My "Battle Across Time" Maximal Grimlock and Autobot Mirage 2-pack finally arrived today! I was disappointed when this new Earthmode Mirage was first revealed. While the alternate mode does look more like a typical F1 race car, the robot mode was less on model, in terms of color layout and deco choices, and worse yet, wasn't designed to mount the shoulder cannon like the G1 toy, cartoon model, and Siege release of the premold over 2 years ago. Well, I had a hunch I would be able to do a few easy parts swaps between the Siege and Kingdom version of Mirage to get a much more screen accurate representation of the character than either figure by itself. Take a look at the picture I took before and after the process below and decide for yourself if you like the results.
Old Hotness on the Left - New and Busted on the Right:
After swapping the Kingdom legs and arms unto the Siege torso at the mushroom pegs (and retaining the Siege weapons):
Vehicle Mode (Almost Works!):
I love the way the robot mode comes out. I get almost all of the colors and details where I want them and the shoulder cannon can actually mount on Mirage's shoulder. The vehicle mode mostly works exactly as the Siege version of the mold, but they remolded the forearms and legs enough that you can't peg the back end of the vehicle completely together, particularly where the air intake meets the driver's cockpit. It sits fine, but there is nothing to keep it in place if not resting on a flat surface. Maybe someone could engineer a few new plastic pieces that can secure it all together? That's really the only big downside to this modification, but the transformation still mostly works. You just lose some functionality/playability in vehicle form, but if you just want to display either mode on a shelf, you're fine, really. Plus, the best part of this mod is that it is totally reversible and doesn't take any special tools to do. You can just pop the legs off at the mushroom pegs at the hips and the arms at the shoulders and swap them between figures. I did have to use a pair of pliers and some protective cloth to get the legs to fully pop back in to their joints, but the arms require almost no effort. The guns are identical, but you do want to stick with the Siege shoulder cannon, with the black barrel and gray missile, for maximum G1 cartoon authenticity. What do you think?
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