Toy Review - Age of Extinction Autobot Drift (Deluxe)

Autobot Drift
Series - Age of Extinction
Sub-line - Generations
Size/class - Deluxe
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 2
Released here - May 2014
Approximate Retail Price - $30
Approximate Size - 12.3cm
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode - Bugatti Veyron
Main Features/Gimmicks - N/A
Main Colours - lots of navy blue, electric metallic blue & gold
Main Accessories - x2 long swords, x2 short swords

Vehicle Mode
Car mode is a predominantly navy blue Bugatti Veyron with metallic electric blue skirting. The windows are all tinted blue transparent plastic, with black on the spoiler, front grill, tyres and rear of vehicle. The headlights and hubcaps are silver, and there's a touch of red on the front grill logo. I like how the spoiler shows both the main wing and the secondary spoiler which the real life vehicle's retractable spoiler actually has. :) My main gripe with the vehicle mode is how the exposed engine at the back is completely unpainted. :(

Transformation
Pretty shellformery. Everything needs to be precisely tabbed in to make the vehicle mode work, although not nearly as frustrating as Crosshairs. :rolleyes:

Robot Mode
Not just the head, but the arms, legs, chest and thighs all bear resemblance to samurai armour. 17 points of articulation give Autobot Drift a decent amount of poseability. The robot mode reveals more black and metallic electric blue, with a golden face and crest on the head, but it seriously still needs a few more paint apps to break up all that navy blue. The entirely navy blue arms look positively bland. Drift's face has some weird goatee... but forget that, look at the mouth -- that's right, it's a duck face! :eek:

The swords can be held either in the hands or placed on the back. The instructions show the swords on the back with the blades pointing upwards, which seems rather impractical (lest Drift cut his own hands whenever he attempts to draw the swords). The swords can be placed with the handles facing him, but the handles are rather short, so again looking somewhat impractical as back-mounted weapons. The original Generations Drift toy did a better job with the hip mounted short blades and long-handled back-mounted long sword. The swords are moulded in a bronzish-gold plastic.

Overall
The highly stylised robot design has necessitated that the toy be a shellformer that can be a bit tricky in parts when transforming to vehicle mode. Having said that, it's notably a better design than Crosshairs, and the toy does compact a lot of the vehicle panels quite well in robot mode. The way that the doors flip over to form shoulder armour is pretty cool. A lot of effort has been poured into making the toy look like a samurai, and this is achieved quite well... only to be spoiled by that ridiculous duckfaced mouth. :rolleyes: In all, a reasonably decent toy that just needed a better face sculpt and more paint apps to break up all that blue.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22.../jaam_jaam.gif

Images
Stock image

Vehicle mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps8c657883.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps395bb487.jpg

Robot mode
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps0bf35a28.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps2c896090.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps56a065b9.jpg

I never before realised that he is not the latest model Veyron. He is actually the first model but given the price that these things go for I'm not surprised that they used a cheaper one on set. It's the intakes that give it away. On the latest model they don't stick up above the roofline.

I also noticed last night when i finally got my one is that in vehicle mode the larger swords are stored in his chest, which causes the vehicle mode to rub on the ground which is quiet annoying. I had to take them out for him to run on all four wheels.

Same 'ere.

I must say that Hasbro has managed to make the painted blue on the transparent parts match the coloured blue plastic parts match pretty well. It's not as mismatching as on Crosshairs (or worse, Animated Bumblebee and Universe Sunstreaker :o ;)).

I'd like one in movie colours. This blue version is a bit meh for me. I don't mind the whole i love everything Samurai but i'll scan a vehicle assembled in France routine, but those colours...

Perhaps they needed to match an ugly car to an ugly head.:eek:

I'm actually liking the look of this, but I think I'll wait and see what the nigh-inevitable repaint/s look like.

He has a silhouette similar to G1 Galvatron. Just saying'.

It's actually growing on me. The more I look at it.:o

A noticeable reduction in size to the previous Deluxe Drift...

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/b899.jpg

Drift (IDW) is large for a deluxe as well, but even so there is a notable difference.

Only just realised that the larger swords store in the back pack via tabs, and not the 5mm plug. So you can have the knives in the middle and the swords on the outside of them (plugged in with the two holes in each sword). Looks cool!

I 'm not sure why but I didn't care much for this guy. The instructions were that small and poorly drawn that I had to change him by guesswork and I had a real bugger of a time getting everything to lock in place in vehicle mode, even moreso than Crosshairs.

