Ratchet's vehicle mode is an ambulance, and-- when it comes to the design, at least-- it's very accurate to the show in its proportions. All the windows and various panels are molded in where they're needed, such as the back door, the front grill, the detailing on his wheel hubs, and the like. However, a few areas that are supposed to be relatively sparse in mold detailing-- like the back halves on each side-- instead look rather crowded because of all the panel lines due to his transformation. Normally there's only a few major "lines" among the alt modes of Transformers that aren't hidden in where you would expect "seams" to be, but Ratchet here has several of them, and looks the worse for it. His color scheme is mostly white and orangish-red, just like on the show, and the colors contrast against each other exceedingly well, as well as simply being fitting for the alt mode and character. The bits of black, silver, and transparent blue serve as decent enough accent colors where they are. However-- and this is by far my biggest issue with Ratchet in this mode-- he is missing a TON of paint detailing, to the point where an otherwise accurate alt mode ends up being... not-accurate. Most of his rear section is supposed to be orange-red, not white! And yet, beyond a couple of lines on the side (including lines surrounding what should be one of his side windows, but it's not painted blue and isn't transparent blue plastic, so it looks weird), his back half is almost entirely bereft of paint detailing. Except for silver on the bumper, his backside isn't painted at all-- all those nice details like his taillights, completely unpainted! Hasbro really should've used a different plastic color mix or designed the sprues differently or something, because a toy that isn't a redeco that is this inaccurate to the show is rather unacceptable. On the plus side, othern than the tiniest bit of his feet sticking below the bottom rims behind the front tires, Ratchet has no robot mode extras to speak of in this mode (you can see some bits inside his windows, but they're not identifiable as anything). His weapons are a pair of knives which can fit into ports on either his front bumper or on his roof in this mode, though plugged into his roof they look really goofy. Plugged into his front bumper, they still look goofy, but less so. I wish there had been a less obvious way to store these otherwise nicely-detailed weapons in this mode...
    Ratchet's transformation mostly isn't what you'd expect given his robot design-- it mostly involves simply unfolding his arms and legs from the sides of the vehicle mode and then sliding back his back panel, which causes his head to pop up with a rather nice spring-loaded action. His entire chest has faux vehicle mode detailing on it, with the real windows and side doors on the backside of his legs. This latter point is my primary issue with this mode, as they're clearly just pieces of show-inaccurate kibble hanging off his back legs, and don't fit with the overall shape of their surrounding pieces much (though they do admittedly add a bit of "mass" to his lower legs that would otherwise be lacking). There's also an extra bit of "bulk" around the waist that shouldn't be there, though this is a much more minor issue. The only other real vehicle mode extra in this mode is the square back panel, and that's there on the show and it doesn't get in the way of articulation, so I don't mind it. Ratchet's proportions in this mode are show-accurate for the most part, except for the arms; his shoulders are a bit too small proportionally, and his upper arms too skinny (though not annoyingly so). His colors are also off a bit in this mode, with too much white again, though at least the balance is a bit more even this time around. He's got plenty of red-orange and silver paint apps across his chassis to break up all that white, and all the mold and paint detailing done for the faux windows and grill on his chest and abs is really well done, "fake" or not. Ratchet's head design is spot-on to the show, both in terms of the mold and paint detailing, and also just looks super spiffy, with very well-done blue light piping on the eyes. Ratchet can-- as you'd expect-- hold his two blade weapons in his hands in this mode. But, in a stroke of genius, his hands can also rotate back into his lower arms a bit so that the knives point forward, mimicking how Ratchet deploys those blades in place of his fists in the show. For articulation, Ratchet can move at the neck, shoulders (at four points), elbows, wrists, rotation at the waist, and movement at the hips (at two points), knees (at two points), ankles, and slightly in-and-outwards at the toes. Given that he's well balanced, this means that you can get some pretty good poses out of him-- moreso than most other Prime RiD deluxes.
    Prime deluxe Ratchet does an excellent job of replicating his vehicle mode and a decent job of his robot mode, though a few minor proportional and kibble issues do hinder the latter some. He's also got some neat weapons and good articulation. However, his lack of a decent amount of red-orange paint where there should be plenty of it really makes him look off from his show model when it needn't be so, particularly in vehicle mode. The amount of "faux bits" in his robot mode and unsightly panel lines in ambulance mode also bother me, albeit to a lesser extent. Still, if you're a fan of the character and want a "normal"-sized version of him, you don't really have any other options-- Ratchet didn't get a higher-budgeted "First Edition" version like the rest of the core Autobot team in Prime.

Review by Beastbot

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