Ratchet's ambulance mode is near-perfect, especially for a Fast Action Battler. The proportions are pretty close to being perfect, and aren't a little "super-deformed" like some other Fast Action Battlers. There's no robot extras to be seen, except for a bit of undercarriage junk if you look at the mode from a strictly side-on view, but that's pretty minor. I'm not all that fond of the green color for an ambulance-- not that it isn't appropriate for an ambulance, I just don't like this particular shade of green on almost anything, I think it looks ugly. The red and black do contrast with it nicely, however, and Ratchet has a fair amount of paint apps in this mode, right down to the "Fire Emergency" and "Search & Rescue-- Fire Dept." emblems on the sides. He also has some mold detailing, though not nearly enough on the topside of this mode.
    Ratchet's robot mode is a fairly faithful-- albeit necessarily simplified-- recreation of his movie self, except for the arms. The arms are absolutely horridly designed, and are what takes away the big points from this figure's rating. They're very two-dimensional and flat if you look at them from a side view, and the lower arms actually hang off the INSIDE of the elbow, and just look really really weird. The other complaints I have about this mode are more minor, but they're still apparent. For one, the wheels on the shoulders don't mesh with the overall shape of the figure nearly as well as on the Voyager class figure, and look a bit unwieldly. The legs are also just basically molded on the inside of two large plastic pieces, and have almost no paint detailing on them, which they really need considering the oodles of mold detailing they have on them. Ratchet's head is excellently molded and painted, but it's the only movie head design I'm not fond of-- it looks like they tried to blend in too many design elements and it just looks like a mess of face parts, at least to me, and it doesn't look very fitting for a doctor-type character. Ratchet's articulation is there, but it's rather limited-- he can move back-and-forth at the shoulders and elbows, and the head, the waist, and the hips, though like many other Fast Action Battlers, Ratchet has that odd spring in his waist where it you turn it to any position where it isn't facing directly forward and then let go of it, it snaps back its original position. I'm not sure why the designers keep doing this with this subline, there isn't really any design reason for it... As for Ratchet's gimmick, his axe-arm can fire a spring-loaded missile launcher. Yeah, I see how that makes and sense, either, but there you go. When transforming Ratchet, he also has a bit of an "automorph" gimmick where as you rotate the front bumper piece, the arm assemblies rotate outwards as well. However, usually at least one gets stuck and you have to just swing out the arm manually anyways, so it's sort of pointless.
    Axe Attack Autobot Ratchet is about middle-of-the-line as far as Fast Action Battlers go. He has a great, pretty much flawless vehicle mode, but he has some definite problems in robot mode, like stiff legs with little painted detail and very oddly constructed arms. I'm recommend just spending the extra $10 for the superior Voyager class Ratchet, instead.

Review by Beastbot

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