Mirage
("Invisible Version") [Botcon 2007 Primus Preregistrant-Only Exclusive]
(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the original Classics Mirage. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the original Classics Mirage here.)
There's not much to say
about Mirage, honestly. I feel that the Botcon folks took an uncharacteristically
"been there, done that" approach with the toy-- they just took the toy
and cast it almost entirely in transparent plastic, to emulate Mirage's
ability to turn "invisible". (In case you're wondering why Mirage isn't
ENTIRELY transparent plastic-- namely his knees and parts of his waist
and upper arms-- it's because transparent plastic is more solid-feeling
and brittle than normal plastic, and for stress tolerances and safety purposes
some of the joints CAN'T be cast in transparent plastic.) Now, I don't
have any problem with that per se, but he's got NO paint apps. NONE. I
think that transparent plastic is best done when it still has a fair number
of paint apps, so that it you can see the paint through the plastic. Granted,
that may have ruined the whole "invisible" thing about the toy, but that
doesn't keep it from looking way, way too plain. Takara is used to doing
"invisible" variants of toys, and having something high-end like Botcon
jump on the bandwagon for one toy feels like the easy and uninspired way
out, really.
No mold changes have
been made to Botcon Mirage. Of note is that in addition to being a Botcon
2007 exclusive, Mirage was only available ("free") if you bought the expensive
preregistrant Primus package AND picked the set up in person at the convention--
so this toy is no doubt going to be worth quite a lot of money.
If you like all-one-color
variants of toys, than "Invisible" Botcon Mirage is right up your alley,
but for most collectors this should be an easy pass, due to his complete
lack of paint apps and the fact that he's all one color. I felt something
else really should have been done with this mold instead of this.
Review by Beastbot