Autobot Ratchet (Legion; solo release) [DotM]
Vehicle ModeRobot Mode
Allegiance: Autobot
Size: Legion
Difficulty of Transformation: Very Easy
Color Scheme: Black, white, light pea green, and some dark metallic silvery blue, silver, and dark orange
Rating: 7.3

    FINALLY, Ratchet gets a much-needed new mold for his Legion/Legends class figure. The original one was rather bad, so does this version fare any better? In vehicle mode, Ratchet's proportions are quite good, though a few oddities that show through at this scale poke out-- namely the hinges in front of his side doors and a (proportionally) large tab sticking up near the front of the hood. You can also see the robot feet fairly easily from the back side, and there's a gap in the middle of the rear end, but thankfully this isn't very visible from most angles. The mold detailing is quite good for a toy of this size, with even the little vents and tools on the sides molded in (even if they're not painted). The overall color scheme of white, black, and a light pea green isn't quite as good as his original Movie color scheme-- the pea green in particular is just a rather blah color. That said, the colors don't outright clash. Paint apps are used for most of the essential details, like Ratchet's various grills in this mode as well as his windows and the "E4" signs on the sides of this mode. The dark silvery blue used for the windows is a particularly nice shade that contrasts with the surrounding white well. The smaller decos in his vehicle mode aren't on this small of a toy, which is understandable.
    Ratchet's transformation is very straightforward, with his legs swinging down, his arms swinging out from the sides, the head popping up from the hood, and then the roof flipping down behind his body to form a bit of a backpack that-- though it doesn't lock in place anywhere-- stays out of the way both visually and in terms of articulation. Ratchet's proportions are generally quite good in this mode, particularly for a Legion class figure. His upper arms are a bit skinny and two-dimensional, but other than that his arms, legs, and chest have an appropriate amount of bulk to them, even if the arms in particular are merely molded detail on the sides of vehicle parts. The robot parts also have a pretty good amount of mold detailing on them, though a bit more paint detailing on his hands wouldn't have hurt-- the only robot mode-exclusive paint on Ratchet is on his face and lower legs. Ratchet's face detailing is a little off, though, with his mouth looking a bit overly large, like it belongs to a gorilla. As for articulation, Ratchet can move back-and-forth at the shoulders, and at the knees and hips-- roughly average for a toy of this size. It should also be noted that if you really want to, you can swing Ratchet's shoulders back a bit for a better range of poses for his arms, but this makes his car doors come with it, so it looks a little odd if you do so.
    DotM Cyberverse Ratchet is a definite upgrade over the original Movie Legion/Legends class figure, with a much better-proportioned and more-articulated robot mode in particular. I'm not too fond of the color scheme, but it is movie-accurate, after all, and design-wise I'm not sure how they could've done much better than this on a Legion-class budget. There's a few minor oddities in vehicle mode, but nothing that can't be easily overlooked.



Autobot Ratchet Bio:
The repair skills and medical prowess of Autobot Ratchet were unrivaled on Cybertron and have yet to be matched on Earth. His razor-sharp mind has allowed him to develop healing tools that double as powerful weapons!
Strength: 4.0
Intelligence: 9.0
Speed: 6.0
Endurance: 9.0
Rank: 5.0
Courage: 10.0
Fireblast: 3.0
Skill: 10.0

Review by Beastbot

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