The robot mode - well, everything is there but I just don't like him that much. For some reason the samurai (or whatever it is) face and helmet sculpt just irritates me, which is odd because I love TF's who's faces are not the norm. His rounded chest, colour scheme - none of it does it for me. The two sets of bladed weapons are not bad and I do like how you can tab them in place in his backpack, but not enough of a plus to carry him over the line. Maybe it's just because I had transformed TFSS Barricade before I opened him so he paled in comparison. Anyways, I just hope I like Drift better in the movie.

Not a bad toy, but just cant take to him - glad I only paid $15 for it.

I'm not a fan of his face either. I think the whole Samurai look on this toy, as well as the knight-themed armour on all the Autobots looks kinda camp. Yeah, I know they did something similar with Beast Wars' Transmetals and Beast Wars Neo and Car Robot (RiD)... but I guess I didn't mind it then because they were going for the same level of photorealism that I've come to expect from the live action film franchise -- none of those other toys are trying to look as alien as Bayformers. And this isn't to say that alien looking Bayformers are bad per se, but I don't think that aesthetic works quite as well with the somewhat more campy thematic robot mode thing. Also, those other lines were all toy first, so none of them were faced with the level of design challenges that AoE TFs have because they seem to be based on screen models that feel more morphing than transforming. :/

The stupid smile on his face irritates me but the rest of it is really well done. Love the colours. Love the car mode.:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

A noticeable reduction in size to the previous Deluxe Drift...

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Geez, I don't have the other Drift, but wow is that a massive difference for a deluxe :eek:

Great sculpt, really nice colours and reasonable paint apps, but oh so tiny and so many pieces (especially the back pack in robot mode) feel very fragile indeed. So-so.

One of the rear wheels on my Drift doesn't spin properly, meaning he doesn't drive straight. Has anyone else had the same problem? I'd buy another one, but don't know if they're all that way?

I don't have that problem on mine. Swap it.

hmm haven't even bought one yet... been only after the Dinobots in this movie series. Ill see if I find one on sale later later on...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by reillyd

One of the rear wheels on my Drift doesn't spin properly, meaning he doesn't drive straight. Has anyone else had the same problem? I'd buy another one, but don't know if they're all that way?

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From memory the wheels are a one-piece clip on, so they should pop in & out easily enough. Where's it catching?

This may have been mentioned elsewhere, but are there any plans announced to release Drift as a triple-changer like his on-screen character?

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Originally Posted by 5FDP

This may have been mentioned elsewhere, but are there any plans announced to release Drift as a triple-changer like his on-screen character?

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As an actual triple changer, i haven't seen anything yet. Just the repaint and remolded head of the DoTM Skyhammer as his other alt mode

http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=18545

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sinnertwin

As an actual triple changer, i haven't seen anything yet. Just the repaint and remolded head of the DoTM Skyhammer as his other alt mode

http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=18545

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Cool, thanks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

A noticeable reduction in size to the previous Deluxe Drift...

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/blog/b899.jpg

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Hmm...I wonder why the toy industry is down? Let's spend millions of more dollars in research to find out. We can just recoup the cost by skimping on the toy quality, nobody cares about that.

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Originally Posted by kup

Hmm...I wonder why the toy industry is down? Let's spend millions of more dollars in research to find out. We can just recoup the cost by skimping on the toy quality, nobody cares about that.

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Does quality equal size?

Wonder why they went with the goofy look on his face??? Anyway the AOE line are all a bit shell-formery for my tastes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alpha Supreme

Wonder why they went with the goofy look on his face??? Anyway the AOE line are all a bit shell-formery for my tastes.

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And that's why I like em.;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zommael

Does quality equal size?

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In this case, well yes. The reason they are small, is cost cutting and quality reduction.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kup

In this case, well yes. The reason they are small, is cost cutting and quality reduction.

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how does size reduction have anything to do with the quality of the toy?

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Originally Posted by The_Damned

how does size reduction have anything to do with the quality of the toy?

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^This. It's not like Transformers toys have ever had any sense of scale or anything. I'd rather have a whole bunch of well-engineered basics than a badly done leader. Or to put it another way, would you rather have smaller deluxes or upscaled legions?

I just got mine yesterday. I like him, as he's visually interesting, well put together as far as I can tell, and his transformation isn't too difficult save for aligning panels in Veyron mode. I just wish he was bigger.