So this is Drift, the character everybody loves to hate.  He used to be a Decepticon, but then he fell in with a mysterious third faction of Transformers that taught him how to be zen, and now he's joined the Autobots so he can tell them how much better he is than they are!  And he has three swords.  One of them he only uses in the most dire of circumstances, which is all the time.

On that sword, it says that he's better than you.

(I'm serious.  "Peerless under heaven" is written in Japanese across the blade.)

So, yeah, for some reason people hate Drift.  But people somehow hate him with an intensity greater than his suckage, and it's not like he ever really did anything beyond being given a hilariously overwrought backstory, so it's hard to hate him too much.

And his toy is fucking awesome.

I'm serious!  The toy somehow manages to come with all three swords and allow them to store.  He's got the two smaller blades tucked into scabbards on his hips.  The third, "special" sword stores on his back.  And, sure, he's got three swords, big whoop, but he's also got enough articulation to use them.  He can grip the special sword with both hands!  I don't think I can begin to list all the points of articulation on his arms and in his shoulders.  He's one of the few Transformers that can almost cross his arms over his chest.

His leg articulation is a little less awesome.  It needs better (meaning any) heel articulation, but is otherwise pretty good.  I forgive this because the way his lower legs transform is nifty.  I don't know how to even begin describing the process.  I guess the car parts sorta rotate separately from the upper robot shin parts, while the feet and ankles sort of fold up and around and...

I also like how neatly and easily it is to fold his arms up into the underside of the hood.  In some Transformers, this is an ordeal, especially the ones like Drift who have wheels somewhere on their arms.  With him, it's pretty straight-forward.  Just fold them up into the shoulders, easy-cheesy.

Now, some genuine problems.  First of all, he clips together really well in car mode.  So well that it's a little scary trying to pull him back apart.  When I say "clips together," I mean it.  In some spots he doesn't just peg together.  At the front and at the back, there are some legitimate irregular-shape in irregular-slot deals.  You basically have to pull them apart with excessive force because there's no room at that stage to slide one side out of the other.

Oh, and one of my shorter-swords was missing the pin that goes through the hinge between the blade and the hilt.  I cut a tiny bit off of a rubber-coated paper clip (so it was thick enough) and shoved that in there.  Seems to be fine now, but still kinda annoying.

Maggie saw him on the coffee table this evening and said he was beautiful.  Then I told her his backstory and she changed her mind.  Can't wait for that Drift comic book miniseries this fall!