General Information:
Vehicle Mode: Some of the finer details in this sculpt include vent and grille lines sculpted into the front end of the vehicle. The headlights are sculpted with small circles in them, indicating where the light bulbs are. Other requisite details include twin exhaust pipes in the back, a raised spoiler that slopes downward, door handles, sideview mirrors and a license plate in between the exhaust pipes. It's a really cool looking car and would definitely catch anyone's eye if they saw it going down the street. I'm especially fond of the way the sides curve in before expanding outwards in the back where the wheel wells sit and where the spoiler is attached. The design of the spoiler is big and bold as well and I really dig the notched posts that the spoiler sections rest on. Drift is primarily cast in white plastic. His other two colors are dark grey and translucent blue. The grey is found on his wheels and the translucent color is used for the headlights and windows. Paint applications are done up in grey-blue, grey, red and silver. The grey-blue is used to paint the rear window while the grey color is used on the rear of the car. Silver is used for the front grille as well as the sides of his wheels. Two different shades of red are found on the figure. The darker one is used on the rear lights. The lighter one can be found forming curved line details on the front and sides of the car. On each door is a Japanese word meaning "Samurai" in red. A bit of white paint is found on the top of the car, where it paints robot parts that form part of the cabin cover. It's slightly brighter than the white plastic so it's not hard to see if you look at that piece carefully. Drift has a very simple yet attractive design. Making a vehicle mostly white is a bit of a gamble in toy form since it can easily look boring. However, the designs painted onto the figure work well. Transformation to Vehicle Mode:
Robot Mode: Several of the design aspects mirror those of the comic book character. First is of course the head sculpt, made up of a central crest with backswept details that protrude high above the central crest. This helmet armor forms over his face where it goes over the nose. He also has a very prominent chin and vent like sections on either side of his face. In many respects, his design resembles that of the Autobot triple-changer Springer, but taken to an extreme. On both shoulders he has square sections that have circles above them, a detail taken straight from the comic book character. In another cool detail, flip the chest/windshield panel forward and you'll see a chest design underneath complete with rectangles in the center and circles on either side. This design is taken from the chest design used in the majority of his appearances in the comic book before he came to Earth and took on an Earth vehicle mode. This is a really cool touch that offers a level of detail to the figure you don't see often, but also ties into the fiction of the character. Some tiny details can be found on the figure that are inspired by his comic book design. Among them are two lines and an arrow on his legs (beneath the knee armor). His larger sword has several Japanese characters sculpted into them meaning "peerless" along with line details on the handle and a round, jewel-like detail in the center. The jewel and the general shape of the sword are taken straight from the comics. Drift still has plenty of white plastic in this form, but several of his parts are a very, very dark shade of grey. It almost looks black, but when put next to the black on say, Revenge of the Fallen Bumblebee, there is a sharp contrast between the colors. The grey parts are mostly newly revealed robot parts including the chest, upper arms, fists and thighs. The head itself is cast in white, as is a panel that forms part of his waist area. His long sword is cast in a neutral grey plastic color while the smaller swords have dark grey handles and silver blades. For the most part this color layout matches the comic book character with some exceptions. For instance, in the comic book his entire arm was white, not just the forearm and shoulder armor. Red details pop up once again in this form. On either arm is an Autobot symbol inside one of the squares on his shoulders. The area around his wrist, right where the fists connect is also painted red. He also has red lines on his legs, towards the bottom. Each of these details is found on the comic book version of the character as well. Silver paint is used on the face and a bit of gold is used in the central crest on his head as well as the horizontal line pattern on his waist. The gold is also found on the circles sculpted into his shoulders. I think it would be easy to say this paint scheme was not complex enough, but to be honest there is a clean simplicity that works for this character. Between the sculpted detail, the existing paint schemes (and taking into account how he looks in the source material) Drift looks fantastic. Drift has twenty three points of articulation in this form. What's cool about this articulation is how much of it is useful. His shoulder and wrists are ball jointed, and several of his parts have double joints. His legs can move up and down on ball joints for instance, but they can also swivel outward on a swivel joint built into his thighs. I was a bit surprised to find that he did not have waist articulation, but if you look at the way his back panel is designed, it overlaps the waist a tiny bit. Still, twenty three points is quite a lot and I'm not complaining! The articulation comes into play with the weapon play on this robot. Drift can hold the sword on his back in one hand or both thanks to the ball jointed hands. Tucked into each door from the car mode is a smaller sword (they're sort of like butterfly swords, but with squared off angled edges and no hook at the base). These too can be held in each of his hands. What's really neat is that the way the door windows fold in creates a slot that you can slide the long sword into, allowing him to store his sword on either side of his hip or on his back. I love attention to detail like this on any figure so this was a pleasant surprise.
Final Thoughts:
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Through the rich history of the Transformers universe, dozens of characters originated in a medium other than toys. Some in animation and others in print. The Autobot known as Drift is one such Transformer. Originally known as "Deadlock", this Transformer was once a Decepticon who then turned to the Autobot side and took on a new body and identity. Introduced in the IDW "Generation One" themed series of comic books, the character was created especially for the series and has gone on to become quote prominent in the IDW universe. It was not surprising that such a character would ultimately wind up in toy form. This "Generations" version of the character is directly inspired by his current appearance in the IDW comic books. This toy represents Drift as he appears on Earth once he took on an Earth vehicle form, and not the more Cybertronian version seen in a majority of the IDW comics.
