Review Drift Resin Kit - limited edition DFT-01 SGCollect

I've been struggling to figure out how to exactly review this piece fairly. Since quality and aesthetics are relative, I've put this off. I've also had a difficult time starting this review because of all the various factors involved: Cost, availability, quality, difficulty, faithfulness to the original character, cleaning, finding the "sweet spot" with the various parts and so on. So I've decided to break it down a bit and go from there.
Here's what I got.

First off, I'll leave the character's history completely out of it. Done.
I purchased this kit from eBay for quite a bit. This kit was allegedly produced as a short run of either 100 or 150. I've seen both numbers which makes me a bit nervous. As it appears, this kit was originally both hand sculpted and used a 3D printer to fabricate. The sculpting and "printed" parts are really nice. Obviously the 3D parts are near flawless. The Sculpted parts are not without their faults but still quite impressive. The overall design and aesthetic of the figure is also quite appealing. One issue I have in this department is that he seems too short to me. I would imagine him to be a leaner taller character rather than a brawn-ish one.

As for the package itself, it came with one broken piece which was easily remedied with some super glue. All the parts were there and the instructions were fairly clear. However, you do need a clear understanding of how transformer toys come together and a solid handle of kitbashing tools and extensive kitbashing experience. The Drill bits that arrive are either too small or the styrene rods are too large. One way or another the rods don't quite fit in the holes the bits make. This requires that you wiggle the tool while drilling through the parts. As it goes, practice is dangerous to the toy. If you over drill you have a loose piece that falls off. If it's too tight you run the risk of snapping the styrene rod when turning the attached part. Compared to a model kit like a gundam kit for example the drift kit doesn't stand a chance. It's looks, feels, and smells home made. And I honestly can't compare it to other home kits because I've never purchased one. However, what knowledge I do have of casting various parts, this is mighty impressive. Knowing this justifies the cost of this item to me. Casting bits one at a time or even all at once takes a long time. Short run materials cost a lot.

The pieces and design fits together. The kit does transform but it requires ALOT of work. And as it is, will not stand even the most cautious play. I assembled it in two sittings while working on a personal kitbash. So all in all, it took about 1 hour to assemble. However, it need a lot more work and will require some serious scratch building, fixing up and modifying to stand some play. For example as it stands now, the legs telescope in freely, nothing prevents them from staying put. The torso falls right off the waist. This might be exclusive to the one that I received but I doubt it. Some things do fit amazingly well, the head, the back plate, the hands, the swords and knives, and the feet. I wish the rest of him fit as well as these do.

Honestly what I’ll end up doing with this is completely re-customize him. To me, as someone who has no official untouched figures in his collection, this is worth it. I enjoy kitbashing and I know this will be a super cool piece in my collection. If you’re looking for a quick model kit that you can throw in with your classics collection, I would leave this alone. Or, hire a customizer to fix one up for you. But it won’t come cheap.

All in all, I personally am glad I picked this up. The sculpting and design work is some of the best I’ve seen considering the “home made” look of the figure. It does not look factory in the standard Hasbro/Takara sense that we expect from our store bought toys. The assembly is extremely well thought out but the resulting outcome leaves much to be desired. The cost is high but considering all the work involved in putting this kit together, understandable. I give it an “A” for sculpting and design and a “D+” for the actual assembly part.

My greatest fear in writing this review was to completely shut down the creative people involved in creating this kit. If these guys and/or gals are trying to start a small business like Fan’s Project or iGears they’re definitely on the right track. I’ve always wanted someone to make and sell transforming model kits. My advice, and this is just me, is to put more thought in the assembly, to themselves in the shoes of the collector. The modeling and design is great. However, instead of using styrene rods, perhaps actual pins and ball joints would give this kit a greater audience. It would have a greater appeal to the everyday fan and include more customizers with varying skill levels and result in a wider audience and more sales. If they are in fact trying to start up a little business, I hope they do so and I hope they read this review and consider some of my points. I for one, am looking forward to more of their work.

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I got one as well, but I am afraid to put it together. I think I might scrap the styrene rods altogether and use some metal ones.

good call doubleclouder. The rods work will in the feet and the elbow area. Good luck and thanks for reading the review.

Looks good, great review!

Any chance of close up pics of the hand sculpted areas? im curious

Other than that, it would be neat to see him painted

thanks. sure thing, I'll photograph them in the next couple of days and post them. any other close ups you guys wanna see? as for painting him, there's a lot of fixing up I gotta do before hand.
cheers

I guess the most obvious would be face/head, swords and hands... maybe joints would be nice too

Great review wheeljack, very informative. I agree about the height, he's like a centimeter or two too short

He does look cool. I remember a lot of the non-kitbashers were totally shitting on this kit, but you've at last given us an objective review, pointing out the good and the bad.

How much is this btw?

Non-bashers want perfection from Hasbro/Takara/Tomy or any other company that does this sort of thing.

Bashers want perfection from Hasbro/Takara/Tomy or any other company that does this sort of thing.......if we don't get that, we create perfection.

lol

As for the topic at hand, great review, Ninos! I can definitely see the issues with this (size especially), but I'm still wanting to get my hands on one of these to bash and paint up for my collection. I'm with you in that it's worth the price for the amount of work involved and I do like that 3rd parties are jumping in and doing some cool stuff that we pretty much know we won't get from the big boys. Can't wait to see you work your magic on this sucker, bro.

eBay Feedback - punk_guy1

Wow he's shorter then Prowl kind of sad about that. In all he looks pretty sweet, but these kits deffinately need the love of a basher. I've been debating picking this guy up and this review has made it a harder decision I was close to passing