Toy Review - MIRAGE (Rise of the Beasts Deluxe Class)

Autobot MIRAGE
Series - Rise of the Beasts
Size/class - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 1
Released here - April 2023
Approximate Retail Prize - $35
Approximate Size - 13cm
Allegiance - Autobot.........................................sports car
Alt-mode - Porsche 911 (Type 964) Carrera RS 3.8^
Main Features/Gimmicks - N/A
Main Colours - gunmetal grey, silvery grey, blue
Main accessories - x1 gun

https://i.ibb.co/rm9KP7J/ROTB-mirage01.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/PF30j2j/ROTB-mirage02.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/rQSTCQX/ROTB-mirage03.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/zHJxKFZ/ROTB-mirage03a.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/WH2jyBt/ROTB-mirage05.jpg

Pros
+ An impressively well designed toy with engineering that, in some regards, rivals Studio Series. There are some neat tricks in the transformation.
+ Plastics are nicely coloured. While the toy is predominantly grey, it's a nice silvery grey and not that flat "HazBlow" grey that we see on Optimus Prime. It's also accented by metallic shades of blue and gunmetal grey.
+ Sculpting is highly detailed with even windscreen wipers! Again, this is something we're usually accustomed to seeing on licensed Studio Series toys.
+ 12 points of articulation gives this toy a pretty decent amount of poseability (no wrist or ankle articulation though).
+ Clear blue windows look great.
+ While not a licensed Porsche, the vehicle mode is a nice looking approximation.
+ Painted taillights are painted.

Cons
- Head sculpt may not be screen-accurate. I don't know if this is based on a battle mask that he wears in the film or an earlier abandoned design (even tfwiki doesn't know atm). It does give off a Sub-Zero Mortal Kombat vibe. :p
- Bit of a shellformer; carries most of the chassis on the back. Although it does do an impressive job in folding it all up in robot mode where it doesn't make the toy back-heavy, nor does it interfere with poseability.
- The baby blue headlights stick out and don't coordinate well with any of the other blues on this toy.
- The wheels... it has silver-grey tyres and black rims, despite the fact that; from what we've seen in trailers, Mirage has silver rims and black tyres. While there are no black plastic parts on this toy, I honestly don't know why Hasbro couldn't have moulded the wheels on the gunmetal grey plastic sprue, as it's the closest to black, and then painted the rims silver. They're still using part of the budget to paint the rims black anyway. This is the only part of the that personally bothers me.

Warning: The big blue hinge on the back of my Mirage was incredibly stiff. I struggled with it for a long time to try and make it move; ended up using a considerable amount of excessive force before it made an audible crack sound that loosened it. Thankfully there was no damage or stress marks on the hinge, and I haven't had any issues since. But just beware that you may need to "break in" this hinge. Or it could be a freak occurrence and I just got unlucky.

OVERALL
Most of the "cons" I've listed are really minor nitpicks that don't bother me, with the sole exception of the reverse-coloured wheels (why?). I'll probably end up repainting them myself, so it's fixable. Regardless of the unlicensed alt mode and face with dubious screen-likeness, mainline Deluxe Mirage is still a really nice toy in its own right. He's currently my second favourite mainline ROTB Deluxe figure (Wheeljack remains my favourite). Well worth the $35 I spent on it. :cool:

This is definitely one of the lower-ranking ROTB toys for me. The transformation starts off good, as the legs and arms feel fairly intuitive and offer some cleverness, but the back/roof section is where it all goes downhill. As Gok said, the hinge is nearly impossible to move the first time and you feel as if you are going to break it (it is fine after the first time). I also found it very difficult to get the roof closed over the arms as there isn't enough clearance. I've tried it different ways and discovered that doing other steps in a certain order does help, but it never becomes easy.
I also don't like how lazy the Porsche approximation looks, especially toward the back. This may sound like a spoilt complaint, but we know they have the Porsche license now and the Studio Series Mirage is licensed. I just would've at least expected something a bit closer, even if not exact.
I will say that I do like how much closer the bot mode is to the screen model than the Studio Series (or at least compared to the renders of it we've seen so far). The only major divergence from the screen model is the head, which as Gok said might be a battle mask type of thing that comes and goes throughout the film anyway. I think it gives it a bit of a Depthcharge vibe myself. :p
I will definitely keep this figure as I will display it in robot mode next to the Studio Series in car mode when I get it, but I'd recommend people skip this one and grab the Studio Series instead.

A regrettable buy for me. Robot looks crap. Just looks like one of those kiddy One-Two Step Changer ones.

Mirage and Primal are the only 2 'mainline' releases that I am going to pick up... the rest are going to be studio series. Was very excited to pick Mirage up at Kings Comics during the exhibition.

Would definitely want to repaint his wheels so they look right. A few other paint touch ups would also help. Waiting for the actual Studio Series Mirage which has a better vehicle mode.