 It's a Schwinn. Purrs like a kitten. Want to take it back up to inspiration points? Sorry, no can do. I have to review a G.I. Joe motorcycle. Before we review, but before we got started, I wanted to make sure everyone knew the guys from the G.I. Joe Berg podcast have a GoFundMe campaign going on right now to fund their trip to Jo-Con. I would love to see the G.I. Joe Berg guys at Jo-Con. This will be the last Jo-Con, so it will be the last opportunity to get everyone together. I will be helping and I hope you will too. I will leave a link to their GoFundMe campaign. Please help out if you can. This week we are going to look at a small vehicle. I know everyone wants to see the popular figures and the big vehicles, so do I. But there were plenty of small toys in G.I. Joe and we can't neglect them. These reviews of small vehicles may not be the most popular, but they are important to me. By looking at these small vehicles, it reminds us that G.I. Joe had toys for every kid. Not everyone could buy the giant vehicles and play sets. Not every family had the space or the money for them. But if you could afford to buy an action figure, there were a few vehicles that weren't much more expensive than the action figures. Maybe you couldn't get a tank or a hovercraft, but you could get a motorcycle for your guys to ride around on. This is the Silver Mirage. This is the motorcycle that replaced the Ram motorcycle from 1982. And I liked the Ram, so maybe I'll like the Silver Mirage too. Let's go small and look at G.I. Joe's second motorcycle. HCC788 presents the Silver Mirage. This is the G.I. Joe Silver Mirage motorcycle from 1985. This vehicle was first available in 1985 and was also available in 1986. It was discontinued for the year 1987. In 1985 it is considered by many fans to be the best year of the 80s G.I. Joe run. Several great vehicles were released that year. The Silver Mirage did not come with a figure, but I have Lady J riding mine. I always associate the vehicle with Lady J because of the way it was introduced in the comic book. The Silver Mirage replaced the 1982 Ram motorcycle, which was discontinued after 1983. The Ram, of course, was G.I. Joe's first motorcycle. It didn't come with an action figure either, but I always associate Breaker with the Ram. In 1986 the LCV Recon sled was introduced and that was sort of a motorcycle, kind of a deconstructed motorcycle. Again, it didn't come with an action figure, but I liked Bazooka with that one. In 1987, Battle Force 2000 had the Marauder, a motorcycle tank. I wouldn't consider it to be a replacement for the Silver Mirage. The Marauder also did not come with an action figure, but it did have a designated driver, Dodger. In 1988, G.I. Joe got the ATV motorized vehicle pack. Again, it isn't really a replacement for the Silver Mirage. When did G.I. Joe get another motorcycle? In 1988 they had the Tiger Paw, but that was just a repainted Cobra Ferret ATV. And it's not technically a motorcycle. Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks like G.I. Joe's next real motorcycle was the Ninja Force Ninja Lightning from 1993. In the interest of fairness, let's look at the Cobra equivalence. In 1985, Cobra had the Ferret ATV, not really a motorcycle. In 1987, they had the Dreadnock cycle. Again, not really a motorcycle. There are a lot of similarities between the Silver Mirage and the Ram. It looks like they tried to upgrade the Ram and give it more features. The Silver Mirage has a lot more parts. The Ram has a side-mounted machine gun. The Silver Mirage has a sidecar that can carry a figure and it has a gun mounted on the sidecar. The practice of mounting weapons on motorcycle sidecars was common in World War II. With the sidecar, the Ram could hold an extra action figure and it could carry two figures on the bike itself. Although the Silver Mirage is a much more complex vehicle than the Ram, the Ram has an important edge over the Silver Mirage. We will discuss that later in this video. I'm going to take Lady J out of the way so we can take a look at the parts and the features of the Silver Mirage. It has a headlight. It is clear plastic and that piece is often missing, so do look out for that. It also has what the blueprints call a bullet-resistant molded windshield. It is also in clear plastic. It has a sticker kill marks there. It also has what the blueprints call urethane body panels and that's this silver plastic cowling that goes around the front and down the sides. We have the front wheel and that is a rubber black tire and that's nice. That's an upgrade from the Ram. It has a silver wheel with three spokes. It has a green fork, kind of an olive green color and I guess that would be the brakes that kind of go over the wheel and those are nicely detailed and the colors go well together. The front wheel rolls and it can turn left and right. That's the same as the Ram. Swinging the motorcycle around to see what's behind the windshield. On the inside of that silver cowling we have a texture pattern. Then we have this green circle and that's just where the front fork hinges. Then we have these handlebars also in green. They are both sticking straight up and what's nice about these handlebars is you can fit the action figure's hands on them. I can, for example, place Lady J on the motorcycle and place both of her hands on the handlebars and they actually fit on there pretty well. That's an upgrade from the Ram which had no handlebars. You were just supposed to place the figure's hands into these slots. One problem with this feature is the handlebars do not peg into the main body of the motorcycle very well. So you have to take the figure