Of all the new characters in Transformers: Age of Extinction, Drift is the one who is sure to raise the most eyebrows in sheer incredulity. Like Jazz, Skids, and Mudflap before him, Drift is presented as a cultural stereotype. He’s a samurai, for some reason, voiced by Ken Watanabe. He speaks in Haiku at times and refers to Optimus as “Sensei.” If moviegoes are going to find anything offensive about this installment in the franchise, it’s this character. Much has already been written both deriding and defending Drift, but given what we know about how the Autobots learn to adopt and adapt to Earth culture, I see him as someone who became enamored of Asian culture through movies and the Internet. He’s embraced it in a stereotypical way and is acting the part — kind of like the kid in high school who wore Smiths t-shirts all the time and faked an English accent. Now, I’m not trying to make excuses for the choices made here or tell anyone they’re wrong for taking offense at the character; I’m just relating how the character came across to me, for better or for worse.
There was always something decidedly Asian about Drift right from the get-go. IDW’s Drift was somewhat “Gundam” in design, which is something that has always been associated with Asian pop culture, and his weapon of choice was swords. The Asian influence was more subtle in execution, but when translating that character to a major Michael Bay summertime blockbuster, there is no room for subtly — all characteristics get turned up to a comical degree to make sure even the most passive of viewers get it. So Drift is then rendered to a giant cultural stereotype, but at least he still maintains aspects of the original character — the same can’t be said for Skids. That’s how it goes sometimes, unfortunately.
I had no plans of picking up this figure initially. I hated the design, but then I saw the movie, and the cheesiness of the character grew on me, I guess. So let’s take a look at this figure and see how this reformed Decepticon fares as an Autobot on Michael Bay’s team.
Video Breakdown and additional thoughts:
The close-up of his face on the card art is absolutely jarring. I still don’t know how I feel about his having such a “humanoid” face, but I guess the artwork works in portraying the character.
I will say that even though I’m used to an all-white Drift, the design of this version has its appeal too. The contrast of the different shades of blue is pretty, and the gold of his face/mask/helmet is striking and really draws your attention to his face. The lighter blue has a slight metallic sheen to it that really jumps out against the darker blue. I dig it. Unfortunately, from the back, he just looks like one big lump of blue plastic, which is a clear indication that he’s meant to be viewed straight-on.
His head sculpt has a high level of detail that makes it look pretty awesome, even though it does reinforce the stereotypes the character embodies. The smile and the shape of his eyes don’t really convey the need for violence the character carries. He is a reformed Decepticon, so maybe something that didn’t make him look like the unfortunate “smiling, happy Buddha” stereotype would have been a better choice here.
For accessories, he comes with four swords: two long and two short. The swords are molded in a gold-ish plastic that stand in effective contrast to his blue body. They’re actually supposed to be helicopter blades since he’s a triple-changer in the movie, but if we want to see Drift’s helicopter mode in action figure form, then we have to buy a whole other figure that will be released later this summer.
He’s decently articulated for a modern deluxe-class figure, but it’s not the greatest. See the above video for a complete articulation breakdown.
Drift fits in well with his fellow AOE Autobots, and I guess he fills the “blue” requirement. All the characters are so colorful this time that they actually look pretty cool together, just like the Dinobots do. And it’s strange to view him side by side with the IDW Drift figure. Their designs are so different that it’s hard to believe they’re supposed to be the same character. The swords are the only thing they have in common. It’s also interesting to notice how small deluxe-class figures have gotten in the past few years. The Generations Drift was once considered to be pretty standard in size, but now he looks like a giant compared to AOE Drift. Yikes.
Drift’s alt mode is sharp and snazzy, which is helped by all the panels fitting together as they should. His transformation is a bit of a chore in parts, though, particularly his shoulders, because several panels are difficult to get to fit as they’re intended to. It’s takes some work to get everything in place, but it is possible, and the end result looks pretty good. I would totally drive this car if I could.
This version of Drift is not the best figure from the AOE line, but he isn’t bad. I totally get that people are going to have issues with the character, so this figure may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve grown fairly fond of him, though, and I don’t regret my purchase, so I guess that can be taken as an endorsement. I do fee a little weird recommending the figure, but what can I say? Whether or not you find the character offensive is going to depend greatly on your own point of view. And if you can separate politics from the figure itself, then it’s a pretty decent figure on its own merits. Not great, but not bad either.
Drift can currently be found anywhere Age of Extinction toys are carried, including Amazon and Big Bad Toy Store.
