Studio Series #82 Ratchet

Of all the figures to come from the Bumblebee movie section of the Studio Series toyline, the one for which my expectations were lowest was the Ratchet/Ironhide mold. This was largely because of the absolute travesty of simplistic and outdated engineering that was the Siege version and its hopelessly lazy Earthrise retool.

Because, let's fact it, if Hasbro were going to get lazy about an established vehicle mode, and leave the robot's blocky Cybertronian feet hanging off the back of an ostensibly terrestrial van, what hope was there for a transforming toy of a character that never had a vehicle mode designed for him, as he only appears very briefly in the movie, and then only in his robot mode?

And yet, sometimes, just sometimes, Hasbro can surprise a jaded old fan like me, and make me believe that perhaps there is some hope for originality of thinking within the brand. Could it be that the Studio Series figure of Ratchet from the Bumblebee movie is one such surprise? Let's take a look...

Vehicle Mode:

Given that any Ratchet toy is pretty much obliged to reference a van of some kind, it was basically inevitable that even the Studio Series Cybertronian version would end up being boxy... And yet the difference between this and the Siege mold is like night and day. The Siege toy's designer took the laziest route imaginable to turn a boxy robot into a boxy vehicle. There was nothing new, surprising or impressive in its transformation, with the result that the vehicle mode looked dull, incomplete and uninspired. Worse than that, though, it carried over features from a terrestrial ambulance - such as a lightbar - that make sense only if you presume that Ratchet must transform into the Cybertronian equivalent of an ambulance. That in itself showed a singular lack of imagination, and the most perfunctory and downright mechanical approach to his design. Just because he's the Autobot medic, doesn't mean he transforms into the equivalent emergency services vehicle on his homeworld. If anything, he'd be more likely to choose something fast and mobile enough to get him to the injured quickly, wherever they may be found.

That said, if there's one thing Studio Series Ratchet is not, it's sleek... But where Siege was made up of hyperdetailed, right-angled chunks, this version takes its cues as much from the bulked-up wackiness of the War for Cybertron videogames as the movie's CGI. There's a certain front-heaviness to Ratchet's vehicle mode, with the (presumed) cab protruding forward. He's slightly reminiscent of the 'fist on wheels' that was Optimus Prime's redesign in the Fall of Cybertron game, but with an additional segment of windscreen in the middle and a split 'grille' section angling backward below the 'cab'. The back end looks like the partially-laden bed of a pickup truck, and features quite a nice bit of sculpted detail, including some bumps that resemble indicator lights. The sides are made up of irregular, overlapping panels, and the wheels are about as simple as one could get. From most angles, he looks like some kind of sci-fi exploration vehicle, similar to a heavier-duty version of the Chariot all-terrain vehicles from the recent Lost In Space reboot series, or even perhaps the popular 80s toy Big Trak. It really gives the impression that the designer spent some time studying sci-fi vehicles from the 1960s onwards such that, while the precise function of this vehicle is open to interpretation, it looks futuristic without entirely losing its sense of familiarity, while the designer of the Siege toy appears to have stopped after seeing the blocky cabs from Schwarzenegger version of Total Recall, or perhaps the 1970s electric cars made by Sebring-Vanguard.

At first glance, the paintwork on this toy appears to be the usual Hasbro travesty... but it's possibly not quite so bad as it first appears. Yes, there's an awful lot of white plastic surface area with zero paintwork and, yes, the sculpted features at the back end are entirely unpainted, but it's almost instantly apparent where the paint budget went, because the frontmost section of the vehicle is molded in translucent blue plastic, which is then overpainted with white, red and dark gunmetal. Minor elements of the robot mode's paintwork - the red rim along the bottom and the sweeping lines of grey - are apparent around the cab area. On either side, there's a single bit of red linework between the wheels, and the wheels themselves have off-white paint on their hubcaps (either that, or the white paint used just wasn't very dense and the dark grey plastic is showing through). The only other visible paintwork is the bands of red over the sides of the 'bed' area. It feels as though a lot more red should have been applied, and that certain parts on the side could have been picked out with gunmetal, or even the flat grey paint. According some of to the concept art, the grey portion at the front of the roof should have been red, along with the two raised sections leading off it and running through to the rear grey portion, while the raised detail in the middle should have been white from front to back. Then again, one version of the concept art also hints that the same detail on the roof might have been intended to refer to the red on Ratchet's robot mode belly, which ended up becoming the front grille analogue on the final toy. Other than this, even the concept art is remarkably plain. I like that the central window has silver paint applied to its inner frame, and also appreciate that this toy's single Autobot insignia is stamped in a subtle metallic blue that catches the light well, but otherwise remains fairly inconspicuous.