off of it very carefully. Otherwise the handlebars will come off with it. Looking at the main body of the motorcycle directly behind the handlebars we have a port for the fuel tank. So that is usable with certain G.I. Joe fuel pumps. Unfortunately G.I. Joe didn't have very many of these fuel pumps. One came with the USS Flag aircraft carrier. You could use this to pretend to refuel your motorcycle. The main body of the Silver Mirage is in that silver plastic and it looks pretty good. Nice and streamlined. Looks very sporty. Here on the starboard side we can see an engine in green plastic. It has a little tab here for the action figure's foot and there's even some detail kind of a ridge pattern on that. That's very nicely done. Working our way back we have the seat. As we saw earlier it can hold two action figures. It is black and it's made of a rubbery material like the tires. In fact all of the black parts of this vehicle are made of rubber not plastic. Attached to the seat is this rubbery ring that goes all the way around the back of the motorcycle and right between these two green missiles. I'm not sure why they went with that but it does provide some color interest and surprising detail for the back of the motorcycle. On the back wheel we have a green rear suspension and brake and much like the front end it is attached to a silver three-spoked wheel and we have another black rubber tire. Next we have these small green missiles and they wedge in between these silver tabs on the body of the motorcycle. They don't peg in. There are two of them. They are tiny and they mount at a slight upward angle if you face them to the rear. I think they make the most sense as rear-facing missiles. I would use these missiles to take out a pursuer. Like suppose a Cobra vehicle is bearing down on the silver mirage trying to run the motorcycle off the road. Well if it gets too close these back missiles fire directly into the pursuer's front grille. They're small missiles so they wouldn't blow up the whole vehicle but they would take out the engine. They would be used in exactly the kind of scenario depicted on the cover of issue number 44 of the comic book. You don't have to use that revolver Lady J. You have two missiles right there. They can't miss at that range. We have the sidecar mounted on the port side and we're going to take a look at that in a minute but first let's take it off so we can finish looking at the motorcycle. This is a good time to mention the sidecar does not stay on very well. I have to use mounting putty to keep it on. The motorcycle has a green kickstand that's another frequently missing part. It just swings down and the silver mirage can stand pretty well with the kickstand down. On this side we can see that green engine that we saw from the other side. Excellent detail and the color contrast works well. Then we have this long exhaust pipe that runs down the side all the way to the back and on that we have another tab for the rider's foot. You have a round hole and a rectangular hole and that's where the sidecar attaches and this is as good a time as any to look at the sidecar. On the starboard side of the sidecar we have these tabs. We have the round one and the rectangular one and those fit in the holes that we just saw. These tabs are very thin and break very easily and it's the same with the RAM. The RAM's tabs that connected the sidegun also were very thin and often broken. The sidecar is in silver plastic like the motorcycle and here in front we have a headlight in clear plastic and this is another frequently missing part. In fact, this is the last part I had to get to complete this vehicle. It has a windshield in clear plastic. It has a single silver three-spoked wheel with another rubber tire. I do like the rubber tires on the silver mirage. It is kind of a bonus to get a vehicle that is an entirely made of plastic. Now we have the weapon on the sidecar and indeed the primary weapon on the silver mirage. The blueprints call it a 10-round mortar launcher. You could pretend this is a machine gun and that's how I would use it. It is fixed and forward-facing. It does not traverse. The gun is easily removed and it attaches to the sidecar with these very thin pegs and these pegs wedge into these slots and they are very thin and very easily broken off. That's a frequently broken part and it doesn't fit on there very securely so the gun will very easily pop off of the sidecar. The gun itself has some decent detail on it. It has a couple pegs here on the top that an action figure can grip. They're pretty small so they won't break the figure's thumbs. With the gun removed we can see inside the sidecar. It is mostly empty in there. There's the copyright stamp on the inside. Then we have the seat. This black seat, a nicely molded seat and that is a rubber seat that's not plastic. So the action figure will be comfortable when he sits inside here. It is easiest to place a figure in the sidecar with the gun removed. So let's place Flint in the sidecar. Now let's remount the gun. Placing the tabs where they go. Careful not to break them. Just kind of wedges on there. Now let's place Flint's hands on the grip, on the gun. Now he's ready to accompany Lady J into battle laying down some firepower. Attached to the sidecar we have two more missiles. These are larger than the missiles attached to the motorcycles. And these do peg in with a slot that goes all the way through the missiles and they peg on to the sidecar like that. I have to say though, these missiles do not peg in very well. They have constantly fallen off of the sidecar during this review. The blueprints call these auto guidance