Cliffbee.com DOTM Ratchet Toy Review

Individual Review




Name: Ratchet
Series: Movie Tie-ins
Allegiance: Autobot
Alternate Mode: Rescue Humvee



HUMVEE MODE
Height: 8.5cm Length: 13cm Width: 5.5cm

   A green Humvee with white on the front and along the bottom of the sides, Ratchet has black plastic tyres, bumpers, roofrack & front grille. His windshield and side windows are transparent blue while the stroberack on his roof is painted red. There's sone more painted detail here - the rear windows are painted metallic blue and there's "FIRE RESCUE E4" on either side in amber and red Autobot logos on either side flanked by "SEARCH & RESCUE FIRE DEPT" - also in red. It's a typical Movie Ratchet colour scheme with a decent paint job for a deluxe.

   The sculpt is surprisingly good, with riveted panels on the sides, wipers and engine vents in front of the windshield, false spades etc on the sides of his roof, a false winch on the front bumper and many other small details. The colour scheme doesn't really bring most of these details out, although the winch is painted silver. There's a hinge and black strut on his roof, which is about the only kibble here, and it's not very noticeable.

   The play value here is what'd you'd expect - rolling wheels and a gimmicky weapon. The grey weapon mounts on top of his spare tyre (on top of the roof), pulling back on the silver handle on top causes the silver sawblade to fold out, spinning quite rapidly. It's a nice effect, but like most DOTM weapons, you can't lock the weapon deployed, which is annoying since on display it just looks like a random thing without the sawblade visible.

   A good vehicle mode although it's a very functional vehicle, so Ratchet still looks fairly plain. The sculpt is a highlight and the paint job is considered and the weapon gimmick is good despite an inability to lock open.

TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE

   There's a lot of panel folding here so I'll summarise. The back unfolds fairly logically to become his legs - with a few twists here and there. The roof ends up as a backpack while the front bulbar rotates relative to the hood and folds down to become his chest. The doors and front fenders become shoulderpads while the arms come from strips just behind the doors. His head is revealed as the bulbar is rotated. The top half has a clever transformation while the legs are fairly formulaic.

ROBOT MODE
Height: 14.5cm Width: 11cm

   A green robot with the black bulbar on his chest, black kneecaps and forearms, Ratchet features the rear tyres on his his and front tyres on his shoulders, which are themselves white, His face is mainly silver with transparent blue eyes and an effective lightpipe. There are some red painted details hanging over from the vehicle mode. The Autobot logos are now on the back of his shoulders, so basically not visible here. The colour scheme works nicely and represents Ratchet's colours on the big screen well.

   While there's a backpack here, it's light and folded up nicely enough, The bodyshape is good although his torso is a little narrow. The backpack's width behind his torso actually masks this narrowness nicely. The hands are moulded into a sort of pinching shape, able to hold his weapon by two different posts. His facial sculpt is complex and alien.

   Ratchet's gimmick works the same in both modes - and so again he can't display while showing the sawblade. The poseability is good - his head turns while the waist is fixed. His shoulders have ball joints at their base, and fixed struts outside these. His elbows are hinged with rotates while the wrists fold in slighty. His hips and ankles are ball jointed while there are two hinges per knees and one in each ankle (along with the ball joints!). His knees don't straighten completely - giving Ratchet an always relaxed look.

   A good robot mode whose only real flaw is the width of the torso, but we don't really notice this thanks to his otherwise unobtrusive backpack. The weapon's gimmick is fun but offers no real display value. The sculpt is again good and the poseability useful, so he displays and plays well.

VARIATIONS

   There is a red repaint called Emergency Ratchet.

OVERALL

   A well engineered Deluxe with a good colour scheme and a nice sculpt, Ratchet represents the film character nicely and displays quite nicely despite being understated. The weapon's gimmick works well, but it doesn't add much to display value unless you want to jimmy it open so the sawblade is visible. The weapon's his only real flaw really - an impressive deluxe - 9/10

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