Friday 6 February 2015

DX9 Invisible




       Hello and good day Transformers fans, today I'm going to do another review on a third party figure, Invisible by DX9 (Unique toys). This time, they are taking on G1 Mirage. Mirage was previously a member of affluent Cycbertronian society prior to the war. For him war is only for uncivilized beings. He hates the war and all he wish is for the war to have a quick end so he can return to cycbertron. Though sometimes misunderstood by some of the Autobots, he is still loyal to them and will do his part to help them. He has a special ability where he can make himself invisible for a short while and almost similar as Skywarp where he can teleport over short distences.  He is a big hero nonetheless as he stopped the Decepticons from returning to cycbertron in the early episode by teleporting to their spaceship and sabotage the ship.


Here are some pictures I've taken from the internet and some snap shots from my laptop.




Here is a very nice picture of mirage.


Some images of him in G1 cartoon.


Like most of the Autobots, he does have a shoulder rocket launcher, and like most Autobots, rarely use them LOL.


Here we can see Mirage teleporting onto the Decepticon spaceship and sabotaging their ship.




Here we have Invisible ( not mirage ) in his box. I think the box design is pretty cool, having a kind of retro feel, maybe the 70's ? The not mirage picture in front of the box conveniently hides the awkward  piece behind his head which later on we will see as we review the figure.


Side and back of the box.


Invisible comes in his robot mode, along with his shoulder rocket launcher, blaster and instruction manual. 


Here we have his instruction manual. Its suppose to have a collectors card, I can't really recall whether I've lost it or mine does not come with the collector's card.


His blaster and rocket launcher. Nice detailing for both, and nice nice chrome on the rocket launcher.


The rocket cannot be detach from the launcher.



Blaster is greyish  pretty much standard, almost similar to MP-12's design.


Here is the figure himself. I personally feel this is the most G1 looking Mirage out in the market till now. The best thing is that he is MP scale so you can display him along with other MP figures. He is mainly in blue and white color, with some red and chrome. Nice chrome parts over his feet, shins, and chest. No die-cast though. The part that the front box design conveniently forgotten is part of the F1 seat behind his head. I think the figure will look more awesome without the awkward piece. Just a little nit-pick. 


Side view looks nice and slim, just his wheels hanging over his back.


Back view is fairly ok, just that he has the same issue with MP bumblebee where the forearm in hollow. DX9 however did pay attention to the back of his calf region, where there is a black piece to cover some hollow parts. Good attention to details, wish they could do the same for the forearms though ;-p


 Some collectors leave the spoiler to avoid not mirage having a sexy waist LOL, well, he looks a little awkward to me so I do prefer him the original transformation.


As for his head sculpt, he does not have any light-pipping, but the design is as G1 as you ca get. Love the head design. 


A little close up


His head does turn a full 360 degrees.


His head can tilt all the way up as it is part of the transformation, which makes him very posable.



But he can't really look down.


Shoulders are on a hinge joint which rotates a full 360 degrees, but the tires at the back does hinder his shoulder movements. It can be done, with some manipulations.


Just to show the obstruction.


Shoulder abduction is almost 90 degrees, he probably can do about 80 degrees.


Elbows can flex till 90 degrees.


Some biceps swivel.


His wrists are on ball joints, rotates a full 360 degrees. His thumb is static, the rest of the fingers are moving as an individual unit. No individual articulating fingers. Pretty similar to MP cars' design.



Waist swivel can turn a full 360 degrees, but it makes him look very weird at 90 degrees turn.


Hip extension is limited as there is a piece of plastic near his buttocks.


Hip flexion is also limited by his crotch piece.


You can actually manipulate his crotch piece to give way for his leg.


You can collapse the 2 sides and he will have a much much better hip flexion range of movement.


Now he can flex all the way up!


Knees are on double hinge, can flex to about 80 degrees.


You can do the kneeling pose easily as the knees are on a double hinge.




And yes he can perform the perfect split.


He does not have lower limbs rotations such as thigh rotation, instead, his whole leg can rotate as a whole. His hip joint is on a ball and hinge joint.


His foot is basicaly made out of 2 parts. the front chrome and the back by tyre. 


Some adjustment is needed while standing this figure as he tends to fall backwards if the tyres are too high or too low.


He has excellent ankle joints and can rotate to a full 90 degrees.


Here we can see a snap shot from my laptop, featuring Jazz and Mirage's alternate mode.


I think the alternate mode is pretty spot on, the F1 car looks very sleek. Love the chrome engine.
He does have rubber tyres :)


Top view.


Side view. I'm having issue to nicely align the back part of the F1 car. There is always as small gap there. Need to fiddle around with it more and see if it tucks in nicely.


Close up. Sorry did not snap the front part firmly. miss that spot.
It does snap in nicely


You can even fix his rocket launcher in his alternate mode. Looks silly, like the MP cars with weapons on top.





Some poses......






Trying out the iron man pose.







As mention earlier, he does scale pretty nicely with the MP figures. Most 3rd parties will probably aim for this scale to boost their sales in the future I guess. Good news for all MP collectors!


Well I guess the scale is pretty much correct.


Starscream:" Who is this shorty?"


Here is Invisible with function X-4


Group photo time.


Mirage: No matter what Cliffjumper says, I'm an Autobot!"





Evolution of Mirage.
I think Mirage is one of the better looking G1 toys then. Not too bad. 


Pros: In scale with masterpiece figures, good paint job, chrome = bling, rubber tyres, great articulations and posability. Almost G1 accurate robot, G1 accurate alternate mode.

Cons: No light-pipping, no individual articulating fingers, no die-cast. Awkward piece behind the head.


Thanks for reading!