Movie Ratchet's finally got a toy at the deluxe size class, and the first new mold of his for the RotF line, to boot. It's been modified a bit this time, however-- the back of the vehicle slopes downwards a bit, and the whole back portion isn't quite as large proportionally as it is on the actual modified Hummer ambulance that's Ratchet in the movies. It looks a bit more military this time around. He's got actual weaponry in this mode, too-- his gun is mounted on the top of this mode, and can has its own spring-loaded missile launcher. Ratchet's usual color scheme is in tact, with that rather blah pea green forming most of the color, and the gray and black grilles and wheels forming a bit of a dark contrast to it. The dark blue windows also contrast quite well with the green, and while still transparent, they're dark enough to hide the robot parts inside, which is always good. His mold detailing is pretty good, with everything necessary molded onto the toy, and his paint detailing is quite good in this mode-- he's got the expected "heartbeat" signs along the sides of his vehicle mode, as well as the "Search and Rescue" stuff on his doors, but his gun is also mostly painted a nice metallic grayish brown, and his headlights and taillights are painted, so no problems there. There is a real problem I have with this mode, though, and that's how blatantly it's a vehicle "shell" over Ratchet's appendages that are crumped up behind them. I mean, the feet and lower arms poke out VERY obviously underneath the vehicle mode-- which is made more obvious given the rather high clearance the mode SHOULD have-- and you can also see his knees poking out from behind the rear grille assembly. His front bumper also has a long slider piece below it (used for the chest transformation for robot mode), which is a tad unsightly, but without it there it would be even more unsightly, with the hands right behind it. On a lesser note, the "cracks" in the vehicle mode's plastic that denote the different pieces for transformation get a bit unsightly towards the rear-middle.
    Ratchet's robot mode is much better, and definitely where the focus of the toy's engineering went towards. It's MUCH more movie-accurate than his voyager class version in pretty much every way. His limbs are considerably better-proportioned, and most of the vehicle kibble either folds up behind his back or folds around to emulate his movie model's shoulders is a surprisingly accurate way-- even the false "headlights" below the wheels are there, though they're not painted, alas. The only really inaccurate parts of him are, firstly, the way his front bumper slides down to form his chest, and secondly, the vehicle mode kibble on his hips. His mold detailing remains excellent in this mode, though a few more silver paint apps-- particularly on his legs and face-- couldn't have hurt. He has pretty good articulation-- he can move at the neck, shoulders (at three points), elbows, wrists, hips, knees (at three points), and ankles. Given that he's also quite stable, this means that you can get quite a number of good poses out of him. The hips-- because of the aforementioned kibble-- are really the only part where movement is restricted a bit. As far as Ratchet's gimmicks, his gun can be plugged into his right arm, activating a cool mechanism that helps to keep it "locked" in place there. His left arm has a hole for RotF Lockdown's EMP generator, emphasizing the whole "nemesis" relationship those two have had going since Animated. Finally, rotating Ratchet's legs around at the knee also rotates little silver "mechanical bits" in his upper legs, which is his kinda lame "Mech Alive" gimmick.
    RotF deluxe Ratchet has a pretty darn poor vehicle mode, but it has the most accurate robot mode out of any of his transformable movie toys. So if an accurate robot mode matters the most to you, this is the version to get-- just be ready to give up a good-looking vehicle mode for it.

Review by Beastbot

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