I’m only three into writing about the Bumblebee Movie Prologue Wierdoes, and I worry I’m already going to run out of things to say at the start, so instead, I’ll share this: I have a friend who’s a casual Transformers fan, and is specifically a fan of the More Than Meets The Eye and Lost Light comics, and the Transformers Prime show, but most importantly, specifically loves Ratchet, portrayed in both works as an aged, weary doctor, trying to do his best in an increasingly trying universe. I saw the Bumblebee Movie with them (saw it a few times, really), and while they enjoyed the movie, they also said that the few seconds at the start when Ratchet was on screen was the best part of the movie.
There are two whole images of him to use: Firing his gun, and not firing his gun.
It’s true, though, that Ratchet’s design in the Bayverse films was, like most of those bots, a big departure from his classic design, so getting a chance to see a version of the grumpy medic who looked like the one in most other things was a nice change of pace, even if he wasn’t onscreen long enough to be grumpy or a medic. And now, that brief moment’s replicated in plastic form. We’ve had a good run of Ratchets lately, between the Siege and Galactic Odyssey ones (reviewed at the links), though those were both exclusives that turned out to be hard to get, so this Studio Series version has some stiff competition, even as it’s positioned itself as the most easily-available version. So, let’s see how the good doctor stacks up.
Robot Mode
Even at rest, he looks stanced up.
This version of Ratchet isn’t just a G1-style one, but definitely seems to take after his More than Meets The Eye and Prime iterations. There’s also a lot of specific things about his shape and details that specifically makes me think of his design from the War For Cybertron video game, too, like the kind of angular shape of his cockpit-chest, the design of the “abs” underneath, and the wheels on his lower legs (which are fake, sculpted in details on the outside, with real ones on the inside).
This was probably on purpose.
The homage is appropriate considering how much the Bumblebee Movie prologue was riffing on that game.
He forgets he can just drive to an injured patient sometimes.
Something I specifically like about these Bumblebee designs, though, that’s on full display here, is how person-shaped they are. What I mean by that is, yes, most Transformers are humanoid, but these guys look more like people than most of them, when you get right down to their proportions, and Ratchet is no exception. Ratchet’s chunky, though not Soundwave chunky, but that’s mostly body mass, and not vehicle parts, with only his shoulders really containing significant vehicle parts, in the form of two big rectangular panels. The rest of him just looks like a bulky person wearing armor. It’s something about the way his arms and legs are shaped. Speaking of that, Ratchet has hints of that same design trick as Soundwave where a lot of the lines on him are diagonal, or askew, instead of straight, helping with that look, making him look less like a box-man.
Compare him to these other two Boxman-type Ratchets.
The payoff to this is that, even at rest, Ratchet naturally forms a dynamic, heroic silhouette. Oh, and he’s nice and accurate to his screen design, save for being a little bit bulkier around the torso.
Those vehicle mode panels had to stash somewhere.
Up top, Ratchet’s headsculpt comes with the traditional forked crest, albeit in a version that’s a bit curvier than usual. His face, meanwhile, is extremely greebled, in a way that makes him look aged, and gives him a sour-looking expression, which to be fair, does fit the way he’s usually played.
He’s seen everything, and he’s tired of it.
Like every classic Ratchet, he’s mostly white, with bits of red, and a few different shades of grey to make him not look too plain, to general success, with only his thighs being purely unbroken white (all the sculpted greebles on him admittedly helps, too). He’s also got transparent blue chest windows and eyes, and a silver face. He’s missing some colors that his character model has, mainly on his legs, though, really, since we never *saw* them in the movie, it’s hard to care.
What he does care about is the way Bumblebee keeps getting shot in the throat.
The one missing bit of color that does bug me is his hands, though, which were red in the film, and gray on the figure. I wouldn’t have minded something else taken off of the unseen bottom bit of him for the sake of that. Or maybe the Autobrand on his chest, something his character model didn’t have.
Maybe this is him from before the movie, and Cliffjumper’s red paint rubbed off on those hands while he was fixing him.
In terms of build quality, Ratchet’s waist joint feels a bit loose on mine, but not to an annoyingly free-spinning amount. What is bothersome free-spinning are the inner wheels on his boots (well, wheels are supposed to spin, I’m talking about the assembly they’re attached to) which need to rotate for transformation, and will come out of place at the lightest touch. At least they’re not terribly visible, with the permanently-in-place fake wheels on the outer sides being more reliable. Aside from that, he holds together well otherwise, something that’s impressive because of how compact he is.
He’s about to compact someone’s face with that foot.
Ratchet’s dynamic silhouette is complemented by how poseable he is. Aside from the waist, he’s got omni-directional ankles, thigh swivels, a balljointed head, plus all the other expected joints for a figure of this scale. (the wrists dip, and don’t swivel). And because of how his sculpt looks, this is one of those figures that has real weight and presence to his poses, and it’s really easy to make him look good. It’s a certain thing that not every figure has, but this one does, and it makes me like him more. There’s a visual weight to him.
Just like how he feels the weight of the world.
