This second shot at 1-step changer RID2015 Drift goes full-circle... in that it has the same "switchblade" transformation/design as the first "switchblade" 1-step changer, Age of Extinction Drift. As for this version, the vehicle mode does have the couple of oddities that are associated with switchblade 1-steppers. That is, the hinges on the front hood are a bit distracting and ruin the smoothness of that part; the front grill is a bit segmented-up as well because of the transformation; the top of the car doesn't come up much above the fornt hood; and the robot feet are rather obvious on the back end. Drift's vehicle mode is also "squished in" slightly in terms of how wide it is compared to how long it is, but it's a minor change; he still has fairly realistic car proportions in that respect. The mold detailing is decent towards the front, with his faux "headcrest" on the front of the grill with the headlights on the side and striped details. His details are quite basic beyond that, though with the basic window details there on top (and "bolted-on-armor" details that are used for the robot mode knees), he ends up being pretty smooth. Of course, being a curvy sportscar he SHOULD be rather smooth, but this goes a bit more beyond what I'd like. (I DO appreciate the taillight and exhaust port detailing on the bottom of the robot feet/back end, however, even if it's not painted.) The bold orange from the 3-step changer makes its appearance on this toy as well, and it makes for a great main color. Unfortunately, on this smaller toy, there isn't nearly the amount of black to contrast against it; the black stripes from this mode are completely gone, with only a metallic dull red swish on the side doors making for any kind of vehicle deco at all. The windows and kneepads are painted a charcoal black, though compared with the "more pure" black wheels the slight color change is a bit off-putting. There's also some more of that dull red paint on the grill headcrest and on the feet on the back, and his headlights are painted a nice light blue. However, there just needed to be more black to offset all that orange in this mode-- the red is too close to really provide enough contrast. Oh, and one last thing-- there is a port on the top of this mode that you can mount a Mini-Con Weaponizer or other weapon with a similarly-sized port on.
    Drift's transformation is the same as the other 1-step "switchblade" TFs-- take the back ends and pull them apart, rotating them around to become the feet while everything else auto-transforms, and then fold his arms down. It's a super-fun transformation, and I love it no matter how many times it's used. However, true to form this mode does suffer from the same issues as the other 1-step switchblade toys, as in he doesn't look that good from the sides. The legs from the side are revealed to be the hollow halves of his car mode, and the legs actually go up practically to his chest from that perspective. The mold detailing is pretty much just the inverse of his car mode from that view as well, so just... don't view him from those angles, I guess. His body is also just a panel flipped over the front of the top of those large legs to help mask how far up they go. Again, though, from a frontal view he looks pretty good, especially for a one-step. He's got excellent details on his chest, what with the faux car front/headlights and belt-waist, and his arms have all the armored details that his other toys have-- just with considerably smaller shoulders, due to the transformation. There's even his Mini-Cons in disc mode molded into his lower arms, which is a nice touch. His legs are a bit skinny on the top halves, but the bottom halves are a bit closer to how he should look, being wider with black "kneepads" and red feet. His headsculpt is pretty show-accurate as usual, with a silver face, blue eyes, and a dull red headcrest, though I wish some black paint had been added to his "facial hair". He's still almost all orange in this mode, though the black paint on his chest, waist, and knees-- along with the blue paint on his faux headlights-- helps break up the orange a bit better than in vehicle mode. From a back view, some parts on his upper back are black, but this isn't going to be seen often given how you're "supposed" to look at him. I do really wish his arms had some more paint, but otherwise he's okay in this respect. For articulation he can only move at two points at the shoulders, just like the other 1-step switchblade TFs-- not unexpected at this point.
    The 2017 version of 1-step RID2015 Drift uses the by-now familar "switchblade" transformation design, which comes with all the expected positives (really fun transformation, nice robot mode from a frontal view, decent alt mode) and negatives (very low vehicle roof, obvious robot toes in alt mode, unsightly proportions in robot mode if you look at him from the side or back). This is one of my favorite 1-step designs, and I'd easily recommend it over the previous 1-step RID2015 Drift. That said, if you can only get one version of a simplified Drift, I'd make it the sturdier, more accurate 3-step changer, but this makes for a decent second-place effort.
 

Review by Beastbot

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