Toy Review - Age of Extinction Autobot Drift (Deluxe)

[GoktimusPrime]

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.

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!

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. In all, a reasonably decent toy that just needed a better face sculpt and more paint apps to break up all that blue.


Images
Stock image

Vehicle mode




Robot mode

[Trent]

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.

[crankcase76]

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.

[GoktimusPrime]

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 ).

[Sinnertwin]

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...

[Omega Metro]

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

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

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

[SMHFConvoy]

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

[Omega Metro]

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

[griffin]

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