Originally written September 2019.
Ratchet’s an important name in Transformers these days, just behind Prime, Bumblebee and their like. He was a part of the original group of 1984 Transformers, and served the all-important role of doctor and medic, being an ambulance and all. Interestingly, he wasn’t really that important of a character on the original cartoon, getting killed off in the movie later on with little fanfare. He WAS an important face in the Marvel comics, though, and was at the center of a lot of memorable stories, even later on in the comic’s run. At the time, his personality was “cheery doctor” on the cartoon, and “formerly cheery doctor until a bunch of stuff happened to him” in the Marvel comics. Later media have really fleshed him out into larger roles, though, in particular IDW’s comics, and the Transformers Prime TV show (Jeffrey Combs has forever defined the role for me). Nowadays, his personality has become that of an old bot who’s a grouchy, put-upon doctor, but he’s still a fundamentally good guy underneath all that. He’s basically Robot Dr. McCoy.
The original Ratchet shared a tooling with Ironhide, and so has had the same problem of a bad history with toy representation. His 80’s toy, again, notoriously looked nothing like how he later appeared on the show or in the comics, instead looking like a strange headless creature that rode a sled. The animators just decided to replace it entirely with something less weird.
His next mass-released update wasn’t until the 2008 Universe line, which was, like the Ironhide figure it was retooled from, also not very good, an overcomplicated mess of panels that was hard to transform, and looked awkward in both modes. He actually did get a decent figure during Combiner Wars, but it was only available at BotCon, or in an expensive Japanese boxset, and was a retool that didn’t really look much like him outside of the head and colors anyway. He did get a really nice Masterpiece figure eventually (again, retooled from Ironhide), but there hasn’t really been a good mainline figure until Siege came along.
Siege Ratchet is, once again, a retooling of Ironhide, a very good figure that I’ve already reviewed (and re-posted later on, so this link goes to the future now), so I’ll mostly look at what’s different. Unlike Ironhide, he’s exclusive to Walgreens in the US, and EB Games in Canada, where he was released in massive quantities all in one go, so he’s not hard to find right now (2021 update: Well, he wasn’t hard to find at the time). Let’s see how this retool worked out.
Robot Mode
Ratchet is still a very tall Siege Deluxe, almost Voyager height, and still really sleek-looking, without a lot of loose parts. He’s also not as original-cartoon-accurate as a lot of Siege, being more of a modern update of his classic design, though it’s one that looks good and is recognizably Ratchet. He’s also incredibly poseable and sturdily-build, like the rest of Siege.
He’s got a totally new head, when they could have just added a crest to Ironhide’s head like the original did. This is probably because Siege Ironhide’s head was very characterful, and they wanted to create something softer for Ratchet. I kind of wish it communicated his character as well as Ironhide’s did, but it’s still well-done.
At first glance, it feels like all they changed on him was the head, but compare them side-by-side, and you’ll notice there’s actually a LOT of retooled parts on Ratchet, including his shoulders, forearms, lower legs, and pelvis. Some things make sense, like adding ambulance light bars to his shoulders, or sculpted-on tools to his forearms, but a lot of it’s odd choices, just swapping out one set of tech detailing for another. I’m certainly not complaining, since more retooling to differentiate them is always good, it’s just odd that they put so much effort into making so many new parts for a design that’s usually a color-swap with an extra head crest.
His colors were a controversial choice when first unveiled, given how he’s got a lot of unbroken, solid white on him. In person, though, it actually comes off looking pretty good. It helps that it’s the kind of white that doesn’t wash his detailing out, and also that he’s composed of two different shades of it. Outside of that, he’s got a lot of red accents all over his body, and a bluish-purple tinted windshield that really stands out (also, his windshield’s mistransformed in the box, it’s supposed to lower and pop out of his chest a bit, sliding into a pair of grooves on his upper chest.) His Siege Battle Wear is the first time in the line I’ve thought it looked off-putting, though, given that in Ratchet’s case, he’s got brown smudges on the bottom of his legs and his feet. It mostly just looks like he stepped in mud.
