TF Views

Ah, Drift. I don’t think a Transformer has generated this much controversy since Botanica. The outcry is all very stupid when you think about it. TF writers have been inserting new characters into the fiction since the comic started. No one complained about Scrounge or Impactor. The hypocrisy of everyone bitching about Drift getting a toy while simultaneously celebrating Straxus getting one is especially delicious.

My fandom soapbox aside, I was pretty excited for this figure. I missed out on all the hype for Drift, so to me he was just Some Guy Who Showed Up. And the toy looked awesome, and it was a character from All Hail Megatron, a comic I absolutely loved. Will this toy live up to the fan boy-infuriating dreams I had for it? Well there’s a reason I thought it deserved a full review, if you catch my…you know.

Super Awesome Drift Racer Mode
Drift turns into what I’m told is a drift racing car. I’m no expert on car models (pretty much everything I know I’ve gathered from TF, actually), but it’s a wide car, and fairly low to the ground, so I guess that’s good for…drifting? Really, it’s a fairly bulky alamode for a Deluxe, it just feels a bit *larger* than the other Autobot Cars we’ve gotten out of Classics/Universe. This lets them put a lot of detail on the car, from the air scoop on top of the thing, to these little notches they’ve got on the sides of the spoiler, to the requisite door handles, gas cap, and a particularly detailed rear section, with dual exhaust pipes and a…vent-y thingy. What’s really nice is that the white they went with isn’t so bright or glossy that it washes out all these details. It’s got a lot of solidness and depth, and looks really good.

The front and side windows (and the headlights) are clear blue plastic, with the rear window painted a silvery metallic blue that doesn’t really come close to matching. The other paint is red patterns on the sides and hood of the car, in kind of wavy ‘rising sun’ pattern. The kanji for ‘samurai’ (I’m told) is also worked into the designs on his sides. As you can probably guess by now, Drift has kind of a Japanese motif going on here (Drift racing being a particularly Japanese style of street racing). Some people take issue with this aspect of his personality, but it’s really no different from other ethnically-inclined Transformers like Quickstrike, or the BWII Jointrons. It’s just his thing, and I’m cool with that. Especially since they work samurai thing into his robot mode some, as we’ll see.

Henshin! (translator’s note: Henshin means ‘Transform’)
Transformation’s a lot simpler than it seems at first pass. Pop the doors open to free everything up, then split the hood open and rotate the halves down to expose the shoulders, then swing out the arms. Then you just unfold the legs, which do so in a very cool way. It’s got a seriously G1 feel to it, the way the chunks that are the legs become exposed as you rotate the car halves around. The feet also rotate up in an interesting way, which also ends up looking cool. Then you just add the final embellishments, like bringing the windshield up into place, folding out the sword handles, and folding the windshield bits in to make the doors look more sheathe/armor-like. It’s a nice touch. Oh, and pull the big sword out on its back hinge too, so it gets in the way less.

Going back is similarly simple, though you may have a little trouble cramming the feet in under his roof.

The Transformers version of Wolverine
A lot more dark grey comes into play in this mode, breaking up the white nicely. The Samurai motif also comes to full bore, with big boots, shoulder pads, the long hip pads/sheathes, and a crested helmet. The rest of the detailing is nice and complimentary, and again manages to not get washed out by the white plastic (though the stuff on the grey does get lost a little). They even sculpted his chest under the windshield to look like the Cybertronian form he sports in the comic, a nice touch. A lot of people are getting a Tigatron vibe off of this toy, thanks to the helmet and white coloration, but he doesn’t really scream Tigatron to me, possible because I knew him as Drift in the comic long before this toy came out. Tigatron was a samurai in the Beast Wars manga though, so there’s at least some precedent.

