Ratchet's vehicle mode as an Activator is pretty darn good, all things considered. There's no robot mode extras whatsoever, and there's a fair amount of paint detailing on the toy-- particularly on the front area, the windows, and the rims, which are all painted very nicely. The "heartbeat" symbols are on the sides of his vehicle mode, as you'd expect, though he doesn't have any paint detailing on his back end or on his sirens. He's a tad long proportionally when compared to his show model, but otherwise he looks great as far as his overall shape goes. However, the hinge mechanism that's necessary for his auto-transformation just sticks out very blatantly from the sides of the vehicle, and are a bit of an eyesore. I'm not sure how they would have gotten around something like this, but a downside it is nonetheless.
    To activate Ratchet's auto-transformation, press down on the light red section of his ambulance roof, and the all that's required is unfolding his arms and legs. Ratchet's robot mode is also quite good for an Activator. It's fairly show-accurate, though the chest/stomach area is a bit large proportionally, and his head seems to "poke out" from the top. The main complaints I have about this mode are the large section of roof sticking up above his head, which just is so obviously kibble, and the fact that the flaps to the side of his body don't peg into anything, so they can wiggle around atad, which is annoying. His hands are also a little puny, but other than that he looks pretty good. He can move at the neck, shoulders, elbows (at two points), hips, and knees (at two points), and many of those are on ball joints, so he's quite poseable. The detailing on his face, particularly at this scale, is extraordinary-- all of the necessary details are there, and painted in a very crisp manner on the toy. The arms and legs could really use some paint detailing, however. Particularly his shoulder pads, which should be white with the red "heartbeat" symbols on them (though at least they're the proper "square" shape, unlike on the deluxe toy).
    Activator Ratchet is a nice toy in vehicle mode and pretty decent in robot mode as well, given the size class and the auto-transform gimmick. I think deluxe class Ratchet is still slightly better, but Activator Ratchet is a fine substitute if you want a smaller version of the character, like auto-transformers, or just really like Ratchet.

Review by Beastbot

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