The other thing they changed on him, and something that makes him really shine, is his brand-new accessories, all of which are painted in a nice, shiny silver. Firstly, he’s got a wrench he can hold, perfect for someone who specializes in repairs. It comes with some sculpted tech detailing to make it look science-fictionny, but it’s still just a straight-up wrench.
Secondly, he’s got a small hand-laser, which feels like it could either be a weapon, or a welding tool. Either way, it brings to mind the generic weapons a lot of Autobots on the original cartoon used.
Finally, he has a silver launcher-type box on an arm that you can plug into his back. You can mount either his laser or wrench on the end of the launcher, for a long-distance weapon turret, or some kind of repair arm. It’s modeled after a missile launcher on his original G1 toy, so it’s nice to see it replicated here.
You can actually stash both tools on either side of the launcher, if you like (that’s how it’s packaged), and you can mount the launcher and accessories on a bunch of weapon mounting ports on his upper and lower arms. I’m a big fan of these accessories, as they really fit his character, and manage to homage both the cartoon and original figure in one go.
Transformation to Vehicle Mode
Ratchet’s transformation is still really smooth and intuitive, and I now know to expect the Big Chest Twist that took me by surprise with Ironhide. Once again, I’ve heard reports that his leg panels like to pop off during transformation, but I seem to have won that particular quality control roulette
Vehicle Mode
Ratchet still changes into an armored, rolling scifi vehicle, and the newly-tooled lightbars behind his cockpit sell the illusion of some sort of armored battlefield ambulance. A shame that you can visibly see his folded-up robot arms from the top of his altmode, it spoils the illusion of having some sort of medical bay inside (which might be why they invented the third mode I’ll get to).
This mode also shows off a newly-tooled front bumper, painted silver, though like most of his other changes, it’s just swapping one set of tech details for another. Something I like about his deco in this form is that his tinted bluish-purple window does a slightly better job of hiding his robot mode head than Ironhide’s clear window does.
A deco issue I have, though, is the decision to keep his wheels nearly the same unpainted white as most of his body (especially since prototype renders showed them in a much darker grey). It hides them in his robot mode, but in this form, it’s a bit plain-looking.
For his gimmicks, you can mount all of his accessories on the four ports on the ambulance’s roof, and when mounting his wrench on his launcher, the whole thing resembles a grabby arm, which really amuses me for some reason.
Transformation to repair bay mode
Technically, this comes first in the instructions, but also, bizarrely, the instructions tell you how to almost totally get him in his ambulance mode, but then backtrack into this mode. Also, the instructions say that his shoulders are supposed to peg, clip, or snap into position somehow, but they really don’t, and just hang there.
Repair bay mode
Let’s get the obvious thing out of the way: They 100 percent made this mode up after the fact. It looks like a fanmode, and doesn’t seem to have any engineering or tooling made specifically for it, unlike Refraktor’s lame-looking-but-definitely-engineered altmode. (2021 edit: Ages later, it was pointed out that there’s a few unpainted details on his arms that resemble tools, which seem to have been sculpted specifically for this form.)
He’s now a rolling repair bay, with his arms, torso and legs forming the raised edge of a bed that a smaller figure (a Micromaster or Legend-sized figure) can rest on, and be repaired by his accessories, which mount on his arm ports.
On one hand, it’s effectively a fanmode. On the other hand, I can picture him rushing around a battlefield as an ambulance, and converting to this mode when he gets there.
So, it’s kind of pointless, but not actively harmful. Basically, an extra.
Overall
Just like with Ironhide, this is the best non-Masterpiece Ratchet you can get right now (2021 Edit: That still holds true). They really went above and beyond with the retooling on him, and gave him a new set of characterful, fun accessories. He’s got some odd color choices, and an obviously made-up third mode, but aside from that, he’s very fun. If I had to pick, I’d say Ironhide is probably slightly stronger as a figure, thanks to his more varied colors and general design cohesiveness, but this is a close second, and certainly worth owning on its own merits, and the merits of finally having a Good Classic Ratchet Toy.
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