Speaking of samurai, Drift does have his swords. The two smaller ones store in his side-sheathes, and are made of soft plastic. This is probably for the best, as there’d be more potential for rigid plastic to break, what with all the sheathing and unsheathing. On the other hand, the blades are painted silver, which looks really nice, but I worry about the storage having wear-and-tear on the paint. We’ll see. These are Drift’s default swords in the comic, and he generally looks good holding them. On thing that I really love is, if you use his bicep swivel to rotate his arm over 90 degrees, then rotate the hand back and tilt it down at the ball joint connection, you can actually get him to *point* his swords! This is awesome, I can’t immediately think of any other Transformers that can do this. It adds loads of personality and posing potential, and generally looks great. It almost makes up for the one sucky point on his articulation: the shoulders. The shoulder swivels are attached to the hood shell pieces, which are on ball joints connected to the torso, but only have one little notch where they can swing out. This means that getting him to put his arms out to the side for poses is unnecessarily hard, since the one place the joint goes out is the same place that causes the hood kibble to interfere with the arm. It’s quite infuriating.

Fortunately, the rest of the articulation is excellent. As I mentioned earlier, the arms have bicep swivels and ball joints in the wrists, plus double jointed elbows. He’s also got ball hips, mid-thigh swivels, and hinge knees, and the feet can be manipulated on their transformation joints for more posing options. He’s also got a swiveling neck, plus a pinned joint at the head connection that gives it some good up-and-down motion. Presumably this is for the later Blurr redeco to better facilitate fast running poses, but Drift can make plenty of use of it too.

There’s one more thing going on with Drift: his large sword. This is probably the first case of the fiction having an affect on how I play with a toy. Drift’s backstory is kind of Dinobot by way of Rurouni Kenshin. He’s a former assassin who switched sides and now abhors killing unless necessary, so he only uses his big, deadly sword in the ‘most dire of circumstances’. So I feel a bit weird if I give him the big sword too much. I dunno, it’s just a thing. Which is too bad for me, because Drift truly shines with this thing out. It looks awesome on it’s own, a long grey piece with the kanji for ‘Peerless Under the Heavens’ written on the sides of it. Thanks to his myriad arm joints, Drift can two-hand the sword quite well, and in a variety of poses, even (unlike Bludgeon, who can two-hand his sword, but really only in one position)! This brings out more benefits of using soft plastic for parts like this, since the handle on mine would’ve snapped apart long ago, thanks to all the messing around between his hands it gets, were it made of rigid plastic. This sword works wonderfully with Drift, it compliments him well and really sells his whole ‘look’.

So, how else can I sum up Drift? He’s one of the most dynamic, *different* G1-style Autobots we’ve gotten in a long time, and I love him for that. I really can’t stop messing with him and various sword setups. The transformation works quite well, and both modes are great at what they’re supposed to be. The shoulders in robot mode can get really aggravating sometimes, but that’s really the only thing wrong with him. I’d say that if you like Drift or All Hail Megatron, you should get this toy, but that’s a sadly narrow pool of prospective buyers. So how about this: If you’ve gotten over the Drift hype backlash, and want a cool G1-ish Autobot with well-implemented melee weapons, who’s a little different from what you’ve come to expect, go for it. I understand new things can be scary, but Drift is one of the more successful experiments we’ve gotten.

BWprowl wrote:I missed out on all the hype for Drift, so to me he was just Some Guy Who Showed Up. And the toy looked awesome, and it was a character from All Hail Megatron, a comic I absolutely loved.

That was exactly my experience: I missed the hype, and I really enjoyed AHM. So I'm definitely on the lookout for this figure.

I caught a little bit of the hype, but not enough go all fanrage retard over it. Just enough to say "Huh, well, they certainly want people to think that guy's keen". But this toy looks awesome, and your review sells it even more.

If this sucker and Thrust will just show up around here, god dammit.

I will post a full review, (and character thoughts), later. (Tests this week.)

My review will be a bit less glowing than Prowl's owing to my greater annoyance with certain elements of the transform.

That said, if you are on the fence, buy it when you see it. I am given to understand that Drift and Thrust might only be in wave 1. (Of course, it is early in the line.)

Dom
-has thoughts on Thrust too.....

Sweet. I'm waiting for an inevitable Drift/Bludgeon face-off in the comics, myself.

BWprowl wrote: The hypocrisy of everyone bitching about Drift getting a toy while simultaneously celebrating Straxus getting one is especially delicious.

