Ratchet's persona in TFAnimated was that of a traumatised war veteran, haunted an encounter with Lockdown, an irascible but reliable medic/engineer who gradually softened over the course of the series. TFPrime's Ratchet... was much the same, but didn't become appreciably friendlier as time went on. He was sometimes reckless (experimenting with synthetic Energon using himself as the guineapig) and proved himself in battle on several occasions, but, with the exception of a couple of spotlight episodes, he was mostly a support character, remaining in the Autobots' base rather than getting involved in their missions. Nevertheless, he was a brilliant character, voiced by the inimitable Jeffrey Combs, so even the briefest appearance in an episode was often a highlight.
Does the toy follow suit?
Vehicle Mode:
The first thing is that it's good to see Ratchet as a proper ambulance again, following his stint as a Fire Rescue vehicle in the movie continuity. Sadly, it doesn't take long to realise that TFPrime Ratchet is one of the most heinously underdecorated toys in the line. Part of the problem is his sheer size as a vehicle, being a van rather than a muscle car or motorbike. He's comparatively undersized versus the other Deluxe cars - really, he should have been a Voyager, about the same size as Bulkhead - but made up of large, fairly flat panels... and vast areas are translucent plastic painted to match the bare plastic elsewhere. It's like they started painting it from the front of the vehicle, but stopped halfway, without putting in details like the headlights (bare white plastic within the silver-painted area of the front grille and bumper) or the second set of side windows (bare white plastic inside a red-painted frame) let alone the finer details like the 'ECG readout' design on the sides, the indicator lights, much of the lightbar and the emergency lights on the rim of the roof... let alone all the details on the back of the vehicle. I'm actually surprised the rear bumper is painted, all things considered... Seems as though the bulk of the paint budget must have been blown on covering the translucent plastic cab/wing sections with a white undercoat and a few patches of red over the top. Naturally, all this means the hubcaps are unpainted, and the end result is that his vehicle mode looks a bit bare, and somewhat like a cheap knockoff.
Then again, as with most of Takara Tomy's version of the TFPrime toys, the Arms Micron version had even less paint, because it used stickers to add much of the 'detail' and, in some cases, those stickers actually concealed the sculpted panel lining. That, plus the addition of the Micron ports all over the vehicle, meant that this version, poor as it is, turned out to be the better-looking one.
Aside from this, the vehicle's appearance is a decent match to the CGI in terms of sculpted detail, though the back end bulges out in a slightly odd fashion, rather than remaining square, due to certain aspects of his transformation. There's lots of panel lining, but the transformation seams are fairly subtle, except on the front bumper and between the white-painted translucent panels on the sides of the cab and everything around them. Additionally, the lights embedded in the front bumper have been replaced by 5mm sockets, though, but the look of the surrounding detail, this may have been an afterthought, replacing the original sculpted light details.
Those 5mm sockets are supplemented by another pair on the roof, but it's the two on the bumper that appear to be primarily for attaching his weapons - giving him a pair of large blades sprouting from the bumper. While it's another daft example of equipping a vehicle with mêlée weapons, it certainly looks more convincing than mounting them on the roof. However, Ratchet's box-like vehicle mode does offer a third, concealed mounting point for storing the blades when not in use - the door panels on each side have a large tab on the inside, right at the bottom, which can plug into the rectangular socket on the base of each blade. In this position, they protrude from the underside less than the robot's feet.
Robot Mode:
Be under no illusions that the sparse paintjob on vehicle mode is to allow for more thorough work on robot mode. The overwhelming impression of Ratchet in robot mode is that he's very, very white. What's not white is a pale grey, and there only a few quite small applications of red, largely clustered around his shoulders. Aside from that, there's metallic cyan paint on the faux door windows on his chest and silver on his belly and shins... Compared even to some of the other toys in the TFPrime toyline, Ratchet looks like one of those simplified figures packaged with foul-tasting chewing gum by Kabaya. Notable omissions in the paintwork are the red paint intended for the window surrounds on his chest, panels on the sides of the waist, details on the lower half of the kneecap and the outer sections of each foot (not to mention black on the central section of each), while the applications on his shoulder armour should have been more extensive, the groin section should have been either molded in the grey plastic or painted with a dark-ish gunmetal colour, and the sculpted light details on his upper thighs are entirely unpainted. Even the choice of a darker (or metallic) shade of red and gunmetal paint instead of silver could have helped, but I suspect the whiteness of the majority of the plastic is a good part of the problem.
