Prelude: Hi, fan boys. It’s me Wade Wilson. You know, Deadpool. Now today we won’t just be breaking fourth walls, but probably fifth and sixth ones as well as we look at this dude that’s the unofficial third party adaption of an evil mirror universe dude who is also, kind of, an unofficial toy of an unofficial homage to Yours Truly. Got all that? Good, because I’m off again to star in more movies and stuff, while you take a look at Mastermind Creations Stray Shadow Ghost, who, let’s face it, is basically me. He, he! Deadpool out!

Robot Mode: I must admit that, at first, I didn’t like the design of this robot mode at all, at least not in its original white colors. The shoulders seemed to big, the rest of the body too scrawny. It looks so much better in red, though, and holding the figure in hand the proportions are far better. The shoulder pods are still big, of course, but it fits with the rest of the figure. Stray is about Voyager-sized and very nicely articulated, too. This includes the shoulder pods, which are on ball joints, just like the scabbards on his hip.

Being well articulated, Stray can adopt all sorts of cool poses with his many weapons. He carries two short swords in the scabbards on his hips, stashes a long sword on his back, and also has a big black rifle that… well, he can’t stash it anywhere, but it looks cool. Finally Stray comes with two interchangeable heads, one being the normal head resembling Drift from the IDW comics, the other being Deadpool. Well, not officially, of course, but let’s face it: it’s Deadpool. Except that you can see his lips, but you barely notice that.

In closing for the robot mode: excellent. Personally I like it much, much better with the Deadpool head than the Drift head, but that’s subjective, of course. Thumbs up!

Alternate Mode: Stray transforms into a futuristic drift racer. The transformation is pretty innovative for a car Transformer, not the usual hood-as-chest or anything, without being too complicated. No visible robot bits unless you look from underneath. The rear of the car is a bit open, but it doesn’t really hurt the look any. The car looks pretty great overall, no complaints. All of Stray’s swords can be stored underneath the car, though the big sword has to be disassembled. The blades stick out the back a bit but again, it doesn’t hurt the look any. No place for the rifle, sadly. So bottom line: a very nice-looking car mode, no points deducted.

Remarks: Drift started out as a rather uninspired ninja-stereotype in IDW’s All Hail Megatron series, was kind of grating, but not nearly as grating as the massive nerd rage resulting from his presence. He became a far more beloved character once he became part of the Lost Light cast and that’s the version Mastermind Creations recreated with their Stray figure. Of course Hasbro had the whole Shattered Glass thing going on, too, and created the SG version of Drift as basically a homage to the Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool. So of course MMC repainted their Stray figure into Stray Shadow Ghost (Shadow Ghost, SG, Shattered Glass, get it?), which was available exclusively at TFCon.

As mentioned above, I didn’t much care for this figure when I saw pictures of it all in white, but I very much like it in red and there is another version in blue, too (also a TFCon exclusive). So if you are a fan of red Drift from the live-action movies or Deadpool from the comics, either way this is a pretty cool figure, though admittedly much of the coolness comes from the homage. Without that it's a pretty good figure, but not quite where I feel an A-rating is deserved. Still, fully recommended to all fans of the IDW comics and Deadpool, too.

Rating: B+


Source: Transformers-Universe.com