The Energon Pub

[waaaaghlord]

Is anyone else a little disappointed with him? I believe somebody said that FunPub had explained the decision to do him in clear blue rather than just clear plastic at the Club panel at Botcon, but I can't help but wonder if he came out a little darker than intended. He looks alright with a light source directly behind him but doesn't really say 'invisible' to me when he's just on a shelf with the rest of the Classics. Great concept, but to me the execution's a little flawed. Also in the 23 years since Mirage first wowwed Spike with 'the best disguise of all' we've never had the ability reflected in any toys and now we get three landing inside a year (Botcon, Robot Hero and Ehobby BT). Even taking into account that the BT version has nothing to do with Hasbro does that seem like overkill to anyone?

[CyberTooth]

Eh... not really over kill, just an idea that is finally getting used on the right character.

I don't own the botcon figure nor do I want to, but the main reason you got an entire figure casted in clear blue is because it's a cheap way to produce an exclusive figure with a "neat" gimmick fans will appreciate. They got to reuse the Mirage mold without any retooling, and to top it off, they only had to buy one type/color of plastic. Breaking it down... you paid for less than 20 cents of material which probably worked out to be a few dollars (if that much) by the time they actually produced the figure.

[Bonger]

Yes, I too was a little dispaointed. I love him conceptually. I just would have loved him to be clear, or would have loved a Sunstorm or Ghost SS instead. Then again, ghost SS so woulda been blue, lol.

Still, with the Classics continuing, I hope to see a Sunstorm on shelves in the fall.

[waaaaghlord]

Cyber Tooth, really not meaning this to sound funny as you've already said that you don't have the figure and there haven't been any great pictures of him online to date, but he's got a few areas of solid blue plastic on the waist, inner torso and inner legs (edit- and the elbow joints -edit) as well as the clear blue that makes up the rest of him. As I said above, like the concept just not so thrilled by the execution. Personally I'd have rather seen him done as clear plastic on the areas that ended up clear blue and maybe clear blue on the areas that ended up solid blue. Also the Robot Heroes clear version manages to look good with some paint aps over the translucent material. The only decoration on the Botcon Mirage is his rubsign, which really stands out against the rest of the figure. Maybe a printed Autobot logo in white would have worked better? On mine the rubsign may have to go and I may have a careful examination of the colours on the normal version and see if a little white paint applied in the same scheme would tidy him up a bit. Since he is clear blue rather than the plain clear that would have made more sense to me I'm not adverse to fiddling with him to get something that pleases my tastes a bit better.

[teroh1988]

i think he would've looked great in a lighter color of blue, and how can he be invisible if part of him is solid

[Bonger]

Still, I'm not unhappy with Mirgae. Like waaagh, I just think he could have been so much better. Think ehobby clear SS, ya know.

[Craven Knight]

He should have been clear colourless plastic with see through blue paint apps.

The all dark blue plastic idea is a dud.

[CyberTooth]

Since there are pieces of him that are solid blue, then yes, clear plastic would've looked awkward. Its odd that any of him would be a solid color. However, if these are areas where that are transformation heavy [that is, they take the brunt of the force used to transform the figure] then yes, it would be wise to use solid plastic. Clear, or at least transparent pieces trend to be more brittle.

Yeah, the rubsign would look odd, I think. Big white square... but you can always peel that off. But I stand by my arguement that they went as cheap as possible in creating this figure, so honestly the sticker was the cheaper option than setting up some sort of paint process. Especially for something that is in such limited quanity.