For features, Ratchet’s got lightpiping, a gimmick that’s rare to see in general these days, and equally surprising on a Studio Series figure, but it’s an extremely welcome one, and his clear eyes glow a nice shade of Autobot blue.
B E N O T A F R A I D
Ratchet’s lone accessory is a big black rifle. It’s the same length as the one that comes with Bee Movie Optimus (reviewed here), but not as thick.
Say it with me, internet: “I’m a healer, but…”
It fits in his hand just fine, and, naturally, he manages to look dynamic while slinging it around. If I had any criticism, it’s that I kind of wish he came with something more Ratchet-y, like a wrench or wielder or something, but Siege Ratchet has spoiled me, and this is the thing he used in the movie, anyway.
“Take two shots of this, and call me in the morning!”
It does have a nice bonus feature to it, in that it can go on his back. There’s a dedicated peg on the side that lets it store diagonally, like Optimus and Soundwave.
Call applying this to the Decepticons “preventative maintenance.”
I like that this kind of dedicated back-mounted gun storage is standard with these figures at this point.
Okay, one other criticism, his arms aren’t quite poseable enough for him to hold his rifle in the specific pose he was in for the few moments he was onscreen in the movie, which feels like a big oversight. You can fudge it if you’re willing to dislocate his shoulder, at least, but I wish his joints had been engineered in such a way that he could pull it off naturally.
This looks correct from this angle, but I had to undo one of his arms to make it happen.
Oh, and he’s got a couple War for Cybertron ports on his feet.
I didn’t forget to take a picture of this feature and had to snap something at the last minute, YOU forgot to take a picture of this feature and had to snap something at the last minute.
Transformation
There’s a neat aspect to the way Ratchet’s transformation was engineered, in that a lot of his robot mode articulation gets specifically used as transformation joints, like his thigh swivels rotating his legs around. It’s a lot of splaying of limbs, plus a big unwrapping of his torso to make him really large, and then it all compacts again to make him really small.
Snug as a bug.
It can be a bit of a challenge to remember the exact order of operations to prevent parts from knocking into each other, but once you get past a certain point, you can see where everything fits. The biggest trick is that the panels that make up the rear sides of his vehicle mode peg into the front side a bit lower than you think they do, and you want to use the lower set of pegholes to make it all snap together.
Right in front of the red stripes at the back , you can see a peg sticking out. Make sure it plugs in low, like it’s about to here.
Vehicle Mode
Bigger Roller Theory.
Oh, this is good. Soundwave and Ravage both transformed into basically nothing, but the designers were able to invent an alternate mode for Ratchet that manages to look like a cohesive something.
Pictured: A Cohesive Something.
Specifically, it looks like the type of lunar rover (or just other-planet-rover) you see in a lot of science fiction media, particularly with the way the cockpit is shaped. My first impression was that it reminded me of one from the film Prometheus.
Not quite the same, but the DNA’s there, and there’s a whole bunch of other sci-fi vehicles along these lines out there, too.
This armored rolling vehicle is also surprisingly tiny compared to the robot mode, this guy really compresses. Luckily, he compresses well, and this mode holds together nicely. Even those free-spinning wheel assemblies are more stable, since they clip into some panels in this mode.
He’s tiny compared to other recent Ratchets.
Ratchet’s got the same colors, maybe a bit more white, but he’s also a lot more panelly to make the plainness not obvious. All four wheels have painted rims, which impresses me, since this was a made-up alternate mode, so they didn’t have to do that.
That back end’s kind of plain.
The back of the altmode does look a bit plain, with details like taillights that feel like they ought to have been painted.
A Cybertronian car show.
For features, there’s, impressively, a ton of ground clearance in this mode, so he rolls really, really well.
He can roll really well into enemies, too.
His rifle also plugs into a newly-revealed War for Cybertron port uptop, and it’s lose enough that it rotates like a turret. Again, it’s not very medic-like to have a big gun uptop, but you can always stick other accessories up there, if you like.
A much more characterful accessory.
Time for a tune-up!
Dropship Mode
For when patients need an airlift.
This isn’t official, it’s just me messing around, but I realized that if you unfold the back panels of this vehicle mode, Ratchet makes a good-looking dropship. The wheels are VTOLS, the arms are jets or something, the panels are wings.
Ignore his upside-down head in the middle, there.
This is clearly not intended, especially since his robot head’s just out there, upside-down, but it looks surprisingly good.
Overall
Playing the part of an IDW Ratchet that doesn’t officially exist. Let’s see if Drift notices.
Ratchet’s got a really great presence and vibe in his robot mode, manages to not look too plain, has an interesting transformation, and a creative, characterful altmode.
Trying to blend in with his fellow Lost Lighters.
That said, I almost feel like Ratchet’s a bit too plain, and I wish he had more going on in terms of accessories, features, or general Ratchet-ness, but that’s only because we’ve had a good run of Ratchets lately. Outside of the niche of collecting the Bumblebee movie cast, if you just want A Ratchet In General, the two War for Cybertron Trilogy ones are probably better. But this guy’s good, too, and more importantly, he’s way more available as a mass-release figure, making him a good choice in a whole other way. Plus, he can pass for a High Moon War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron Ratchet in a pinch.
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