First I think I have to introduce Drift first as he is quite unique to the Transformers universe and those uniqueness actually made

many TF fans not happy. First is his appearance. He is a new character from the recent All Hail Megatron graphic novels. Don't know

if he went popular first or IDW tried to advertise him more, he had a spotlight in the same AHM series and very quickly he has a

ongoing mini-series. I like him first when I saw him in AHM. After his spotlight, I started to have some odd feelings about him and

I just tried to avoid and ignore his mini-series. So at least I keep some good images about him. Second is his look. He pretty much

looks completely different than all other classic character as he has the "Gundam" style. He looks very cool in general, but trying

to blend him with the classic characters, he just does not look right. Last, now he even has a toy in new generation line first wave

which is this review about (where is my favorite Jazz and other favorite G1 characters when I want one). So seems like IDW and

Hasbro are trying hard to let people adopt him (and he also tried to do the same thing in the books), but as they already created

these uniqueness, I don't know.

 

Now back to the topic about toy review. Actually the way I got this toy is quite unique also. To keep it short, just click on here.

Drift's alternate mode is based on Nissan Silvia S15. This car itself looks very nice and sleek. The only problem I have with this car

is the joint line on the hood is too obvious while the engine part is completely empty if you look from the bottom. While I am very

impressed with the paint job of the previous 2 generation toys, this one kind of disappoints me. The white color is not as white as

in the comics and there are not enough detail paint to light things up. Didn't really check the actual car size and he seems a little

bigger comparing to other compact cars.

 

Transformation is pretty straight forward. Upper part is the arms, middle part is the waist, lower part is the legs. So far all joints

are tight and he has excellent balance. The only issue I am fear of is his shoulder ball joint that connects to his entire arm and

shoulder armor. We'll see if it will become loose in the future. He is very poseable but the thick shoulder limits some arm

movements. Now to his biggest features, the 3 swords. Two of them store in the door/hip armor and this is brilliant. The long

one stores on the back and it has the same quality as Bludgeon's katana, PVC soft plastic which is bendable. Either his fist holes

are too big or the sword's handle is not thick enough, these swords are kind of loose holding in his hands. Like in car mode, I

really want if he can has more detail paint job in robot mode also.

 

Transformation: 7 - Pretty straight forward with no mystery parts. Only fear about limp ball joints wearing off.

Fun: 9 - 3 swords, well balanced, cool car mode rolling freely. If his arm can have wider movement, he will be a solid 10.

Display: 9 - Nice display piece in both mode. Can be 10 if he has more touch up paint jobs.

Value: 9 - Because of my very unpleasant shopping experience with TRU and UPS, turn around and get $9.99 from Target is a

decent choice comparing to other stores selling him $11.99.

Overall: 9 - Despite his messy background, he is a good toy. If you like him, don't miss him. If you hate him, don't bother.