TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

Alternate Mode:

Box Art:

electro girl's review: Rescue Ratchet

Name: Rescue Ratchet
Allegiance: Autobots
Function: Autobot medic

His repainted vehicle helps Ratchet save more Autobots than ever!

Ok so this is the situation; I have the worst hangover in the world ever, I'm in the centre of London and I have only half an hour until my train to Hull departs (such is the life of a jet setting sociologist). You see I have a kind of tradition that’s been going for 2 or 3 years where whenever I go to London I buy a Transformer.

So I’m without a Transformer and I’m thinking 'Crap! I’m without a Transformer!' This is when I say to my friends 'Come on I NEED a Transformer before we leave.' So we're power walking down Oxford street towards Hamleys with our heads pounding just so I could get a Transformer.

After getting to the floor with the TFs I see a sparse range of movie toys which were mostly robot replicas or those arm blaster things so I grabbed Ratchet and left for Kings Cross, and that, boys and girls, is the story of how I came by Rescue Ratchet.

Ok I realise that’s not what you came for so here begins the review.


Alternate Mode:

Rescue Ratchet’s alternate mode is a Hummer H2 that has been modded into an emergency vehicle. In the film Ratchet is green and is from the fire service but this version is a repaint designed to look more like his G1 counterpart, and so he is now a red and white ambulance style Hummer.

As I said the main colours in this mode are red and white, with clear blue for windows and black and grey for general motor parts. One of the most noticeable features of the colour scheme is the red flat line/ heart monitor on the side which I think is a really nice touch. This mode also has 'AMBULANCE' written on it just in case you didn't realise he is an ambulance. (A mistake with this is that ambulance is not written backwards on his bonnet).

I think this is a really good looking vehicle mode (even if the colour is a tad flat looking) and the overall placement of robot parts is almost invisible (unless you turn him upside-down). Ratchet is pretty realistic in this mode and looks like a real tough and hardy vehicle, I particularly like the front grill and roof rack witch are moulded in grey plastic.

A short coming with mine is that the transformation piece that hides the head will no longer stay in place and thats a bit irritating.

Not much more I can say about this mode as it’s pretty straight forward, so on to the robot.


Robot Mode:

After what is at first a difficult transformation we come to Ratchet’s robot mode and it’s a little... odd.

He has a really short body and massive legs which look a bit out of proportion – what’s more this makes his arms look a bit weird also.

My favourite part of this mode is the legs (and the crotch), especially the upper portions. Apart from the two plates at the back the legs have retained the look of the ‘bot’s in the movie very well indeed. The lower legs are a slightly less spectacular but still nice and robotic, a premium version of this figure would accentuate these parts fantastically. It is here that we see Ratchet’s Automorph feature, as his feet fold down from the roof of the Hummer two panels protrude from his inside leg and his knee caps pop out. This is a perfectly nice feature but the figure could have managed just as well without it.

Ratchet’s upper body is made up of the front section of his vehicle mode, and this is where most of the vehicle parts can be seen in this mode as it houses the bonnet, the front wheels and the doors. This doesn’t really take much away from the figure but it's noticeable.

In this mode Ratchet has a weapon not seen in the film, his vehicle’s roof rack and spare tyre convert into a pincer that mounts onto his left arm and can be stored on his back when not in use. It's a good weapon but in all probability the designers just couldn’t find anywhere to put it and just used it as a poor substitute for his missing arm saw.

His other arm houses his gun/obscure medical instrument probably meant to indicate his saw blade. The gun is ok – it flips out from his forearm but doesn’t have any kind of barrel so it’s not obvious it's a gun unless you've seen the film. From here you can fold his hand into his arm and split the gun to form his obscure medical instrument, but this 'weapon' adds very little to the figure and just looks like a butterfly on his arm.

By far his worst body part is the head. The head mould itself is fine but the colours are awful! The front of his face is painted a funny kinda red with the top and back in white plastic. This just looks as if Hasbro couldn’t be bothered to paint the entire head, and, what’s more, the blue light piping sticks out a mile.

To sum up this is a decent figure considering I bought it in a rush and whilst nursing a hangover. A few niggles aside it’s quite enjoyable and could be improved tenfold with a premium series release. (Which it received in October 2007 as a Best Buy exclusive in the USA.)


Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation: 7.5 – Difficult at first but soon becomes familiar.
Durability: 10 – I can’t see anything coming off this bulky figure anytime soon.
Fun: 8 – Needs the saw but is by no means boring.
Price: 4 – At £26 ($52) this is an expensive toy but only due to where I purchased it – Hamleys is no place to hunt for a bargain (UK retail is generally at ~£20 [$40]).
Overall: 7.5 – You can take it or leave it. Worth it if you want the G1 colours but not if you already have the normal Ratchet.