Boss wishes he had this transformation.
So this is Drift, the character everybody loves to hate. He used to be a Decepticon, but then he fell in with a mysterious third faction of Transformers that taught him how to be zen, and now he’s joined the Autobots so he can tell them how much better he is than they are! And he has three swords. One of them he only uses in the most dire of circumstances, which is all the time.
On that sword, it says that he’s better than you.
(I’m serious. ”Peerless under heaven” is written in Japanese across the blade.)
So, yeah, for some reason people hate Drift. But people somehow hate him with an intensity greater than his suckage, and it’s not like he ever really did anything beyond being given a hilariously overwrought backstory, so it’s hard to hate him too much.
And his toy is fucking awesome.
I’m serious! The toy somehow manages to come with all three swords and allow them to store. He’s got the two smaller blades tucked into scabbards on his hips. The third, “special” sword stores on his back. And, sure, he’s got three swords, big whoop, but he’s also got enough articulation to use them. He can grip the special sword with both hands! I don’t think I can begin to list all the points of articulation on his arms and in his shoulders. He’s one of the few Transformers that can almost cross his arms over his chest.
He's a drift racer! Get it?
His leg articulation is a little less awesome. It needs better (meaning any) heel articulation, but is otherwise pretty good. I forgive this because the way his lower legs transform is nifty. I don’t know how to even begin describing the process. I guess the car parts sorta rotate separately from the upper robot shin parts, while the feet and ankles sort of fold up and around and…
I also like how neatly and easily it is to fold his arms up into the underside of the hood. In some Transformers, this is an ordeal, especially the ones like Drift who have wheels somewhere on their arms. With him, it’s pretty straight-forward. Just fold them up into the shoulders, easy-cheesy.
Why must we fight? We are not enemies!
Now, some genuine problems. First of all, he clips together really well in car mode. So well that it’s a little scary trying to pull him back apart. When I say “clips together,” I mean it. In some spots he doesn’t just peg together. At the front and at the back, there are some legitimate irregular-shape in irregular-slot deals. You basically have to pull them apart with excessive force because there’s no room at that stage to slide one side out of the other.
Oh, and one of my shorter-swords was missing the pin that goes through the hinge between the blade and the hilt. I cut a tiny bit off of a rubber-coated paper clip (so it was thick enough) and shoved that in there. Seems to be fine now, but still kinda annoying.
Maggie saw him on the coffee table this evening and said he was beautiful. Then I told her his backstory and she changed her mind. Can’t wait for that Drift comic book miniseries this fall!
Just got my Drift today! He really is awesome…never read the comics and any hate for him is just a tad bit silly. Greatly awesome toy nonetheless!
Drift is holding his big sword backwards.
I can not wait for the redeco.
I love my drift, he can even draw the swords like fansproject warbot can the guns. Freaking amazing arm poses. He can even draw his back sword with his arms. Now that’s some freaking amazing engineering, can’t wait for blur.
What’s with Detour in that pic? Are there Micromasters involved in the Drift Mini-series? If so, I may have to check it out… always loved the Sports Car Patrol…
Because of the wiki editor.
I swear I didn’t even know about the toy back when I decided on that name.
Gotta love how even after I excessively dial back my Drift-hate, Walky still acts like I go kooky any time I hear the word Drift anywhere.
But yar. Toy be awesome. Toy will be bought. Toy will possibly get customized somehow, but toy will nonetheless be bought and owned.
Looks like an awesome mold, but I’ll hold out for the Blurr retool. That way I can have a cool toy with a not so worthless character.
I can hardly wait for Drift and Blurr, no telling when the UK will get them if at all. That is really kind of funny about Maggie liking him and then not though!
I think the reason that everyone hated Drift is that he’s a personification of what
that Australian bastard did to IDW.
I thought Australians were all friendly muscle-bound mustachioed badasses that could do no wrong. I was wrong. Damn you Valve for lying to me.
Generally we are. However, even then, many of us feel ashamed of being of the same nationality as Shame McCarthy
We never got the Comics here in Germany, but judging by the TF Wiki Article….But the Toy looks pretty awesome!
Ah I used to have that yellow Micromaster… actually I still do. He’s somewhere but I’m not sure where.
I haven’t seen a new Transformers toy in stores in months. All the stores around here are just filled with old ROTF shelfwarmers ><
I’ll be waiting for Blurr, Straxus, and the 2 conehead seekers myself.
