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By Daniel Lipkowitz, Assistant Editor
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Vehicle Modes
Mirage is a yellow and grey Formula 1-style race car, sleek and arrow-shaped, but not exceptionally detailed. The car’s hubcaps and driver’s seat are painted silver, but a bit more paint would have helped what ends up being a fairly plain vehicle mode. The red robot-mode face is visible sticking out of the back of the car.
Downshift is a dark grey race car with light grey and yellow detailing. The number "3" appears on the hood and sides. The painted symbols really contribute to the car’s appearance, making it look more like a detailed vehicle replica and less like a tiny toy.
Dirt Boss is a light grey SUV with dark blue-green windows and painted racing markings on the hood and sides, along with the number "7". Despite the obvious hinges on the car’s roof, it’s a nice little SUV, but the painted detailing -- yellow, maroon and black stripes on a vehicle that already incorporates yellow and black plastic -- would have been a bit more flashy in other colors.
Transformation to Robot Mode
Mirage: Pull out the sides of the vehicle and fold them down in front of the rear tires to form robot arms. Fold the front down as feet and split the driver’s section to separate the legs. Rotate the front two-thirds of the car 180 degrees and push down the rear spoiler to expose the robot’s face.
Downshift: Pull out on the rear sides of the car and fold them down to form arms. Fold the central rear portion of the vehicle down and split it to form the legs. Flip up the robot head.
Dirt Boss: Gently separate the front half of the vehicle and pull it forward slightly to extend the legs. Hook a thumbnail under each half of the front bumper and fold out the feet. Carefully (and probably with some difficulty -- this is a tricky step and may frustrate kids a bit) raise the striped areas above the rear tires and unfold the lower arms. Rotate the head up from the underside of the vehicle.
Robot Modes
Mirage looks very familiar. In fact, he’s almost the same toy as Swindle, Starscream’s Mini-Con. Aside from the rotating waist, he has exactly the same transformation and very similar appearances in robot and vehicle mode. What’s noteworthy is that despite being clearly based on Swindle’s engineering and transformation, Mirage appears to be a completely new mold. Every part is different from the corresponding part of Swindle, and even portions like the back and legs, where Mirage’s detailing has been patterned after Swindle’s, are different sculpts. Unfortunately, Swindle wasn’t the most dynamic Mini-Con, and Mirage echoes that design. He has a very stiff and rather plain robot mode, made all the more plain-looking by the detail-obscuring bright yellow plastic of his feet and upper body. His Mini-Con symbol appears on his left arm, but the plastic is so bright and the molding so shallow that it can be hard to spot. Happily, the waist rotation helps to differentiate the toy from Swindle and results in different-looking legs and feet.
Downshift is a pretty unusual-looking robot. Standing stiffly on thin rectangular legs, he has huge, hulking arms. With them outstretched, he’s pretty much a capital letter T. Light blue detailing on his fists, lower legs and racing helmet-like face make him look a little more ornate than his fellow team members. His symbol can be found midway down his left arm.
Dirt Boss is another strange-looking character. Tall for a Mini-Con, he has very short upper legs, tiny yellow strips for feet, an unpainted but detailed face and arms that seem to be permanently stuck in an aggressive "come get some" pose. His symbol is on the left side of his chest. Definitely my favorite Race Team robot mode, but a pretty weird one nonetheless.
Articulation
Mirage's arms are jointed above and below the large wheels that form his shoulders, but his arms can only swing out to the sides. His legs likewise can only swing outwards, and he can point his toes thanks to his transformation. Unlike Swindle, Mirage has a rotating waist, giving him a bit more poseability than the toy on which he was based..
Downshift can also only move his legs to the sides, and his torso restricts them from separating by more than 40 degrees or so. His arms are nicely poseable and attach to the shoulder with a combination of hinge and ball joint.
Dirt Boss has good leg articulation, with restricted ball-joint hips, hinged knees and pointing feet, but his upper legs are so short that his poses are somewhat limited. He has no real shoulder articulation, but can shrug his arms back along their transformation joint. His lower arms are designed to jut forward, but can be folded up or straightened out, although the latter looks odd and disjointed.
Features
Mirage, Downshift and Dirt Boss combine to form Skyboom, a rather flattened jet (according to the instructions). Skyboom’s transformation requires Dirt Boss’ entire body to unfold, an intricate feat for a Mini-Con and a nice bit of design. Mirage’s unaltered vehicle mode forms the nose of the jet, his oversized head plugging into a tab on Dirt Boss’ body, while Downshift makes up the rear of the merged vehicle form. Although not the most aerodynamic-looking aircraft, Skyboom doubles as a quite serviceable shield, with Dirt Boss’ peg-shaped head forming a handle that the larger Armada toys can hold securely. As such, Skyboom makes an excellent counterpart to the Air Defense Team’s Star Saber sword mode.
Impressions
With decent vehicle modes and odd robot forms, the Race Mini-Con Team sacrifices some articulation and proportion for the sake of the combined Skyboom mode. If you want a shield to go along with the Star Saber, then this is definitely a set to get. As individual toys, though, the Race Team members may seem a little weaker than most Mini-Cons.
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