Except that Straxus was there "during" G1, Drift is retconned into "new" G1. It's a bit like Acid Storm. A bit. Although, technically he was "there" also even if his character development wasn't. But, my issues with Acid Storm for some reason don't extend to Drift. My only irritation with new characters being created now is that I'm usually like 90% sure they could have used one of the later G1 toy only characters to fill the role where as at the time new characters were being created as toys faster than the fiction could be written so it was sometimes necessary to create new characters. Anyway, I think that's the case that could be made for pro Straxus/anti Drift. I still plan on getting a couple if I see them, and don't really have anything against Drift, I was just playing devil's advocate.

A new character, back-written in, by a guy without a cult of personality no less.

NEW THINGS *ARE* SCARY!!!!!!

TF "Generations" Drift:

For all of the discord and hype surrounding this character, the toy is....underwhelming. This is not an especially bad figure. But, there are enough little things wrong with this figure to keep me from really falling in love with it.

While Drift's sportcar mode is consistent with the character's name and with the designers intent, all of Drift's meaningful appearances thus far have featured him with a pre-Earth (Cybertronian) alternate mode. Besides having an Earth-based alternatore form, Drift has Earth text on his sides and his weapons. As others have pointed out, Drift's vehicle mode and weapon have Japanese lettering plastered all over them. The text on the vehicle mode makes a certain amount of sense as decoration. (Drift is far from the only TF to have writing on their vehicle mode to enhance the disguise.) But, I can think of no reason that Drift would have lettering describing him as, (per the translations I have seen), "peerless under heaven". Remember, this is a character defined by his guilt.

The transformation is one of the more flustering I have seen in some time. There are panels and tabs that either do not want to come apart or are difficult to fit together. The instructions are less than helpful in more than one place. While the arranging of panels and bits is largely intuitive, it is just difficult enough to place them that I more than once doubted what I was doing.

There are some clever points in the transform though. The legs/feet unfold and refold in a clever enough way so as to be almost amusing enough to balance out the other problems.

Drift's sword, as one would expect, is moulded from spongy plastic, making it look like a toy of a cheap rubber sword, rather than a cheap rubber toy of a sword. (If I had the resources, I would make a hard resin duplicate for my own Drift figure.) Drift has two, apparently more stable, short-bladed swords that stow in hip-pouches. Drift's arms are jointed enough to allow a good amount of meaningful posability.


One huge lost oppotunity with Drift is that Hasbro did not make this toy a faction switcher. Since TF began, faction-switchers have been a semi-constant element to both the toy-line and back-story. Drift would have been a perfect candidate owing to the character's back story. It would have been easy enough to rig up a flipping faction sigil and to give the figure swappable guns and swords. (Hasbro no longer seems shy about packaging figures with extra bits that do not necessarily fit in all modes. So, a few loose character based items would not be a huge problem in this case.)


Grade: B/C
I really wanted to like this figure more, if only to be able to have one more reason to defend Drift against all the haters out there. (Drift certainly needs it.) But, the floppy swords, non-sensical Japanese text and mildy annoying transform are enough to wear down even the mightiest warrior.


Because the toy cannot really do that job, I am going to include a semi-rant on why Drift is not a Mary-Sue type fan character.

Let us consider some Mary-Sue traits.
-new character beds down any number of established characters.
-new character saves the day.
-new character commands great regard from established characters..often while upstaging them. (May or may not do upstaging while saving the day.

Drift does not do any of these things.

He does not engaged in any lewd or erotic acts with any established characters.
Drift not only manages to not save the day, his efforts to help the Autobots go largely unappreciated and are largely over-shadowed by the efforts of other (more established characters. In fact, nobody seems to like Drift much.

In issue #8, when someone asks where Drift is, Bumblebee snidely remarks that it does not matter, despite the prospect that Drift is in real danger. In issue #12, Thundercracker pretty much tells Drift to stuff it...right before rushing off to save the day. (Yes, Drift is told off by a Decepticon who goes off to save the day.) Can you feel the love?


In issue 6, Drift has a brief skirmish (if even that) with a swarm creature, that is immediately over-shadowed by Perceptor blowing the critter's head off. Reactions to Perceptor's actions range from shock to approval from other characters.

