The Mirage sheet needs to be withdrawn for alteration (and preferably given an alternate version). As-is, it's just plain not up to snuff. For one thing, it's missing something it seriously needs: A corrective Autobot sigil for the vehicle nose just in case the factory botched it (as seen below).
I was really hoping the SIEGE Mirage sheet would account for the possibility of that error, but alas.
There are more flaws beyond that oversight (some of which I realized as I was typing):
* The "CITANES" and "26" stickers for the sides are just plain half-assed. There is absolutely no excuse for not having "CITANES 26" or "26 CITANES" as all one label in the blue area, especially when HasTak managed it on the factory decals. On top of that, having the 26 on the engine details looks
really stupid,
especially in robot mode.
* The shoulder stickers are completely wrong; they should be split into two parts and
not be on the shoulders at all. Here's a G1 Mirage for reference:
** The silver decals with the red dots and black lines should be above his chest, to either side of the faux-parts JS-11 nose
** The purple vent decals should be modified to go on the actual molded vents on the SIEGE figures chest that correspond to the decal from the G1 toy.
* The forearm stickers would be better off omitted, or else widened to cover the molded stripes neighboring them. As-is, they just look.. off.
* Given the intent to make it look more G1, the cockpit sidewalls should actually be
white, not blue like the rest of the body. The dancing girl decal should also be a separate label, so that people can pick which side to put it on,
if they want it at all.
IMO, it could also do with coming in a "stripped-down" version for people who don't mind SIEGE Mirage's clear blue plastic. Because if you're fine with the transparent plastic, that renders almost half the sticker mass pointless.
EDIT: I also see that they still haven't updated Tor to have the thruster decal as an optional. Saddening, but it might be that they're having trouble sourcing an original or good pic thereof and thus it's beyond their control. What is in their control is that they have not yet redone the Galaxy Upgrade Optimus set (which is half-garbage IMO: '80s cartoon-style cel shaded windows
do not belong on a Cybertron-based figure, and the stickers for the lightbar halves are completely wrong. They should be covering the lightbar halves entirely in blue to make up for them not being painted, and there should be corresponding stickers for the faux-parts cab halves. Instead of the abomination window stickers, it should have some stickers for detailing the leg guns. IMO the only window sticker that would actually work on that figure, is a sticker mounted
behind the glazing that depicted
Cybertron Optimus' Matrix compartment. The cel-shaded ones just make it look like
more of a cheesy bootleg of the original than it already does).
So that this post isn't completely negative: I look forward to when they get around to doing a Clampdown conversion set for Red Alert. SIEGE Red Alert's red wheels and cartoon-color head notwithstanding, decals are the only difference between the two deco-wise so Clampdown is an ideal candidate for such a conversion.
Also, I think it would be really neat and helpful if they made duplicates of Sideswipe's launcher and rocket to go with the Red Alert sheet, and a duplicate of Red Alert's gun to go along with the Sideswipe sheet.
that and a secondary set of taillight stickers for each that's drawn to fit the SIEGE figures' sculpted taillight detail, but that's me
Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2019 6:39 pm
.