I have the distinct feeling that the briefly-seen (CGI) helicopter mode Drift had in the movie was not at all planned initially by Hasbro, given how it's never directly referred to in the movie and none of his toys even attempt a triple-changing aspect-- so instead, we get 2 toys for Drift in some categories, like 1-step changers! For his helicopter-alt-mode version, Drift looks rather futuristic in his alt mode-- not like any helicopter I've seen in real life. The very angular and complex cockpit shape, the side missiles, the multiple "layered armor" bits across the toy-- it all generally looks cool, even despite some proportional maladies. The nosecone is a bit fatter than I'd think, as is the rear main body of the helicopter, and the side wings and tailfin are a bit smaller than you'd expect. All that said, they don't bother me as much as they would have if Drift had been trying to copy some real helicopter-- the "futuristic" look gives him a bit more leeway here, and he still most definitely looks like a helicopter. The only outright robot mode extras I'd say exist in this mode are the bottom of the robot feet on the bottom of the back half or so-- they're a bit too obvious, whereas even the robot arms-- fairly obviously sticking out of the sides once you know the transformation-- blend in with their surroundings pretty darned well. As mentioned before, the layered "armor" detailing looks very nice, and is everywhere on the figure, along with some mold details that look like they're car parts, including a couple of round unpainted "wheel" parts, some car intake vents on the sides, and even the Bugatti front on the top of the cockpit! He's also got plenty of molded-in firepower, like missile packs below his wings and a gun below the front nosecone. The rotors can spin quite freely as well, so no problems there. The color scheme is very much your typical AoE Drift scheme, with a rather nice dark semi-metallic blue making up the main plastic color, with a bit of light metallic blue paint on the "armored bits" like the sides of this mode. Top if all off with some silver paint on the cockpit, some black paint on the faux Bugatti grill, and some (admittedly rather dull) brownish gray plastic on the rotors, missiles, and a few other minor parts, and you've got a pretty snazzy-looking helicopter mode, overall.
    To transform Drift to robot mode, you simply press in on the faux Bugatti grill on the top, and the whole thing folds in on itself automatically for the robot mode. I'm surprised Hasbro went with as many differences to the robot mode are there are-- there's still part of the faux Bugatti front on his chest, and the armored light metallic blue bits on his upper arms and upper legs, but his lower legs have larger toes and large missile racks hanging off of them, while the lower arms have the missiles (now wrist-blades, which can slide forward!) hanging off them. The helicopter cockpit is also clearly visible on the lower chest, making this version of Drift a bit leaner and lankier than his car mode toys, and the blades on his back are collapsed into two long blades from his helicopter mode-- definitely not what his blades are arrayed like on his car toys, though this last part is certainly understandable given the limitations of 1-step changers. From a side view, clear "dividing lines" can be seen in the middle of Drift's legs, and I'm not fond of the little tailfin sticking out of his butt, but otherwise extra-wise he looks pretty good in this mode. The detailing on Drift's face is as good as ever, and-- unlike many of his other toys-- he actually has the accurate gold face, always a good thing. (Given how many parts are visible in both parts, Drift has the same general color and mold detailing layout in this mode as in vehicle mode.) For articulation, Drift can only move at the shoulders (at two points), and his wrist-blades can slide back-and-forth-- though articulation isn't the point of 1-step changers, of course.
    AoE 1-step changer helicopter Drift is one of the few 1-step changers I'd mildly recommend even to people who don't collect toys from the subline to pick up. Sure, he's got very limited articulation and a few minor unsightly bits in robot mode, but in general he looks pretty solid in both modes, has great coloration and detail, and is a mold created very specifically for the futuristic sort of helicopter Drift changes into briefly in the movie, unlike his voyager toy, which is a remold of an older toy. It's also different enough from the 1-step changer car Drift to be worth a purchase even if you have the latter. He's not perfect, but he's one of my favorite 1-step changers from the AoE line.
 

Review by Beastbot

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