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.
Review by Beastbot