ability to use it in both modes but I'll gladly sacrifice one of them if I have to. As an example I gave Mirage in both robot mode and car mode to Slick (aka Mrs Stu) and even with her limited toy experience she was frustrated by it.
The H/F/G works well though.
At the time of writing this review I haven't modified it but I'll be looking into it. I'd like to keep the ability to use it in both modes but I'll gladly sacrifice one of them if I have to. As an example I gave Mirage in both robot mode and car mode to Slick (aka Mrs Stu) and even with her limited toy experience she was frustrated by it.
The H/F/G works well though.
In his race car mode Mirage looks pretty cool. it has all of the stereotypical F1 race car parts on it, the spoiler, the bit down at the front and the shapes we all instantly think of as F1 race car. It's a good size car and it fits in well with the other Wave 4 cars I have. There's not a lot to write about here, it's a car and it has some decals on it to.
As a leg Mirage is solid enough, much like the other CW legs. In it's offical mode it does enough to keep me happy.
I might swing the front of the car around to create a knee spike of sorts. Weapon storage is rubbish but you can kind of make a leg blade with the sword. Just like car mode there's not much to it.
Arm mode does a lot of good things. The front half of the car does some simple tricks to from a good arm shape and the back half of the car clips and holds together securely for the fore arm. It's a good arm mode and I probably end up not using it much. My plan is to use him as a leg. Who knows, I might use him as an arm with Battle Core Optimus (uurgh I'm going to end up getting Sunstreaker and Rodimus to finish that off aren't I?).
I just discovered a cool little trick to store the sword. If you swing the rear spoiler of the car down and peg the sword into the hole on there it can work as a punch dagger of sorts. Think Assassins Creed. It makes the arm a little shorter to the other CW limbs but it's something I'll never notice most of the time.
OK Robot time. Mirage in robot mode is pretty good. He doesn't do anything to refer back to his G1 version but much like with prowl I don't mind. (But I do with Ironhide! I'm awful. Truly awful.)
He's got some good articulation and robot mode shows off some nice sculpted detail. You also get a good look at his head here (obviously), it's a good sculpt and they added a soul patch.
Ok it's meant to be a chin but it looks like a soul patch to me. The articulation is pretty normal compared to the other CW Deluxes, nothing really gets in the way and (on mine) all of the joints are fairly tight. Obviously I have issues with the gun/sword but lets not get into that again. I generally peg his H/F/G into his shoulder peg, I don't feel the need to use it as a gun and I've not really got any other use for it ala Streetwise and Rook.
I'll be honest I don't have a lot to say about this figure in any of his modes. It's a pretty good figure but there really isn't much to say about him. The only reason I reviewed him is that I'd done two of the other Wave 4 Deluxes and if I get Sunstreaker (oh lord help me) I'll review him to.
Ok I'm done. Next week, who knows what/who I'll review?
He's got some good articulation and robot mode shows off some nice sculpted detail. You also get a good look at his head here (obviously), it's a good sculpt and they added a soul patch.
Ok it's meant to be a chin but it looks like a soul patch to me. The articulation is pretty normal compared to the other CW Deluxes, nothing really gets in the way and (on mine) all of the joints are fairly tight. Obviously I have issues with the gun/sword but lets not get into that again. I generally peg his H/F/G into his shoulder peg, I don't feel the need to use it as a gun and I've not really got any other use for it ala Streetwise and Rook.
I'll be honest I don't have a lot to say about this figure in any of his modes. It's a pretty good figure but there really isn't much to say about him. The only reason I reviewed him is that I'd done two of the other Wave 4 Deluxes and if I get Sunstreaker (oh lord help me) I'll review him to.
Ok I'm done. Next week, who knows what/who I'll review?
Stu "Darkageis" Murray is a founding member of The Old Oilhouse, a lifelong transformers nut and collector of Sentai and Kamen rider in most of it's forms.
He sometimes takes epic trips and tells tales of these sagas often.
When not watching people in spandex fight each other he paints miniatures, go HERE to take a look.
He sometimes takes epic trips and tells tales of these sagas often.
When not watching people in spandex fight each other he paints miniatures, go HERE to take a look.
