Drift's Bugatti Veyron car mode makes the transition to a One-Step Changer quite well; the proportions are SLIGHTLY more rounded and "chubby" than the real thing (on the front end more than anything else), but overall they're pretty on-the-nose. What's better, there's no robot mode extras sticking out in this mode whatsoever, not even if you look through the open side windows, and no empty cavities either; it's a solid car mode. (That said, due to the transformation there are a fair number of obvious "creases" on the front hood that are a bit unsightly.) The color scheme is quite eye-catching, with the light metallic blue contrasting and complementing the main plastic color of dark blue extremely well (the dark blue is of a slightly metallic luster as well, making it look all the better). The bit of silver on the windows helps break up all the blue, as does the black on the tires. There's also a pretty good number of paint apps in this mode; the bottom edges are colored metallic blue, yes, but the headlights and taillight are also painted (rather ingeniously, his unpainted taillight is replaced with the silver magnetized pin that's on all the One-Step Changers and Power Battlers, for use with Stomp 'n Chomp Grimlock). The front grill outlines and even the gas caps are painted as well-- really, for a simplified toy Drift has all the paint apps you could reasonably want on him in this mode. The mold detailing is a bit sparse due to the very aerodynamic look of the mode, but the necessary intricate details-- such as the wheels, front grill, and engine-like detailing behind the rear window-- are all present.
    Drift is the first of many One-Step Changers to use a really cool "switchblade" transformation, in which you take the halves of the back end of the car mode and rotate them around, essentially turning the mode inside out. It's REALLY darned fun, and quite intuitive. Regardless, in robot mode Drift's proportions aren't nearly as good as in car mode, but they're still (largely) decent. The head is a bit small and the main body a bit wide-- his chest is also simply just details on the underside of a flap of his car mode, and the hinge it's on doesn't QUITE go down all the way on Drift, sadly, so he has to "look over" his chest flap a little. The legs may be slightly thick proportionally, but they're largely good, and the arms and head are both sculpted very nicely. The biggest issue with this mode, though, is that due to the transformation, the pieces which make up the legs and the sides of his body are simply two very long, hollow "legs", with rather noticeable, large cavities in each side. This makes Drift look rather bad from a side-view, though on the upside the interior of these hollow pieces are very detailed, with fake (unpainted) details like his feet-wheels and layered "skirt" armor visible inside said cavities. In fact, overall his robot bits are sculpted very intricately; all of the samurai-like armor plating is there, as well as the fake "blades" on Drift's upper back, swords coming out of his wrists, the faux car-grill chest, and a very obviously samurai-inspired headsculpt. All this said, the paint is considerably more lackluster in this mode-- his legs have basically no paint at all, and his arms only have a bit of an outline of light metallic blue on them on the shoulders. This wouldn't be so bad if is wasn't for a rather bland color rearing its head in this mode-- a rather dull shade of gray. It helps give Drift a lighter plastic color, I suppose, but a more metallic shade of the color would've looked infinitely better (particularly if it was a bit darker). The light metallic blue just doesn't look that good on it-- this goes for the fair bit of metallic light blue-on-gray on Drift's chest sculpt, as well. Drift's head is detailed nicely enough, but his face is silver, not gold like in the movie, a rather significant oversight. For articulation, Drift is pretty limited-- he can move at the shoulders at two points, and technically sideways at the hips a bit, though doing the latter much will start to activate his transformation back to vehicle mode. I would've preferred some knees or a head swivel, but articulation obviously isn't the point of this simplified subline.
    AoE one-step car Drift has an excellent car mode and a really fun, addictive transformation-- one of my favorite of the One-Step Changer transformations, in fact. His color scheme is largely also great (gray in robot mode aside), and he's got a decent number of paint apps. His robot mode is... decent, but the chest panel not flipping down all the way and the long, hollow legs are both big negatives and my only real problem with the "switchblade" style of transformation for one-steps. For a little 'un who wants a transformable Drift, this is a fun little toy; otherwise, due to the robot mode issues you're probably better off going for the deluxe.
 

Review by Beastbot

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