| Brand: | Transformers | ||
| Average Rating |
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Racing across the sands of the northern Sahara desert, the roar of his engine echoing off the ever-shifting dunes, AUTOBOT RATCHET charges towards the inevitable confrontation with MEGATRON and his assembled DECEPTICON army. Though he has battled against odds this bad in the past, no fight before has meant so much. He knows the fate of the universe rests on the outcome of this conflict, and he will do everything in his power to see to it that his allies come through it safe and victorious. more info
Much, much better than no Ratchet at all.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Of the four Autobots that survived to the end of the first Transformers movie in 2007- Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Ironhide, and Bumblebee- Ratchet was the only one I didn’t get in the Premium (extra-painted) series released towards the end of the first movie’s toyline. This much shows in looking at him. His blocky vehicle mode makes him more of a mix between the blended-shrapnel look of the robots in the movie and the more traditional pile-of-blocks Transformers aesthetic. He looks less like the his screen incarnation than Transformers Movie 2 Leader Optimus Prime, Transformers Movie 2 Deluxe Bumblebee Figure, and even the oddly-colored retool Transformers Movie 2 Voyager Iron Hide. But he’s all the Ratchet you get until the third movie comes along, so love him or leave him. I do like the desaturated “desert” green better than than the brighter hues of previous versions of this toy- it just seems more “Michael Bay-like”. And the dark grey plastic replacing the previous black for his “metal bits” is fine by me; it puts him in a transitional area, colorwise, between Optimus Prime on one side (light grey “metal”), Ironhide on the other (all black, in the original paint color).
Don’t get me wrong, he’s a fine toy. His transformation scheme is fairly simple, yet with lots of nice clicky bits as you snap things together. He’s got some parts that are prone to falling off- the rear bumper of his truck mode tends to pop off the back of his knees if you bend them too much, and the H2-labeled undercarriage that covers his robot head in vehicle mode hangs awfully loose on mine. And of course, any detachable weapon- like his roof rack/grabber claw assembly- has good odds of getting lost. But even minus all of these, he’s still a big chunky robot that turns into a big chunky truck. And for the robot-loving, toy-car-driving little kid in your life- or in your heart- what more could you want?