And the real shame of it is that the model itself is really well-detailed. Even the large plate of backpack is essentially accurate to the CGI animation model, and the only significant deviation is the pair of vehicle cab shell parts that hinge down over his calves. The ankles are quite cleverly done such that, while the front wheels aren't set within the ankle, they're at least in the area, and the construction of the foot is otherwise very close to the CGI. It's pretty clever how a few vehicle parts have been used to create accurate-looking robot parts rather than faking everything, though I have to confess I wish Ratchet had received the First Edition treatment, been made a Voyager, like Bulkhead, and then possibly been made with the real ambulance doors on his chest. There's also the obvious drawback, with the way the arms are formed, that there's no way to give Ratchet the show-accurate red panels on his forearms without them having a negative impact on his vehicle mode.
While his weapons may be made of soft rubber, I'm actually quite impressed with how they can be integrated into his robot mode. While the obvious default is to simply plug the blades into his fists, they can be mounted in a more show-accurate way simply by stowing his fists, as if for transformation. The blades then appear to have extended from his wrists, and the position of the guards at the base matches the look and position of the CGI remarkably well. Like most TFPrime toy weapons, they could have used a touch of paint here and there, but they're molded in a vaguely metallic-looking grey rubber, and they are supposed to be largely bare metal, so they look pretty good.
Shame the same cannot be said for the head sculpt... Not that it's bad, or obviously inaccurate, just that it's molded in the same white plastic, with the same incomplete applications of red paint and a stark, silver face framing his light-piped blue eyes. I'd argue that the mouth is a little too harshly sculpted and the chin a touch too long... but, really, it just all looks far too bright.
Transforming Ratchet is a genuine pleasure - he's that well thought-out and executed that he's simple and fun. While the vehicle mode is largely made up of panels, some of those from the back do actually fold up to become convincing parts of the robot mode. Granted, the rear of the vehicle sits on Ratchet's back and the translucent cab panels clip into his lower legs, but the arms are very cleverly done and make up for most of the unsightly panelling. I do worry a little about the joints on the small grey arms that swing the vehicle door sections around, but they seem pretty solid so far, it's just that getting them into their final position requires more pressure than I'm comfortable applying to a joint involving any translucent plastic. The spring-loaded head reveal is a nice touch, and doesn't affect the head's movement too greatly, though it sometimes takes a couple of tries to get it clipped into place when transforming back to vehicle mode. My only gripe with Ratchet's transformation is that so much of his robot mode is faked rather than using vehicle parts... but that isn't exactly uncommon in any TransFormers toyline.
As with most of the TFPrime line, he has an excellent range of articulation - particularly in his arms thanks to a hinge at the top of the bicep supplementing the elbow, while the hands can tilt at the wrist due to transformation, allowing his blade weapons to be attached as if they've been deployed straight from his forearm. Despite the odd construction of his feet, they're pretty stable, and it's easy enough to get him balanced on one leg, should you wish. The knees are a little oddly-constructed, with the grey kneecap offering a few additional degrees of bend once the main knee joint is fully bent, but his thighs are very short compared to his lower legs, so it never looks particularly effective - Ratchet is one of those figures whose height when 'crouching' is barely any less than his height when standing erect. He also has a decent range of waist rotation, thanks to a joint that's not needed for transformation. The head is reasonably mobile, given that it's surrounded by a large collar, but the spring-loaded deployment of the head means that it's prone to dipping down into his chest whenever you try to move it.
Ratchet is one of those puzzling figures that somehow manages to be simultaneously one of the best and one of the worst in the line. He has one of the most interesting and innovative transformations out of all the Deluxes - very nearly rivalling First Edition Bulkhead in its 'wow' factor - but suffers from a miserly paint job that fails to capture even half the colour detailing of the CGI from the TV show. I can forgive the massive chunk of vehicle shell hanging over his calves, but the incomplete paint job and super-white plastic really let the toy down... But then, this is hardly the first time I've noted that Hasbro's perfunctory TransFormers Prime toyline could have been so much bigger and better.
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