Ratchet's weapon - essentially the same gun as is packaged with both Brawn and Wheeljack, bar the specific details and overall proportions - is another one that just plugs into the roof of vehicle mode via a standard 5mm port... While there's certainly nowhere on the underside that could accommodate the whole weapon, it does feel a though it could have been split in two, with the bulkier rear section slotting into the rear of the vehicle, below the robot's head, and the barrel nestling in between his legs toward the front. It doesn't quite feel right for Ratchet to have a massive cannon like this on his vehicle mode... but I have to acknowledge that I'm saying that purely because of my own nostalgic connection to G1 Ratchet as a terrestrial ambulance. Given that Bumblebee was shown to have two guns deploying from the bonnet of his vehicle mode in the movie (a feature not referred to on the toy), it's not inconceivable that even the Autobots' medic could do similar for the purpose of defending an Autobot position in the conflict, or perhaps defending a retreat.

Robot Mode:

The winning streak continues for the Studio Series selection of Bumblebee movie toys... and even though I tend to prefer the look of the G1 toys to the G1 cartoon, this is an excellent reinterpretation of Ratchet according to the TV show's more humaniform template. It captures the essence of the G1 animation model, without attempting to duplicate it... and if that's the best one can hope for from this alternate live action movieverse, I'm still willing to call it a win. I'd suggest that his overall bulk is probably more fitting for the likes of Ironhide but, since the two traditionally share a mold, there's no easy way to reduce that bulk for one iteration over the other.

From the front and sides, he looks enormously chunky, giving similar vibes to the Ratchet from TransFormers Animated, except that his bulge is a massive barrel chest rather than a robo-gut. In a lot of ways, his overall look seems to have been inspired as much by the War for Cybertron videogames as G1, which is another factor in my feeling that this is a better War for Cybertron: Siege Ratchet than the actual Siege toy. Like the other Cybertronian figures, he's not weighed down by Siege levels of unnecessary detail packed into right-angled blocks. Most of him is essentially angular, but he's not without curves. The forearms and lower legs are more heavily armoured, but the legs in particular feature sweeping designs on the shins, to complement the wheels on both the outer and inner faces, the former being faux-wheels, sculpted detail representing those that are folded away under his arms. On the upside, the 'tyres' at least have a ring of the dark gunmetal paint applied, so they more-or-less match the real wheels on the inner faces of his legs.

Other than this, paintwork seems a little sparse here... Some elements which were visible in vehicle mode are now concealed, while others that were either fully or partially concealed are now in full view... and yet, thanks to the heavy paint requirements of the front of his torso, there are only minor touches elsewhere - the grey panels wrapping around his forearms, the grey trim on his shins, and the red around his ankles. As has been common to the other Cybertronian figures in the Studio Series line, very little of the inner mechanical detail has been picked out in paint so, while his elbow joints are coated in dark gunmetal, the knees, ankles, upper pelvis, underarms and collar are bare white plastic.

While most of the sculpting represents fairly unremarkable armour panels, a few areas of inner mechanical detail are visible on the feet, knees, pelvis, underarms, on his back, and at the collar. It's a real shame that none of this has been picked out with paint as, while the sculpt is sharp enough that it doesn't get totally lost in the white plastic, it's certainly not getting shown off to its best advantage. A little paint might even have helped disguise the arrow-shaped void in his back, where the angled panels from the sides of vehicle mode only actually meet at the bottom.

