Ratchet

Height: 16cm to top of head (robot mode); 12cm (vehicle length)

Articulation: 17 points total - ball joint neck, universal joint shoulders, forearm swivel, hinged elbows, universal joint hips, mid-thigh swivel, hinge knees.

Colors: Molded off-white, brick red, black, and clear blue. Painted red, black, pale blue, and silver (Autobot insignia).

Accessories: Tools x4.

Release Data: Released early June, 2008 in the United States at a retail price of US$9.99

Gallery: 12 images.

Author: RAC

Autobot Ratchet was, at one time, one of the most promising medical minds on Cybertron. After his experiences with Lockdown though, all he wanted to do was disappear. An assignment to a deep space repair crew was just what he was looking for. He never wanted to be in the middle of a new war against Megatron, but if that’s where fate puts him, he’ll do his best to keep his comrades safe and sound.

Ratchet's archetype is a tradition far older than Transformers: the old-timer. Experienced, blunt but not uncaring, cartoon old-timers tend to have single, dramatic reasons for being jaded and cynical in the first place, and Ratchet is no exception. The "experiences" mentioned in his bio cost him his EMP generator (hence the empty spot on his left forearm) and cost an Autobot operative named Arcee her memory. While Arcee's loss is massive and tragic, let's look briefly at what this means for poor Ratchet: the EMP generator is described as being used for anesthetic purposes, and Ratchet lost it a long time ago. This means that ever since he has been operating without any kind of anesthetic, and one of his accessories is clearly a can opener.

Confidence inspiring, no?

Vehicle Mode

Ratchet's a plain old van-shaped ambulance this time around, pretty similar to some of the smaller ambulances still in use. Around here, most of the ones you see skew a touch closer to Movie Ratchet, with a trucky front-end and big box for a back-end, but some of the private ambulance companies still use models such as this. Ratchet's not a new Transformer, why should he look like a new vehicle? The emblems on the sidepanels echo the EKG-inspired design on the side of Movie Ratchet, and, I'm sure, prevent any conflict with the Red Cross.

Of the two modes, Vehicle Mode was obviously the less-important. The sidepanels look a mite off, with big exposed hinges and painted side-windows that don't- and of course can't- quite match the clear plastic of the windshield. Even so, I've seen way worse, and he's a pretty good ambulance overall. It's shallow, but he does have a driver's compartment. He's also kinda small overall, at 12cm x 5cm x 5cm. In fact, he's mere millimeters longer than Classics Bumblebee sans trailer/jetpack! However, Ratchet is a Transformer, after all, and vehicle mode is not the whole story...

Robot Mode

Ratchet packs a lot more robot into a small space than Bumblebee- he's at least two inches taller, even without factoring in the shoulder armor bits. Those stick up about an inch above Ratchet's head on their own, and coupled with his head design help him look a good bit like a battered, aging samurai. (Well, either a samurai or a cranky old Gundam. But the Gundam head also has its roots in samurai armor, so... ) The rising sun-esque EKG symbols help with that too. The effect is even more pronounced on the animation model, where the shoulder armor is a bit more restrained and more in line with most examples of samurai armor you'll see. He's even appropriately paunchy, his potbelly being formed by folding down the hood of the ambulance. For some reason I love the fact that they've made a potbellied robot.

Articulation is up to the current TF standards. The ball-joint in the neck tops out at staring straight ahead and favors leaning forward for more of a surly glare. Swivel's unrestricted, and the angled neck doesn't seem to look odd until the amount of swivel itself looks unnatural. The shoulders' range is hampered a bit by the size of the shoulder armor, as extending Ratchet's arm too far bonks him in the head. He can reach inwards a wee bit, though- a nice plus. The elbows aren't bad, maxing out at ninety degrees, but Ratchet's action feature complicates things a bit.

In the cartoon, Ratchet has a pair of retractable magnetic prongs that allow him to levitate and otherwise manipulate objects- very handy, especially for a surgeon. As animated, these would be fragile and difficult to implement. So the toy has a larger single prong that folds against the back of the arm- when the arm is bent ninety degrees they spring forward into Ratchet's hands- assuming you remembered to open them, otherwise they just hit his fingers and don't unfold completely. So if you want to get the full bend out of the elbow, you'd better hope you wanted either the prong or one of his other tools deployed. These can also be somewhat touchy, I'm told- ExVee's Ratchet's right prong doesn't usually deploy.

Due to his transformation Ratchet has no waist joint, sadly. I like the shorts; the Autobots were designed to somewhat effect the look of superheroes, and the look of Ratchet puts me in mind particularly of older superhero costume stylings. (Check out Justice League: The New Frontier- the character designs there are much in the style I'm talking about.) The legs do their thing well, though, with good hips and knees, and thigh swivels that let him face to the side fairly effectively. The extra knee joint, necessary for transformation but otherwise useless, can result in his looking a mite knock-kneed if you're not careful.

Paint and Deco

One big error here- the red paint, being on a bright whitish background, doesn't match the darker red molded plastic too well. In fact, they differ to the point where I decided to dub them different shades in the datasheet above. It's very noticeable, especially on the roof of the ambulance which is half molded red and half painted red. Otherwise he looks good, with a nice black outline to define his kneecaps and "shorts." Pity Hasbro's not into Bandai-style panel-inking, because his mouth could be just a bit more defined.

Accessories

Ratchet comes with four tools: a giant hammer, monkeywrench, screwdriver, and yes, a can opener. As ExVee suggests to me, every surgeon needs a scalpel, and when you get down to it it suits his personality, I think. In use, these clamp over the springs for the (retracted) magnetic prongs and swing up into Ratchet's hands. When not in use, Ratchet can store them in his backpack, which I feel really cements the samurai look, bearing a slight resemblence to the flags you can see on the backs of some armor. When using these tools Ratchet can bend his arms fully without consequence, since the snap-on tools restrain the hardwired ones nicely. In Vehicle Mode, though, there's nothing you can do with them. Ratchet's hands and backpack are both concealed, so there's nowhere for them to go. A roof rack might've been nice, but probably would've looked really weird. The other thing to note with this setup, of course, is that Ratchet and his tools are both totally incompatible with the Transformers 5mm weapon standard- his accessories are his and his alone.

Closing Remarks

Of the Animated toys I have so far Ratchet is my favorite. He looks good (particularly as a robot) and poses well, and the only two compromises from his animation model are perfectly understandable due to the realities involved. I just wish there was something I could do with his tools when he's an ambulance- not that I leave him in that mode often.

For whatever reason Ratchet's been one of my favorite Animated characters, and I'm quite pleased with his toy. He's Very Good.

-RAC, 6/19/2008