Name: Ratchet
Series: Animated
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Ambulance
AMBULANCE MODE
Height: 4cm Length: 8.5cm Width: 4.5cm
A light grey stylised ambulance with matte dark red paint on the fenders and hood, with a red roof of the same shade (composed of red plastic), a matte mid blue paint on his windows and black plastic tyres. There are black and yellow headlights on front, medical logos on the sides and a silver Autobot logo on the hood. The colours essentially match those of the larger toy, with a couple of simplifications. The stroberack above the windshield and the winch on the front are unpainted, and there's a red painted area on the back of the roof, the trigger area. Overall it's a good colour scheme with a pretty focused paint job.
This is a decent ambulance mode, stylised feel aside. There are transformation hinges on either side which are fairly intrusive, but not unexpected at this scale. The paint job and seams are generally good, so Ratchet works. Certainly this vehicle mode is stronger than Optimus Prime. I'm not a huge fan of the odd headlights, but he _succeeds_ in looking like a cartoon ambulance.
There's not much play value here - Ratchet rolls and that's it. I don't expect any more at this level.
A pretty good Ambulance, aside from the hinges on sides, which aren't a dealbreaker. The paint job and colours work. It's a pretty good facsimile of the the larger toy's vehicle mode, despite one or two paint losses.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Press the red painted area on his roof and the entire toy unfolds nicely. In about half a second Ratchet is a robot lying face down. Stand him up, split the feet, fold out the feet and heelspurs, rotate out the shoulderpads and you're done.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 11cm Width: 7.5cm
A red and white robot, this the Ratchet's colours are a little less faithful to the larger toy, but still work visually. His arms and feet are red plastic while the shoulders, head and torso are white. The torso is actually the front of the ambulance - complete with the blue windshield on his chest and the red hood on his belly. The face is baby blue with red on his cheeks and horns - the right horn is broken off (deliberately) and his eyes are baby blue. The silver Autobot logo ends up on his chest. The main differences in the colour scheme are simplifications of the layout on his limbs, and red shoulderpads instead of white.
The stylised proportions are better than some Animated toys, although Ratchet has the giant jaw. He also has a pot belly, which bothers me a little. Unlike the larger toy there are no weapons and no transparent plastic. There is a red roof panel behind his head, which is extra kibble. I don't especially mind this piece, but it's not ideal.
deluxe).
Ratchet has good poseability, if not an array of weapon attachments. His head is on a restricted ball joint while his shoulders, elbows and hips are also on ball joints. His knees are hinged with rotators directly above the hinges while both the feet and heelspurs are hinged, giving Ratchet a good range of poseability. His poseability beats that of a lot of larger toys, and that's with a well engineered auto transform.
A great robot mode with good poseability, a nice layout and pretty good proportions, albeit some simplifications of the colour layout. I actually prefer the look of this robot mode to the larger one - although that's purely for aesthetic reasons (I haven't seen the show, but I'm let to believe the larger one is more accurate).
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of.
OVERALL
A solid Activator with a good auto transform and two good modes. His robot mode is poseable, the ambulance mode quite convincing and the colour scheme is well put together despite some minor simplifications. For the size and price, Ratchet is a good toy, since the design focuses on making the auto transform effective while still managing to give us two solid modes - 8/10
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