I'd also say the hollow spaces on his inner thighs are egregious, especially when compared to Brawn and Wheeljack who, by and large, had no such issues. They're not hopelessly bad, as it's the inward sloping faces on both sections of each thigh, but the designers elected not to add any sculpted detail to mitigate these gaping chasms. Given that the insides of his lower legs - and even the open spaces in the forearms, into which his hands fold during transformation - feature positively unnecessary levels of sculpted detail, its absence from these more plainly visible parts is all the more disappointing.

As with the other figures, his weapon storage in robot mode looks a lot more effective than it did in vehicle mode... though I can't help but think it's poorly arranged. The tab on the gun is on the left side of the bulkiest section of the gun, but then its socket is on the bottom lefthand side of Ratchet's back... meaning that it pegs in with the barrel facing upward at an angle and the grip hanging over his backside, or basically with the entire gun poking out behind his left arm, with the grip just behind and above his elbow... neither being ideal for ease of access. The only reason for this appears to have been avoiding the necessity to interrupt the sculpted detail of his back, where the shoulderblade 'vents' are. Placing the socket on the righthand side would have made it seem slightly more accessible though, even then, there's the issue of the gun barrel pointing upward... Which flies in the face of traditional gun safety.

Something that really struck me about this incarnation of Ratchet was the light piping. I'd thought - based on my experience of pretty much every other Studio Series toy I own - that Hasbro had given up on light piping entirely. The only other SS figure in my collection that has light piping is KSI Sentry (Shadow Raider features a translucent green visor, but no light piping). Given that neither Cliffjumper, nor Brawn, nor Wheeljack feature light piping (this last being most disappointing, given that his 'ears' in the movie were visibly translucent), it seems a little strange that Ratchet does... but I ain't gonna complain, because it's glorious. It's almost a shame, then, that it's been applied to another overcomplicated face in a nondescript helmet. Accurate though it is to the CGI, his face looks pinched and wrinkly, if not actually skeletal, an impression which is exacerbated by the weird robotic mutton-chops covering much of his jawline. The face itself seems to suggest more the grizzled veteran of TransFormers Animated or Prime, rather than the 'good time' bot of G1. I also feel that the use of so light a silver paint for his face was a mistake. Obviously the gunmetal paint used on his belly and elbows would be too dark, but the silver lacks contrast against the white plastic, so it's just not as effective as it could have been, and reduces the impact of the light-piped blue of his eyes. It's also disappointing - albeit not even remotely surprising - that the crest on his forehead only has paint applied to the front - the sides and backs of the 'horns' are bare white.

Out of the three Autobots in this batch of Bumblebee movie figures, Ratchet has the best transformation by far, and not just in comparison to the unimaginative Siege version. Brawn's transformation is the most comparable to Siege in terms of complexity, Wheeljack bumps it up a couple of notches, but I don't mind admitting that Ratchet outright confused me for a few seconds. Most of it is pretty straightforward - the torso opens out, splits to form both the very front and the very back of the vehicle, with the head becoming enclosed as the arms and large panels of vehicle shell move around it. The confusing part happens from the waist down, where the feet fold back into the lower legs, which then each rotate 180° at the hip before folding in over the pelvis simply by bending the knee. The front wheels rotate down into place, and then a rotation joint set perpendicular to the waist joint is used to flip the bulk of the vehicle shell 180° - while keeping the pelvis itself facing forwards - allowing the cockpit windows to wrap around the legs and peg in just above the ankles. While this is in progress, it doesn't seem to make any sense but, once done, the arms and side panels can be folded in, with the shoulders pegging into slots in the tops of his hips, and the forearms pegging into the tops of his feet. The final touch is folding the irregular-shaped panels which had formed the robot's back into the insides of his thighs and around a tab coming out of the back of the front wheelarches, locking everything into place. Once you realise that the waist joint itself needs to remain still, it ends up being quite a simple process, but it's no less impressive once this 'secret' is understood. Whoever designed this transformation deserves some kind of award, as it's one of the most interesting Deluxe class toys I've played with in years. The only problem I've had is that sometimes the rear 'collar' panel doesn't like to stay tabbed in to the vehicle's roof, but that normally turns out to be because something else is misaligned. What's really crazy to realise is that the front and back of the vehicle peg into each other on the robot's chest via an array of hinges - that's how twisted around and compressed it gets.

