Mirage (2005 Winter Operations)
I’ve said it before, I’m a sucker for clear and translucent figures. I can’t explain why; the best I can liken it to is the old mountain climber adage: because it’s there.
Mirage was the strangest part of the Winter Operations Toys R Us exclusive of 2005. The package art and the file card make no mention of what the heck is going on here. My best guess is that someone at Hasbro wanted to make a sideways reference to the Transformers’ Mirage, a character who specialized in invisibility and camouflage. The Joes’ Mirage however has nothing to do with invisibility or camouflage, and is actually a weapons expert.
What better way to make an ‘invisible’ figure than to mold it in clear plastic? Well, they could have been snarky and left his part of the package empty. The invisibility idea doesn’t account for parts of his body being painted normally, so I have no idea what they were going for, and that intrigues me. Being part of a winter themed pack, maybe he’s supposed to be made of ice, which if true, would make him the most surrealistic Joe figure ever made.
I am a big fan of the Mega Marines characters, including Mirage. I did feel that he was a little overused towards the end of the ARAH style figures, but this figure in particular is cool since it does seem to reference an invisibility type camo.
Invisible high-tech camo. The only answer possible.
I love and have him, my best winter/arctic G.I.JOE!
He’s Zartan’s good twin. Dude has a large family already, so why not? Translucent figures are right up there with glow-in-the-dark, chrome, and color-changing features. This one flew by my radar but he looks very cool.
I need to track down this arctic set.
It’s a very cool and underrated set.
One might think a character named Mirage would be more associated with a desert, but what do I know?
This might have been a clever alternate “chase” release, if they’d shipped a solid version, but they did not. So it’s just weird.
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