Doctor Hardass.

Scale in Transformers is messed up. When this mold was first released, it made no sense. He was the same size as Deluxe Bumblebee and Jazz as well as way out of wack with Leader Optimus Prime.

Almost a decade later, and with everything shrinking, this mold finally seems like a good size. But is it a good figure?

Time to take a look.

Vehicle Mode

We’re off to a bit of a rocky start here. First and foremost, for some reason the vehicle mode is not accurate to the film model. It looks like an off-road version of the film vehicle. For some, this may be a deal breaker. For me, it isn’t because I got the G1 redeco. It’s movie innacurrate to begin with.

Also, this is probably just my weird taste, but the traditional ambulance colours applied to his off-road, hardass vehicle mode is so ridiculous, I can’t help but love it.

For even more dissonance, you can put Ratchet’s giant cannon thing on top of his ambulance mode.

Pretend it’s a healing gun.

Transformation

For an ROTF/HFTD era figure, the transformation is actually pretty straightforward and not infuriating. Infuriating was the norm for figures back then. It’s not as intuitive as the DOTM and Studio Series Ratchets, but still pretty enjoyable.

Robot Mode

Off the bat, I’m gonna say I prefer the robot mode on this guy to the DOTM and Studio Series Ratchets. He is arguably not as accurate in sculpt as those two figures, but I prefer his proportions.

His posability is pretty good. He has all the articulation you’d expect from a modern Transformers figure, and that includes ankle tilts plus ankle swivels! He’s missing waist and wrist swivels though, but that’s forgivable for me. Put his “healing gun” on his arm and you got a dynamic doctor ready to heal his buddies or kick some arse.

The G1 colours work well in robot mode.

Gimmicks

His Mech Alive gimmicks are pretty subdued and unintrusive.

His humongous gun is not. You know what forget it. Healing gun my ass. This thing will kill you. Putting the gun on Ratchet’s right arm pulls up some bits inside the arm. Those parts attach to the gun, giving the impression that the gun sprouted from Ratchet’s forearm. Neat, but not that impressive.

The gun itself is nicely detailed, spring loaded and fires a blue missile. Also, the gun is designed to be shared with ROTF Lockdown or HFTD Axorr.

Moving Ratchet’s thighs moves inner bits inside his legs. I honestly almost forgot about those pieces, but they do give him some nice extra detail.

Toy or collectible?

As an ROTF era figure, I first and foremost recommend Rescue Ratchet for adult collectors. He’s complex, posable and looks good on a shelf. And he comes G1 flavour. Fun times for everyone!

That being said, he’s not so complex that I won’t recommend him to children age 10 and above. He’s the sweet spot of just complex enough to be challenging but not enough to rip out your hair then turn bald. Also, he has an enormous gun. Fun times for everyone!

Closing

I’m gonna say that I prefer this mold over the newer versions. People will fight and argue with me, but that is just my preference. This is a good mold and it’s a shame that it’s usually overlooked.

The good news is, you can have your cake and eat it. You can get the more show accurate Studio Series Ratchet to be your Movie-verse Ratchet. You can then use this particular repaint as a separate character. They’ll look different enough to pull it off.

My suggestion: Call him First Aid.