(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to the DotM Skyhammer toy. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of the DotM Skyhammer toy here.)

    I'm pretty sure the presence of this toy is the likely result of Drift having a helicopter mode in the movie that was a complete surprise to Hasbro, given how often it's "mentioned" in the movie (i.e., never). Still, this redeco of Skyhammer into Drift works surprisingly well. Sure, it's a different scale of helicopter, and the robot shoulders bear no resemblance to Drift's design, but the rotors are around the chest-- sorta kinda like Drift's "rotor" swords behind his back on the movie model-- and the robot feet look similar, though he doesn't have the "samurai armor" look on the legs. The general FEEL of the helicopters are also fairly similar, too. Hasbro pretty well aced it on the color scheme. A dark navy blue (but not QUITE as dark as on most of the other AoE car Drift toys) and a medium blue contrast and complement each other quite well, but if it and the little bit of black (on a few pieces such as the rotors) were it, Drift would come across pretty boring. Luckily, Hasbro put in a bit more "gold" that shows through in both modes-- not just the robot mode-- with a brownish goldish plastic that I admittedly have some fears will eventually succumb to Gold Plastic Syndrome-- it is pretty much that exact shade. No crumbling issues, yet, though, as of this writing (12/17). There's also some bronze paint-- not gold, but bronze-- on a few pieces like the blades and robot face. On the one hand, these areas are supposed to be more gold than bronze, but on the other hand, it fits with the plastic shade better. The paint apps-- particularly the light blue-- are spread across the toy pretty well in both modes as well, preventing Drift from looking boring with large patches of just one color shade in either mode.
    Drift does have two mold changes (or three, depending upon how you want to count them); first, obviously he has a new headsculpt, which fits his movie model head spot-on and looks great. No complaints there. Skyhammer's Mechtech weapon has also been replaced with fairly large sword accessories which can clip together to form a larger blade, though honestly the blade is a bit too wide in the combined configuration, so I tend to keep them seperate. They look pretty cool with the bronze paint app on the blade, and in addition to (obviously) fitting into Drift's hands in robot mode, they can also tab onto the ends of his wings in helicopter mode for vehicle storage. Huzzah!
    The voyager helicopter Drift toy may be a remold, but the mold fits Drift surprisingly well (despite still having definite, obvious dissimilarities), and the colors are well spread out while also staying faithful to Drift's colors on his other AoE toys. The new headsculpt is good (and basically required), but the swords are great accessories that store in both modes, much better than Skyhammer's Mechtech weapon. Top all this off with a mold that was one of the best of its line, and this is a solid recommendation for anyone who wants an articulated toy of AoE Drift that becomes a helicopter. (If you want a more closely movie-accurate one but don't care about articulation, though, try the one-step changer instead.)

Review by Beastbot

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