In issue 8, Drift makes a respectable effort at saving the day....and still manages to not be the most important or even interesting thing on the page. Drift's attempt to heroically save Sunstreaker and destroy the all important bridge is over-shadowed by the big reveal of the series, namely Sunstreaker's treason. (Fan whining about Sunstreaker's treason does note even begin to rival fandom whining about Drift's existence.) To his credit, Drift does save Ironhide. But, Sunstreaker is the one who gets the big moment, blows up the bridge....and then dies like a hero.

When Drift gets back to Autobot HQ, Jazz tells him to wait outside. It is implied that some of the Autobots still might not like Drift. When Drift later has a few minutes alone with Ironhide, (whose metal red tushy Drift saved not long before), Ironhide is less than cordial about things. Despite actually saving Ironhide, Drift gets little enough respect from the Autobots. *He is not even allowed in their damned house.* (Hardly the kind of respect that Mary Sue normally commands eh?)


But, yeah, Drift still sucks. All of the above just shows that even the fictional Autobots know a Mary Sue when they see one. And, despite being fictional characters, they have the moral and intellectual capacity to handle a Mary Sue independent of those big mean writers who put Mary Sue in to begin with. Drift is totally a Mary Sue.


Dom
-fully expects that last bit to be quoted out of context.

Dom, you're applying some reason and intellectual honesty to the question of Drift's mary-sueness. And what's worse, you're actually examining the character in the context of the story! You'll never get ahead in fandom by being so reasonable. You need to give in to base emotion and the pack mentality.

Drift is a Mary-Sue. He just is. We all know it, and anyone who says otherwise is a liar just like Shane McCarthy, who has doormats in his house especially made from issues of Simon Furman's Transformers comics.

Sarcasm? What?

Shane McCarthy is an Australian. He is a criminal at heart! They all are.

He wanted to steal everything good about "Transformers". That was the plan the whole time.


Dom
-but "Shattered Glass" is just completely and totally awesome you see.

I just posted this in Hauls, but here's my review of Drift again:

Drift's alt mode is a bit of an elongated Japanese-style sports car, no real direct car that I can tell though, but the lines remind me of a few of the late '90s cars, maybe a Nissan Skyline with a little more swoop. It's a little off to me, either not wide enough or too long, it's ok but doesn't blow my mind. The hood seams are too obvious, and on mine they gap enough to distract. The white plastic color doesn't work without a wash too well, very plain even with the red rising sun-inspired paint job (which ends pretty early). The blue front and side windows being transparent kinda works by displaying the feet as front seats, but from the side shows off a piece of interior that changes the whole look, makes it seem like a big B-pillar, I think they should have gone frosted or even opaque like the painted rear window. The long sword clips to the underside of the car very close to the ground.

Transformation is fairly standard fare really. I do like the side windows folding down for once rather than remaining kibble, that usually drives me nuts and it's SO common. There is a clip at the front and another at the back that are way too tight though, that is a stand out. Also, the feet just kinda "stop", they don't feel transformed so much as kibble put to use and sculpted to look like boots. Depending on your orientation of the large sword, it is possible to transform Drift without removing it.

Bot mode is nice and tall, but at first blush seems overly simple. The sculpted detail is a tad broad after a few years of very fine detailing, and the details he does have are totally lost in the white plastic. I think a paint wash would really bring this figure to life, but it's also missing a bunch of paint apps like the red on the chest, the yellow on the "cheeks" (they put gold instead of yellow on the crest center), a few other things like that, just a sense of "more" that's badly missing here. And if that weren't bad enough, while he's got the general idea of the character down, he's a tad scrawny-looking, especially around the torso, and then he has fatty boots that look like too much car kibble. His chest could have been salvaged by making the windshield opaque, but clear it's not doing its job of shaping the guy. His eyes lightpipe light blue, but it's a top lightpipe that works but creates a dark center in each eye, realistic to people yes, but looks a little odd here, and the color gets lost in the silver face a little. In fact, all the black and silver colors in bot mode should be something else, mostly dark gray I'd say. So all that said, this figure is pretty good. Why? Because it can pose like a mofo, and pull off 2-handed sword wielding, and somehow it just has presence once you get to playing around with it. Drift comes with 2 short swords stowed in the door-kibble hip armor (the right sword on mine falls out so easily though), and the long sword is on a clip on the back which is hinged even though it didn't need to be. Poochy the Marysuebot here is nothing without standing around posing and holding his swords, after all. Articulation is good, it's not even great really, no waist, limited knee range too, but what's there works very well for Drift's poses, and my favorite is the hinged head designed to look up at a 30 degree angle - that is something all figures, TF or not, should be able to do.

