2002 Mirage - Random Photos of the Day

Hasbro got Mirage happy between 2002 and 2005.  In that short time, they released no less than 4 repaints of the obscure 1993 Mega Marine.  The thing is, all of them were pretty decent.  While the repaint still didn't fully accentuate Mirage's details, they did bring a more muted paint scheme to the mold.  Unfortunately, collectors quickly tired of Mirage.  Not only was it because of the multiple uses in such a short time span, but also, Hasbro made the mistake of packaging the first two repaints with Viper repaints.  As this was the height of the army building era, collectors quickly amassed dozens of Mirage figures.

And, with that, a once acceptable character from the '90's quickly became a collector nightmare.  And, the repaint era releases were quickly disregarded and tossed into boxes or custom fodder bags in frustration.  More than 20 years later, the figure still doesn't really have any cachet.  You don't see any  of the modern versions used very often since old habits die hard and few collectors who were around in the Mirage heyday still consider him a useful figure to have around.

This is too bad, though, as the all the Mirage figures are a nice and cool way to update the Mega Marines.  Personally, I think the 2003 Hoverstrike figure is the best version of Mirage.  But, this 2002 version that was first released in Wave 1.5 in the early summer of 2002 is also really nice.  So, enjoy some random photos as you stroll down memory lane to a time when Hasbro was really pumping out the figures at retail.