AXJ10 Ground Launch Missiles. They are very small, they are easily lost and they don't stay on the vehicle very well. They provide some additional forward-facing firepower. They are larger than the rear-facing missiles on the motorcycle. These probably could take out an enemy vehicle. In addition to the motorcycle itself, there is an accessory that goes on the driver. The aerodynamic driver fairing. I guess this is supposed to reduce the drag caused by the body of the driver. It has a back peg, so it attaches to the back of the action figure like that. Since it doesn't attach to the motorcycle, it is often forgotten. And you don't really need it. A figure sits on the motorcycle perfectly well without it. I imagine it as bullet-proof armor in case the driver gets shot in the back. It's natural to compare the Silver Mirage to GI Joe's first motorcycle, the Ram from 1982. The Silver Mirage appears to be a significant upgrade from the Ram. But looks can be deceiving. The Silver Mirage has a major problem. It is flimsy. Every part of this vehicle is weak. Every part wants to break or pop off. It's a chore just to keep this thing together. The Ram wasn't perfect. It was made of a brittle, light green plastic. The side-mounted gun didn't stay on well. The pegs on the side tended to break off. Despite these problems, the Ram is much sturdier than the Silver Mirage. It isn't even close. I've had to replace a couple parts on the Silver Mirage because the plastic is so thin, they break even with gentle care. It's almost like it isn't designed as a toy. I can't imagine how a kid plays with this without breaking it. When you compare it to the sort of motorcycle, the LCV Recon sled, the LCV is rock solid. Compared to the Silver Mirage, it's a tank. A motorcycle tank. No. While we have the Marauder out, let's talk about the Silver Mirage's color scheme. The silver plastic gives it more of a sporty look than a military look, but it almost matches the standard colors for Battle Force 2000. Most of the Battle Force 2000 vehicles had a base silver color with green and blue. If the Silver Mirage had blue on it anywhere, it would match the Battle Force 2000 color scheme perfectly. Just slap a Battle Force 2000 logo on it and it would fit right in. Unfortunately, I'm not very fond of the Battle Force 2000 color scheme. I would prefer the Silver Mirage to have more military colors. You know, one of the first cars I ever owned was a silver Mitsubishi Mirage. I never made that connection until just now. Looking at how the Silver Mirage was used in GI Joe media, it had a lot more appearances in the cartoon series than the comic book. It first appeared briefly in the episode Cobra's Creatures. It had most screen time in the episode Captives of Cobra Part 2. It was a respectable vehicle in the animated series and had a few good appearances. It disappeared with the Sunbow series though. It did not pop up in the Deke series. In the comic book series, the Silver Mirage first appeared in issue number 44. In that issue, Lady J is leading new Joes in a training exercise. It's the introduction of a few new characters and vehicles, including the Silver Mirage. In that issue, the Joes are incapacitated by mutant plant spores. A new villain, Dr. Mindbender, wants to test his new experimental plant weapons against the Joes. So he strips them of their weapons and leaves them with their vehicles in a junk car maze. The Joes manage to MacGyver their way out of the situation and escape even without their weapons. This issue introduced a ton of new characters and vehicles, including the Silver Mirage, the awestriker, heavy metal, crankcase, airtight, bazooka, Dr. Mindbender, and the battle android troopers. The story itself doesn't have much impact on the rest of the continuity other than the introduction of important characters. The mutant plant vines end up not being very important, but the bats were important as was Dr. Mindbender. The Silver Mirage makes a couple more appearances in issues number 49 and 50, again written by Lady J. Looking at the Silver Mirage overall, it is a good looking small vehicle that is way too fragile. I'm going to put it in the middle tier, but it is dangerously close to the bottom tier. It does have a few things going for it. It does look very nice on a shelf. It makes a good display piece if you can keep all the parts together. I always display mine with my extra Lady J figure. She looks great on it. There's a phrase printed on the back of the boxes for 80s GI Joes vehicles. It says, sturdy construction for rugged play. I have confirmed that that phrase is printed on the back of the box for the Silver Mirage, but in this case it is a lie. There is nothing sturdy about it. Every part wants to fall off or break. The construction of this vehicle is so disappointing I was tempted to put it in the bottom tier. It is only saved by the fact that it does look good on a shelf. It is a nice display piece. Just don't move it around very much or breathe too close to it or look at it too long. It will crumble into pieces. That was my review of the Silver Mirage. I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget the GI Joberg guys have their GoFundMe campaign. Please help if you can. Guess what we are going to do next time? I have no idea because next week is our first Patrons Choice Review of the Year. Supporters on Patreon get to vote to decide what we will review. I don't know what they will choose. I hope they pick a good one. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon. And I have a website, HCC788.com. I'll see you next week. And remember until then, only GI Joe is GI Joe. Sorry, baby.