I don’t have any real hate for Drift, but I could give 2 poots about him either.
Gee, I like Drift in the comics, and I can’t wait to find the toy. I really want to make him and Bludgeon fight! He’s cool without being the entire focus of the story. At least IMHO. It’s not like the GI Joe characters of Wraith, after he was introduced by DDP, and suddenly was the star of the show. I understand resenting a writer’s pet original character, especially when he’s forcing the more established characters into the background. But Drift isn’t that bad. Not yet at least.
Drift is remarkably inoffensive in terms of what he’s actually DONE thus far.
The eye-rolling comes from how horribly contrived the character is– while the writers seemed to believe they were doing something new and original– and IDW actually referring to him as “our wolverine.”
Is giving a spotlight to a new character undermining the concept of Spotlight? Sure, a little. But it was a decent 1-issue tale. The 6-issue story I reserve judgment on; he hasn’t done anything to deserve it, fans don’t particularly want it… it’s all IDW ego-tripping about “we got to create a new character!” Doesn’t mean it’ll be bad.
(I forgot Drift teaching Prowl ‘Go.’ That was mildly rage-inducing.)
Glad to hear he’s good. I’ve got one in the mail (along with, um, Animated Ratchet finally).
And what do you know? This comment apparently summoned him.
Holy hell this toy is awesome. I guess I’m getting Blurr too.
So the thing that’s upsetting is that they made a new character that is also a samurai cliche? Even though hundreds of Transformers characters already exist?
Ah. I’m sorry to bring it up. But really it does’nt bother me. What bothers me is all the angst uprising against a interesting concept.
Then again he knows he’s better than you.
It’s not the samurai thing that ruffles feathers, it’s that some feel he’s a Marty Stu. Or a Poochie. Or whatever similar labeling floats the boat.
I think Botch in a post below voiced my sentiments towards Drift best:
“I hate Drift’s character as well; he’s just so comedically stacked with clichés and top-heavy with fanwank attributes that you just can’t take him seriously. McCarthy had some good stuff and some really bad stuff: Drift is the worst.”
I bought Drift yesterday on the basis that I thought he looked quite nice in the Toyfair pics, and he is a really nice Transformer. I find the best way to unhook the tab at the exhaust end in car mode is to pull the two sides up, like snapping a Kit-kat in reverse. Although hopefully minus the snapping bit
I wish he’d been around when I was six, though, so I could really have appreciated his character. At least I know that if my childhood best friend suddenly appears and challenges me to another game of TF one-upmanship, as is my great fear, I now have one armed with an awesome sword to use in the direst of circumstances.
I hate Drift’s character as well; he’s just so comedically stacked with clichés and top-heavy with fanwank attributes that you just can’t take him seriously. McCarthy had some good stuff and some really bad stuff: Drift is the worst.
That said, I confess that the toy is totally fucking awesome. A brilliant piece of engineering. The folding-down windows, the hip scabbards, the arm articulation, the sword storage, the leg fold-outs… really just brilliant.
I concur with what you were saying as far as having to use excessive force to get those legs apart. I had to pretty much resolve to breaking him before I invested enough oomph to finally pull those damn things apart.
that is the first time I’ve wanted a car transformer.. oh man.. I need to start figuring out where to actually buy these..
Does the Drift toy have feet styled after Jetfire/thatMacrossthing?
Say what you will about the CHARACTER for Drift… the toy is freakin’ awesome. Just say that he’s from some Primax universal stream that didn’t get his backstory all fluffed up by IDW, or something… the toy is DEFINITELY worth getting.
I’d pass on the WFC figs, though… glorified shellformers with very difficult and generally uninspired transformations.
Just say that he’s from some Primax universal stream that didn’t get his backstory all fluffed up by IDW, or something
IIRC, Drift exists in Robot Heroes continuity (despite not having a RH toy.)
And he’s awesome.
It probably makes sense in context, but out of it like that, it looks like Drift’s a bit…daft. What with apparently addressing Megatron while shoving Screamer, and all…
Awesome toy. Hilariously-awful character concept.
Bought mine today. Yeah, the character concept seems hellishly out of place, but done right it might work. I might be wrong, but I can’t immediately recall another Transformer with a single-edged sword. And I’m a Abarenbo Shogun fan.
At least MTMTE fixed him. With religion.
…JJOYCE WOULD APPROVE, AT LEAST.