Here we have Mirage fully assembled. I should mention I got this second-hand, so there may be some slight wear from the previous owner. Thankfully, there are very few scuffs, though I have experienced a few parts detaching more than I did with Optimus. Whether or not it's an isolated thing remains to be seen. There is another flaw I will mention, but first, let's go over positives. Mirage is positively detailed like the CG model, as is expected with the Yolopark AMK Pro series. The mix of metallic paint apps, weathering, and intricate detailing we wouldn't get with the normal Hasbro stuff makes this feel like a special treat compared to the decrease in paint apps we've seen at times. As for the proportions compared to the CG model, they are spot in, right down to the size of the head and the butt cheek panels. One thing I do like is that the wheels not only spin freely (though the ones in the legs are stuck), but the tires themselves are made of rubber! Even the air fan in the waist is able to spin! Makes me wonder if any other Transformers with wheels are able to spin freely like on Mirage. One minor complaint I do have is that the parts that are meant to represent his alt mode aren't as shiny as they should be. The figure isn't automatically ruined because of that, but he appears to have a matte kind of silver instead of the kind used for his face. Regardless, this is already shaping up to be yet another slam dunk in terms of aesthetics.
Head sculpt is accurate to the movie, what with the slight asymmetrical in the front section of his forehead in addition to the back piece that resembles headphones set behind. He also has a slight bit of expression in the face, though the eyes are this time painted blue in addition to having the LED feature. Maybe that's a good thing as we'll get to. As for the articulation, the head is on a double ball joint (though limited because of the back piece), shoulders rotate, move in and out, utilize butterfly joints, swivel at the biceps, bend at the elbows, ball joints for the wrists and thumb, fingers bend at two points (with the index and middle fingers molded together in addition to the pinky and ring fingers doing the same). There is a diaphragm joint and a waist swivel, hips are on a type of joint where they move forward at a point further forward than where they connect, they move outwards, the thighs rotate, knees bend at two points, the ankles hinge and pivot, and the toes have the smallest and least practical hinge yet. At least the pistons are nice.
In addition to the same display base that came with Optimus Prime, the figure also includes a pair of blasters that go over the forearms. They look lovely and are more silver than the car parts on Mirage, but one thing you may have noticed is they were supposed to have the LED gimmick working properly. He's supposed to use the smallest batteries yet for these kinds of kits (LR621 button cell ones at that), but two problems arise: the housing meant to hold them sucks at keeping them in place when you're trying to slide them in, and even if you were to use something to hold them together, the magnet on the display base's Autobot insignia can't get either the eyes or barrels to light up. Even if I tried getting the little flaps to hold touch one of the sides, they still don't work. Yolopark needs to get these checked on and send out replacement parts like they did with the new LED eyes for Optimus and the accurate purple eye pieces for the Nemesis mode. Thankfully, having the eyes as well as the insides of the barrels painted blue makes up for the faulty gimmick. That being said, other than the base and the cannons, he has no alternate parts. I would have went for either alternate hands with the peace sign or thumbs ups, or a poseable figure of Noah Diaz in the exosuit, but maybe they thought the light up cannons would make up for it? I don't know, the price being slightly lower than on Optimus doesn't make Mirage feel like much of a ripoff, but given the slight height difference, you'd think he'd have as many possible accessories as Prime?
For a Yolopark size comparison, here we have Mirage next to Optimus Prime. While the character is naturally going to be shorter, the scale isn't exactly going to be 1:1 given the way these model kits work. If the ROTB scale were to be iodized to better match how the bots in the main films were, height wise, then he should be somewhere between Bumblebee and Jazz. Mostly works fine with the ROTB scale where Optimus was much smaller, though.
And here we have him next to the Studio Series and Blokees versions of himself. See what better color distribution and proportions does to a design when you look at how poor the Studio Series version turned out? I still can't believe it looks this bad, especially given how fine everyone else turned out. Granted, the Yolopark figure doesn't transform, but if the Hasbro offering that does come with that feature included the mainline Deluxe proportions with the proper altmode and head, I would have been happier. Overall, Yolopark does another good job with their Mirage, but I kind of wish the price was a tiny bit lower to make the limited accessory count easier to stomach. Granted, the triple LED gimmick and possibly the rubber tires make up for that, but who knows what other carformers will have either luxury and still come with more accessories than him. Not helping is how faulty the LEDs are, so that hopefully gets fixed for future releases. Normally, I would say to wait for a sale, but that should be reserved for 3/5ths of the SS86 MTMTE releases at Target (looking at you, Optimus and Megatron).
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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