Drift (RID)
| The name or term "Drift" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Drift (disambiguation). |
- Drift is an Autobot from the Robots in Disguise portion of the Aligned continuity family.
While some bounty hunters may be unscrupulous thugs for hire, Drift is a rarity: he's a bounty hunter with a conscience. Dedicated to hunting down wrongdoers and crooks across the galaxy, Drift aims to bring his targets in fairly and honorably, with the goal of rehabilitating them into contributing members of Cybertronian society.
Not that he's all sunshine and roses, however. Drift is an exacting perfectionist in everything he does, with an unbendingly rigid honor code he follows to the letter, a level of strictness even Strongarm finds excessive. He is blunt and dismissive, rarely giving even slight praise, which often leaves his two Mini-Con students, Slipstream and Jetstorm, feeling unappreciated. They stick with him because he helped lift them out of the gutter, but....
Drift is an expert in blade combat, eschewing blasters for the up-close approach, leaving his Mini-Cons to handle outside distractions while he focuses on his target. Turns out he needs the backup, as he's quite unpopular with other bounty hunters... particularly Fracture, who's itching to turn Drift into so many metal shavings.
Fiction
2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon
- Voice actor: Eric Bauza (English), Tomokazu Sugita (Japanese)[1], Raffaele Farina (Italian)
Drift and his Mini-Cons headed to Earth to collect on the bounty on Bumblebee's head, however arriving at the same time was Fracture. Drift tangled with the Decepticon at a deserted ranch, however Fracture got the better of him, and it was only through Bumblebee's help that Fracture was sent into a retreat. Drift saw this as a life debt and insisted on protecting Bee, though his following Bumblebee everywhere wore thin fast. After Denny, Strongarm, Sideswipe and Grimlock were captured by Fracture to use as a trade, Drift remained resolute in sticking with Bumblebee who pointed out that there was more to honor. When Fracture was defeated, mostly thanks to Slipstream and Jetstorm hijacking the Decepticon's ship, Drift was released from his life debt, though admitted that as Bumblebee had proven himself to be honorable, he would not pursue the bounty, instead leaving in his ship. Hunting Season
 Spoiler warning: Plot details for One of Our Mini-Cons Is Missing follow. |
Drift later returned to Earth in search of Jetstorm, who had abandoned his master after he believed that he had dishonored him. Drift and Slipstream met up with Bumblebee's team again and encountered Jetstorm, who had decided to adopt Russell Clay as his new master. Before they could argue the matter any further, Bumblebee recruited all three of them to help re-capture Quillfire and Springload, who had escaped captivity. The Autobots headed out in pursuit of the two Decepticons, and eventually discovered that they had commandeered a human tank. Drift took a blast from the tank, knocking him unconscious, and his two students rushed to his aid instead of contributing to the fight. As soon as he came round, Drift reprimanded his Mini-Cons for disobeying him... until Russell gave him a piece of his mind. Humbled, Drift reluctantly went along with Jetstorm's plan to disable the tank, which turned out to be successful. In the aftermath, Drift welcomed Jetstorm back into the fold, and announced to Bumblebee that he planned to remain on Earth for the time being so that he could learn more about teamwork. One of Our Mini-Cons Is Missing
Spoiler warning: Plot details for Deep Trouble (RID) follow. |
Drift and his Mini-Cons participated in a training exercise. They later GroundBridged underwater with the rest of the Autobots, who were in pursuit of Octopunch. After the Decepticon broke into an Cybertronian spaceship, Drift pursued him inside, but wound up trapped in a room with Sideswipe. Undeterred, Drift instructed his two students to meditate, and Sideswipe reluctantly went along with it. Deep Trouble
Spoiler warning: Plot details for The Champ follow. |
Drift helped Fixit zero in on a pair of Decepticon signals. They turned out to belong to Groundpounder and Headlock, and the Autobots, sans Grimlock, tried to GroundBridge into Crown City. The bridge malfunctioned and wound up stranding the team in the Arctic. A second GroundBridge had them materialize outside the city limits, and the team were held up by traffic while Grimlock and Fixit fought the two Decepticons. The Champ
Spoiler warning: Plot details for The Trouble with Fixit follow. |
When Fixit reverted to his sentry programming and armed the scrapyard's security systems, Drift suggested that Fixit might have to be destroyed. He and his two students were trapped by containment fields, but he managed to escape and pursued Chop Shop's components when they managed to escape from stasis. The Trouble with Fixit
Robots in Disguise shorts
At some point Drift watched Grimlock and Fixit perform in a talent show. Fixit Jam
2015 Robots in Disguise books
Drift was out searching for energon when the rest of Bumblebee's team hunted down Scuzzard and Filch, but arrived back in time to help prevent Filch from escaping captivity a second time. Bumblebee Versus Scuzzard
Games
Transformers: Robots in Disguise
Transformers: Robots in Disguise (mobile game)
Toys
Robots in Disguise (2015)
- Drift (Warrior Class, 2015)
- Part of the second wave of Robots in Disguise Warrior-class figures, Drift transforms from a samurai robot into a futuristic orange car that appears to be a cross between AOE Drift's Bugatti Veyron alt-mode and a Gumpert Apollo. In robot mode, his two swords can be stored on his left hip. In car mode, they store on his underside by using the tabs on his legs with the slots in the sword handles.
- His scannable insignia is dead-center on his chest, easily scanned even in-package. Scanning this with the Robots in Disguise mobile game temporarily unlocks Warrior-class Drift as a playable character, if the player has not already permanently unlocked him (at a cost of 4250 energon cubes).
- The Adventure version features extra paint applications.
- Drift (One-Step Changer, 2015)
Merchandise
- Drift (Tiny Titans, 2015)
- Number: ??/12
- Part of the third assortment of Tiny Titans, this version of Drift is a soft-plastic, minimally-painted figurine with a trading card sold in a blind-packed bag (though there is a tiny window to peek into on the back, plus the bag is thin enough to make out the name printed on the card).
- Scanning the insiginia on his card gives the player a random number of energon cube "currency" and a random power-up item.
Notes
Foreign names
- Japanese: Drift (ドリフト Dorifuto)
- Mandarin: Piāoyí (漂移, "Drift")