Since just about every part of this toy has to do something toward his transformation, it should come as no surprise that Ratchet is no slouch when it comes to articulation. His ankles are a little limited, and the chunky arms coupled with the massively bulky chest mean he absolutely cannot wield his weapon in the way he's depicted as doing in the live action movie except by cheating: basically, you'd need to extend both arms forward, then fold one hand halfway back into the forearm to allow the gun to point in anywhere near the right direction for the other hand to support the barrel. Nevertheless, the shoulders can swing through a full 360°, with a separate joint allowing him to raise his arms 90° out to the sides. The bicep rotation is a little stiff, but manages a full 360°, and the elbows are double-jointed for transformation, with a full range just short of 180°, while the hands only fold into the forearm for vehicle mode. The waist joint is completely unrestricted - not to mention a touch loose on mine - the hips manage to avoid clashing too much with his pelvis and can thus swing practically 90° forward, back and out to the sides. The knees require only a 90° bend for transformation, and can't get beyond that in robot mode, while the ankles can tilt forward due to transformation (though they soft-lock into place for robot mode, and the joint isn't really intended for articulation) and inward by maybe 10-15° via a dedicated ankle tilt. The head is on a ball joint, and the raised collar behind it doesn't cause any significant impediment to its rotation - he can even tilt his head a little in any direction.

Now, I gather that, in the US at least, both War for Cybertron: Siege and Earthrise Ratchet were exclusive to the pharmacy chain Walgreens, making him unnecessarily difficult to obtain... But here's the thing: those toys were shit. The Cybertronian version was a basic, boxy mess that didn't even try to disguise its robot mode feet, and barely disguised the arms. The terrestrial version was a minimal retooling that still didn't disguise its feet and barely disguised the arms. I can think of no reason why anyone would want such an poorly-designed, shoddily executed toy, especially at the increasingly inflated prices Hasbro are giving their output these days.

My advice to anyone who thinks they want Siege Ratchet is to buy this figure instead. It is superior in just about every way I can think of. Siege Ratchet folds up into a box in a few simple steps. This toy actually transforms. It's intricate and imaginative without being overly complicated, and it turns a decent robotic action figure into a basic, boxy vehicle via some unexpected steps. Literally the only downside is that it lacks the wealth of C.O.M.B.A.T. ports that appeared on actual WFC toys... but that doesn't bother me in the slightest, as that wasn't a play feature I found especially compelling. As to whether this is 'better' than the Bayverse Ratchet... I really can't say. I mean, I bought the beautifully upgraded knockoff of the Masterpiece mold, and still think that's fantastic... But then, this toy is in a completely different league anyway, and can hardly be expected to measure up to that standard.

However, it's certainly better than the Studio Series Bayverse Ratchet figure... but it's also somewhat dull just because it's a more traditionally G1-style figure. Given that this is a Deluxe class toy, just like Siege Ratchet, yet physically smaller than that toy, despite the slightly higher pricepoint applied to all Studio Series figures, and despite the relatively poor paint job, I'd have to admit that it's toys like this that keep me interested in TransFormers, and I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on Ironhide.

The only other thing I feel is worth addressing is the yellowing of the plastic I referred to in a previous post. Much has been said online about the speed with which certain components of certain figures have been yellowing... But, based on most of the photos I'd seen - and my own experience with Ratchet thusfar - it initially appeared that it wasn't so much yellowing plastic, as simply plastic parts from discoloured 'bad batches' that had made their way past Quality Control. More recently, however, I have seen a greater wealth of evidence that some parts are definitely becoming discoloured in a surprisingly short amount of time. I'm happy to report that my Ratchet figure is not discernibly worse than when I first got him out of the box... but I don't expect that to last, and I'm curious as to whether the pattern will continue that certain parts are discoloured, while their counterparts on the opposite side remain white.