TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:

Alternate Mode:

Box Art:

sageofgrapefruit's review: Ratchet

Name: Autobot Ratchet
Function: Autobot Medic
Group: Transformers Animated Deluxe Class

Hold still. This won't hurt a bit...

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.

Galactic Powers and Abilities:
Huge array of surgical and medical tools
Once considered most talented medic on Cybertron
Trained at Protihex Medical and Mechanical
University

In the wake of the 2007 transformers movie, 4/5 of the Movie Autobots return as the main Animated cast, Ratchet being one of them. The new medic was to be a hot female named Red Alert, but instead of a girl being in the main cast, the have an old grumpy bot.

This new version is a little creepy, a change from the stereotypical medbot: sorta nice, fixes everybody, even the opposing faction. You won't find none o' that here. If anything, Ratchet grumbles about fixing his own teammates. As Sari so wisely put it: "They're friendly! Well, except for the red and white one...He's kinda grumpy."

Enough loaf, on to the review!

Vehicle Mode:
Ratchet come straight out of the box a red and white ambulance, with a silver Autobot symbol tampographed on the front. There appears to be some sort of winch device, which could have been a great gimmick, but it's just molded on.

Sigh. :-(

The front windows are clear, and have seats clearly molded inside, but the side windows are just paint. Shame. On the sides of the vehicle, there appear to be some sort of pulse monitor-type insignia, possibly due to it being an AMBULANCE!!! In fact, it seems to be a very fine homage to the original G1 Ratchet. (but this one has a head)

Flip this thing over for a kibble check, and you will find ratchet's legs. For some reason, I'm not really peeved about the kibble there. (I don't think Ratchet is going to let anyone under there anyway)

Robot Mode
Transforming good ol' Grumpy is not really hard. Merely make a small pull on the back top, and the....butt....and ratchet has legs. Next, flip the bottom half of the doors to reveal more pulse insignias, possibly Anti-Kibble. Pull the back half up to reveal hands, then pull those out for the arms. Next, fold up his back for an AUTOMORPH GIMMICK!!!! His head pops out. Yeah, that's it.

Well, now that we have Ratchet in robot mode, we can rag on him some more. He is INCREDIBLY show accurate except for one tiny little detail:

His magnetic claw-thingies. Instead of some show-accuracy, they remove HIS ONLY WEAPON, and replace it with some things that people say are HALF his claws, but they're not even that. They're some black sort-of-wrenches that are spring loaded, so they pop out when you don't want them to, and then don't go back in. In a lame attempt to save this, Hasbro has included 4 tools: A hammer (awesome), a wrench (makes sense), a...screwdriver...., and a hook? They can be stored in his 'backpack', but the bigness of the hammer makes this hard. Ratchet also has a 'war wound' which can hold Lockdown's EMP generator, although the instructions don't advertise it.

Ratchet has the usual articulation, except for his head. Now, even though his head is on really tight (might be just me) due to the fact that Ratchet's head retracts into his body (his aforementioned Automorph gimmick) he can do a few more head poses, i.e: looking down at his feet (or his beer belly. ) Posing Ratchet has it's problems, due to the fact that the anti-kibble keeps getting in the way, and the sad excuse for a magnetic claw keeps popping out. Otherwise, a pretty good Robot mode.

Now that all the evidence is in, let's see the scores!


Marks out of ten for the following:

Price: 6. Not really worth ten bucks. Wait for a sale. $8 maybe.
Transformation: 7. Errgh. Can be annoying if the fake claws keep popping out.
Durability: 10. He just won't die.
Fun: 7.5. The fake claws hurt this score, along with the poseability issue. If you have Lockdown, however, it goes up to an 8
Overall: A tough call on this one. I'd say a 6.5, due to the fake claws, posing issues, and horrible Automorph, when they could do so much better. SO MUCH BETTER.