By Loran
Movie Ratchet has been kind of a weird character for me, toy-wise, ever since the first Transformers movie. I loved the look of his robot mode, and I love his… odd choice of a vehicle mode for a medic. But I could never, ever get past that stupid color scheme he had in the movies. I mean, lime green? You’re a medic, you shouldn’t want to make your patients throw up at the mere sight of you! Thankfully, he’s gotten a new mold each movie, and each one got a much more… pleasing repaint. And thus far, Ratchet is the only Autobot from the first movie that I DON’T own in his on-screen color scheme!
Specialist Ratchet borrows his color scheme from concept art for the first movie, when the cast included Inferno in his place. As much as I love Inferno I’m glad they went with Ratchet instead. It just made more sense to have the first group of Autobots to all be from the 1984 lineup, in my opinion. When I first heard about this repaint, I feared he was gonna be a Japanese-exclusive or something. Thankfully that wasn’t the case!
Ratchet transforms into the same weird search-and-rescue Hummer we’ve seen for the past three toylines. Curiously there are no Hummer markings anywhere on his form, or anything unique on his tires. The package does mention him being a Hummer H2 and he has the GM logo, so I’m not sure what’s going on there. This vehicle mode is a HUGE improvement over the last Deluxe Ratchet, which looked a little too… cartoony, and had some serious undercarriage problems. This one looks perfect. Sadly, there is only one MechTech port in this mode, located on the spare tire, but I actually really like how his gun looks there! Makes it look like a water cannon or something.
His transformation isn’t all that difficult but a few elements may take you by surprise on a first go, like the way the arms fold out and how the backpack slides out. Still, not as annoying as some other movie deluxes.
It took three movies but we finally got a pretty damn accurate movie Ratchet, scale be damned. He has the chunkiness of the Voyager mold but the compact fun of the ROTF Deluxe. Unfortunately the entire top of the vehicle folds up into his enormous backpack, looking kinda silly. The Autobot symbols on the sides of his vehicle mode end up on the shields on his forearms, looking pretty cool.
Now as much as I love his color scheme, his paint applications are TERRIBLE. This is the problem with white paint. It never really works. It just looks washed-out and clear in some places. This is why multiple coats are a good idea!
For such a kibbly robot, Ratchet is pretty poseable, with double joints in his elbows and knees and a great range on his shoulders. Unfortunately his feet can be a bit difficult to balance at first.
His MechTech weapon is the same one that came with Nitro Bumblebee. A cool gun, but not as cool as the buzzsaw he originally came with. His only MechTech ports are on his calves in this mode. It… doesn’t really work.
Out of all the Ratchet molds, this one is easily the best out of the three. It’s the most movie-accurate in both modes and is pretty fun to play with. I love the color scheme, but the paint apps are just bad. Recommended if you’re in the market for a new Ratchet, or want a stand-in for Inferno. Get yours at FPNYC today!