Bottom line, Drift is an ok Transformer in general, not mindblowing in any one way, but by giving this figure enough mobility to have attitude, somehow it becomes a little more than the sum of its parts. Perhaps most frustrating then is what all this figure could be with better deco choices, but all in all it's a decent purchase.


(I see I didn't mention the ever so slight Wolverine-slanted mouth on the figure, like a moody smirk.)

BWprowl wrote:Drift turns into what I’m told is a drift racing car. I’m no expert on car models (pretty much everything I know I’ve gathered from TF, actually), but it’s a wide car, and fairly low to the ground, so I guess that’s good for…drifting?

I've been informed that Drift's alt mode is a Nissan Silvia, a different Japanese car similar to the one I cited above but more swoopy. The Silvia however doesn't have the '80s flared rear end or the exaggerated curves: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Silvia#S15 so I'm not entirely buying it (it's better than my Skyline compare tho). As for width, I totally disagree, Drift's alt mode is long, but not wide enough compared to the cabin size. Having never drifted my car, because I actually love it and don't want to ruin the suspension or tires simply to screech sideways like a jackass, I can't say for sure but I believe the longer, narrower car design is more drift-worthy.

As you can probably guess by now, Drift has kind of a Japanese motif going on here (Drift racing being a particularly Japanese style of street racing). Some people take issue with this aspect of his personality, but it’s really no different from other ethnically-inclined Transformers like Quickstrike, or the BWII Jointrons. It’s just his thing, and I’m cool with that. Especially since they work samurai thing into his robot mode some, as we’ll see.

Drift was designed from the outset to be very Japanese-inspired, so I can't hold it against him, that's what was being aimed for. The larger boots, Gundam-y head, swords everywhere, drift car design, long legs, it all fits with intentions, so anybody bitching is missing the point.

Dom wrote:The transformation is one of the more flustering I have seen in some time. There are panels and tabs that either do not want to come apart or are difficult to fit together. The instructions are less than helpful in more than one place. While the arranging of panels and bits is largely intuitive, it is just difficult enough to place them that I more than once doubted what I was doing.

Are you referring to the spoiler and the center of the hood? Those are the clips I mentioned in my review as being problematic. The front clip can be angled into and out of place, the rear one needs force. Otherwise, I cannot fathom where you'd be getting hung up, this transformation seems really simple aside from those 2 clips.

There are some clever points in the transform though. The legs/feet unfold and refold in a clever enough way so as to be almost amusing enough to balance out the other problems.

Wow, you liked the thing I called out as bullshit in my review, too funny.

Drift's sword, as one would expect, is moulded from spongy plastic, making it look like a toy of a cheap rubber sword, rather than a cheap rubber toy of a sword. (If I had the resources, I would make a hard resin duplicate for my own Drift figure.) Drift has two, apparently more stable, short-bladed swords that stow in hip-pouches. Drift's arms are jointed enough to allow a good amount of meaningful posability.

I don't see it this way, it looks like a figure accessory to me, it's not silver but it's not like a little Nerf sword to me either.


These days, a Mary Sue doesn't have to bed anybody, and doesn't have to be held in high regard - just have an extreme impact on other characters positive or negative, "god that Mary Sue pisses everybody else off" is now established so that she can come back and save the shit out of the day. Bottom line, a Mary Sue merely needs to be an instant bag of ideals from the author. Drift is bit too right out of the box a Snake Eyes Wolverine Boba Fett Batman, half Joe Camel, a third Fonzarelli, a kung fu hippie from gangsta city, a rappin' surfer, and he pities foo's.