Mirage (Energon)

The name or term "Mirage" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Mirage (disambiguation).

• Tidal Wave
• Mirage

Mirage is a Decepticon from the Energon portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family.

I'm also better at being gay for Megatron, but don't tell me that, either.

Mirage claims to sport as much firepower as the mighty Tidal Wave. Truth be told, in a head-to-head match-up, Mirage would actually have a slight edge. But don't tell him that, it would only fuel his vanity. Megatron counts on Mirage as one of his best warriors. Mirage carries out his destruction of Autobots with the skill of an artist. He uses his high-speed gunboat to great advantage at sea, but is an equal threat on land.

Toys

Energon

• Mirage (Mega Class, 2004)
  • Accessories: 4 missiles

Energon Mirage transforms into a sleek assault speedboat with multiple spring-loaded missile launchers, as well as fold-out wings for his "Hyper Mode". Something of a shellformer, Mirage's transformation sequence is one of the most complex for the Energon toyline, and as a side effect, he ends up with some rather large vehicle mode shell kibble. Some poor design and excessively tight knee joints means his lower legs will often detach from the upper thighs whenever one tries to bend his knees.

The initial releases of Mirage were one-per-case, and part of a wave that saw limited distribution due to a glut of early product on the shelves. However, Mirage was later put into "Mega-Buy" multi-packs at a buy-one-get-one-free price at numerous chains, including Toys"R"Us and Walmart, relieving much of the demand for the item.

This figure was officially repurposed as the upgraded version of Energon Tidal Wave.

This mold was also redecoed into Energon Dreadwing and BotCon 2009 Banzai-Tron.

• More information on Mirage at TFU.info

Notes

• With mid- to late-run Energon toys like Roadblock, Landquake, Beachcomber, and Mirage, the apparent struggle between Hasbro's intentions and Takara's decisions came to a head. Numerous toys intended to be new characters had been turned into powered-up versions of existing characters when portrayed in the cartoon. And so it was with Mirage, who was shown to be a rebuilt Tidal Wave when he debuted in the cartoon. Hasbro had intended the toy to be a new character, however, and either did not have time to change his bio, or else decided to proceed as planned regardless. And so, Mirage represents both Tidal Wave and a new, separate character.
• Aaron Archer states that the Mirage/Dreadwing design's alternate mode was inspired by the G.I. Joe Cobra Moray hydrofoil. The general "form" of the robot mode, meanwhile, was inspired by a fan-painted Gundam Archer saw in Hobby Japan magazine, which also served as reference for Dreadwing's colour scheme.
• Mirage's bio states that he has gained a high rank in the Decepticon army. However, his "rank" Tech Spec is only 7.

Foreign names

• Hungarian: Délibáb ("Mirage")
• Polish: Miraż ("Mirage")