Here we have him in his vehicle mode. It's a white version of the vehicle mode that Ironhide took form of, but there are actually a couple of noteworthy differences in terms of molding. The window's blue compared to the clear one on Ironhide, which makes me wish his was tinted, but there's more to that, actually. The bumper is an entirely different piece, there appears to be a siren near the windshield, and while not strictly part of the molding, the red paint apps are at least placed differently from Ironhide's own details.
Only problem with this mode is the all-white tires. They seem more of the kind of grayish-white used on the Studio Series DOTM Ratchet variant, but come on, son.
This is a method of weapon storage I came up with, where the pegs connect to the shoulder and forearm 5mm posts. It's not the nicest weapon storage, but it does the job, I suppose.
Here we have Ratchet next to Ironhide. At first, they seem like they've got no differences between one another beyond the deco and accessories, but there's actually more to them than meets the eye. See, Ratchet has the aforementioned bumper and siren details, but if you look closely, some of the molded details don't line up with Ironhide's.
The molding between the two is especially noticeable here, where the leg covers and tires aren't identically sculpted in this case. That silver dash on Ironhide is done up differently on Ratchet, where it's red dash is shorter and thicker. Even the molding of the tires are different (though Ironhide's tires were originally bare gray).
It's even prominent on the top of the vehicle mode. The siren's there on Ratchet, but there are also some greebling details that are different on the forearms as well as the top of the leg covers.
This is the repair bay mode. You first have to detach the leg covers and side panels before separating the arms from the middle of the vehicle mode and rotating the forearms to have the 5mm posts face the top. From there, you can attach the accessories and display him repairing Micromasters or himself, whatever you want. He's got a decent resemblance to the battle sled from the old toy, but it's otherwise a fairly throwaway mode.
Let's make the review a little more interesting...here's a third move for these two (fourth in the case for Ironhide). Here they are in their Diaclone modes, where they have their seats in the back and their arms around their waists. You want more G1 accuracy? Here you go! Wait, you hate the old Ironhide/Ratchet toys? Oh well.
The transformation is pretty much the same as with Ironhide, so I won't cover how it's done up. I will say that being a reuse of the Ironhide mold, he does have the same form of lightweight plastic that sacrifices density for size (as he and Ironhide were taller than the other Autobot Cars). Ironhide's red plastic was at least fairly substantial and doesn't feel as cheap as it does on Ratchet. By contrast, Ratchet doesn't really have the same sort of nice feel to him when transforming him, especially when it comes to how shit the tires are with their hollow nature. The robot mode manages to be more than just a palette swap of Ironhide by at least making the red paint apps applied in different spots from the character while adding new details that Ironhide didn't have like the red on his feet or the red over the blue window. Said blue window looks nice and helps make him pop on a shelf. In terms of consistency with the whites used on Ratchet, the white plastic used for most of the body doesn't mesh too well with the white plastic used for the groin and tires. It's also used on the back, which remains just as hollow and looks worse than on Ironhide because at least his colors were fairly dark. Some may want his hands and waist to be red, and while I wouldn't mind seeing the red hands, I'm fine with the groin being what it is because it'd otherwise look like he's wearing a groin cup; basically, adding red in that area will be as useless as adding red on DCEU Superman's groin.
The head sculpt is thankfully different from Ironhide so it doesn't look like he's got a crescent slapped on him. He's also got a more blank expression than on the angry Ironhide face, and removing the mohawk makes him look like a different character from Ironhide while also avoiding looking like Prowl. Paint apps could be better applied, though.
Articulation's the same as always, but the accessories are different than on Ironhide as seen earlier. I have the scalpel on the rocket launcher over his head while he holds his monkey wrench on his hand.
Here is Ratchet next to his moldmate, who's still got a couple of differences between him and Ratchet. The groin is sculpted differently from Ironhide. while there are more differences for the forearms and shoulders. The chests look identical in terms of sculpting, and the same goes for the thighs, biceps, and feet.
Even the backs have some molding differences between each other. The lighting here on the back is sucky, but you can see how even the hollowed out pieces look different between one another. The backs especially have some different forms of sculpting between each other. And of course, the front bumpers are different.
I should mention that this mold was reused for Crosshairs and takes some similar engineering from Kup. And here we have the 1984 characters that correspond with the 2007 crew. I'm sure some will say "eighties 4eva" and shit, but it's neat how Ironhide and Ratchet look different from each other in 2007 while Bumblebee gets a size upgrade as Jazz gets shorter. Take note that Bumblebee is in his old Camaro design because I took this review before I got the modern Bumblebee. As for Ratchet himself, he's fairly decent if you like Ironhide and want to expand your Autobot crew. Still, he's got some weird tolerances that make him feel pretty weaker than Ironhide.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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