Enter the Illusion. I hated that kite---still do. The Elixir is a Gem wannabe afaik. Didn't like the E2 at all.
I've paid good money for each of those kites because I was certain that MR was off on some kind of design tangent and would be back soon.
Turns out I was right.
I've got about 6 hours on the Quantum Pro. I'm not good enough to say anything about it except that it's more kite than I am ready for, just like the Fury. I know it's good, I just can't bring it out yet.
The Mirage is the absolute greatest $150 kite I've ever flown.
I flew it today at the low end of it's usable range---probably somewhere around 3-5 mph. All the tricks I know, I could do easily. Axels and Coin-Tosses were super flat, as were Backspins and 540s.
It's just wrong how easy this kite will pancake. I'm used to powering the kite up a bit and throwing my arms forward---on the Mirage, my first attempt ended up w/ the nose pointing back at me---it turned out to need no more than wrist movements to do flic-flacs, backspins, and J/Ls.
The Mirage isn't perfect. It's set up w/ that goofy small bag/lame plastic ferrule thing like the Quantum. Tip stabs showed the flex of the pultruded l.e., but in the light wind I flew, I can't complain about them. No glides or stoppers, but there are holes in the l.e. material indicating where you should put stops. I think that it should've come w/ that stuff. I used a 75'/150# Speedline set that is a favorite of mine, so I can't say anything about the included lines. For anyone who cares, the Mirage is available in a new color scheme besides the old(ish) Fire and Ice---Glacier.
Bottom line is that the Mirage is one hell of a kite for the money. With very little effort, you could add stoppers and glides, maybe switch out the leading edge spars w/ P-2 or 300s.
I won't put the Transfer aside because of the Mirage, but I've a warm, fuzzy feeling about Prism that I've not felt for quite some time.
Kevin
