Browsing the forums i have seen tons of hate directed at Drift and i don't know why, i see him as an amazing character and is one of my favorites.

 

Originally, Drift was presented as some kind of "Awesome" character that IDW assured the fandom that we'd all love him.

At first, Drift randomly just showed up with the Wreckers, killed some Insecticons, and then showed up on Earth. And he didn't really have any given backstory, just that he was some sort of badass Samurai dude.

It wasn't until later that we got the Spotlight and the mini-series, giving Drift the much-needed back story that should have been given earlier and making him an actual character instead of something closer to a fan character.

 

I think it's more of being disappointed that little was done with him.

 

Hes a nice bot the kind that will give u the laser core out of his chest for u

 

Because we've already had Wolverine for years and his entire personality stinks of Image Comics circa mid-to-late nineties?

Personally, I take the writing with a pinch of salt, they did hard sell us on the character, but I don't mind him and I quite like the toy. The only incongruous thing about the character was Chris Ryalls inclusion of him in the Robot Heroes story-book. "Hi, I'm Optimus prime and these are my good friends and well known Autobots that all you kiddies will know and love, Ratchet, Prowl, Bumblebee and...Drift? You know, who felt bad after slaughtering countless thousands, but now we let him hang out with us."

They did it with Sixshot and Daniel in the Takara series and it didn't wash well then.

 

Do GI Joe fans feel the same way with Agent Helix? Seems she's a pretty similar character in that she's practically a Snake Eyes level bad ass from the moment she's introduced.

 

But he asked about Drift, not Grimlock.  

 

Nice.

 

From the few snippets of comicbook previews I read, his character might be OK...

but the overall concept of the Japanese inspired anime samurai thing, just feels forced ( whereas Bludgeon pulls it off waaaaaaay better imo ).

Also, I think the robot mode design suffers from the same flaws as most contemporary anime mecha designs do ; small torso, disproportionally long moonboots legs, those typical anime shoulder pads.... Yuck, just yuck.

 

People still hate Drift? I love the guy because of how utterly silly his comic series was. He gives me hilarious fanfiction flashbacks.

 

Drift has never really bothered me...

I always thought it was the overall disappointment of IDW's authors that put off most people.

I guess you could argue that people may be sore about newcomer Drift getting a Generations toy while cries for Blitzwing go unnoticed.

But in my opinion the most hated character in IDW has always been Spike. And even that's because of all the time dedicated to him by writers of a $4 book that only gives you a total of 24pages.

Instead of Spike being a humbled supporting character the author makes the Autobots dance around him solving crimes like he's Jesus/Superman.

 

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans.../299814-transformer-question-about-drift.html

 

But she was a female character. Fans (regardless the franchise) tend to be more forgiving when they get a new women in plastic form   But Helix also didn't have MONTHS of hype telling fans "how awesome" she was going to be. Initially, she was only a video game character, and didn't became notable until she was used (to a solid response) in IDW's book.

But seriously, for many fans, Drift encapsulates almost every thing "wrong" with comics and when Hasbro lets people outside of the company create characters. He features almost every stereotyped "fan character feature" since the dawn of the internet:
a tragic past
the Japanse drift racer motif (with barely sensible Japanese writing on him!)
strong, silent type
fucking SWORDS
And editorial insistence that "everyone will LOVE him!"
And it didn't help his creator was a writer many fans don't hold in high esteem due to "All Hail Megatron".

He could become the greatest character in the franchise, on par with Dinobot, but that "stigma" will probably never leave him.

Yeah, Drift was at least a new robot. Spike was just an asshole in the first story arc, so much so I was left NOT WANTING to keep reading. Sadly, Spike's story concepts were a heck of a lot better than Drifts, just written a HELL of a lot worse.

 

He is literally "anime samurai: the Transformer". That's why I dislike him.

 

He was also retconned into the G1 series which I am sure pissed off some people.

 

I don't hate drift, the guy that created should have a room in hell reserved for him as he's one of the worst comic writters in history.

I do get why people hate drift though, his charicter is just such a cliché, he was over hyped, any hype at all around such a dull charicter would have been over hype though and his 4 issue spotlight (4 issues, prime got 1, drift gets 4, are you kidding me!) which was another showing of Shanes poor grasp of pacing and ablity to write a good or orginal storie.

Now if Drift was handed over to a good writer, put in a story where he could actually show his worth with out being some one fan fic charicter then I think he could actually be really good and a popular tf. I do get the feeling that SG Drift purly for being a comical rip off/homage to deadpool will be far more popular than regual drift could ever be. That could also could be cos not as much is expect of funpub and they have pretty much openly admited he is just arip off deadpool which IDW never did anything like with drift.

 

How is it a retcon when its a completely new series of G1? He's a new G1 character.

Lockdown also appears in Drift's mini-series and his toy makes him strictly a movie character, one based of a character from Animated but he barely gets mentioned.

Reveal the Shield Lugnut is more of a retcon. He was supposedly present at the battle of Autobot City in 2005 (the 1986 movie), going by the Japanese manga for him.

 

Drift doesn't seem like that much of a "Mary Sue" to me. He has flaws in his character, the other Autobots don't fully trust him, and he doesn't show up in every single story just to make things more awesome. I like his toy too.

 

I still prefer him to the annoyingly overused and overhyped Optimus Prime. But then I've never gotten why Jetfire and Wheeljack were so loved among the fandom, but then I hate know all scientists. Ironic given I work in a lab myself. Oh and Kup? Give me Ironhide anyday.

I have no problem with Drift because I'm always glad to see new G1 characters like him, Acid Storm and the Robotmasters. Well, if Acid Storm had a character. I miss the old days of the G1 tech specs. All we get in Ireland are single lines of generic sounding drivel.

 

They hate him 'cause they wish they were JUST LIKE HIM!