Ratchet (Universe)

This article is about . For other uses of "Ratchet", see Ratchet (disambiguation)|The name or term "Ratchet" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Ratchet (disambiguation).}}
Ratchet is an Autobot from the Robots in Disguise continuity family (via the 2003 Universe series).
"Now cough."

Unlike with his alternate universe counterpart, Ratchet's patients have a problem relating to him outside of his role as a doctor. Quiet and modest, he's not much of a social being. However, he's the best there is at what he does. You'd have to look long and hard to find a better surgeon than Ratchet. He often performs this duty at the risk of his own personal exhaustion. Ratchet is dedicated solely to his work.<ref>Ratchet's profile in Universe #3</ref>

Fiction

[edit]

Universe comic

[edit]

Ratchet was pulled from his home universe of Viron 704.31 Epsilon by Unicron to fight in the Universe War on the eve of a critical battle, leading to Optimus Prime's defeat at the hands of Megazarak. Ask Vector Prime, 30 July 2015

Why did I invite everyone to come in and watch?

Ratchet was imprisoned within the Cauldron arena inside the shattered remains of Unicron. When Trailbreaker and Silverbolt managed to arrange a prison break, Ratchet was part of the group that managed to flee. Escape For uncertain reasons, he was not automatically returned to his own universe as were most of the freed prisoners. Rather, he found himself on the technorganic Cybertron that Silverbolt, Trailbreaker, and their rescuer Optimus Primal called home. It was suggested by his new friends that he may have been needed in this new timeline for a reason, as this universe's Ratchet was, in the past, a great healer.

Though distressed and confused at this turn of events, Ratchet quickly got to work on Sideswipe, attempting to find a way to remove the Unicron virus that had infected the Transformers who had been sent into combat within the Cauldron. However, the virus was proving tougher and quicker than he was. Homecoming

Toys

[edit]

Universe (2003)

[edit]
Understandably, many of Ratchet's patients find his hacksaw arm somewhat... unsettling.
  • Autobot Ratchet (Deluxe Class, 2003)
  • Accessories: Blade-missile, cannon-missile, bumper-knuckleduster
  • Known designers: Marcelo Matere (packaging artist){{#if: |, {{{2}}}}}
Part of the third wave of Universe Deluxes, Ratchet is a redeco of the 2001 Robots in Disguise Deluxe Class X-Brawn toy, transforming into an emergency-response Mercedes-Benz ML320 SUV with opening doors and hood. He has a spring-loaded missile launcher in his right arm; the running boards on each side of his vehicle mode are attached to his missiles. These missiles can peg onto his backpack or biceps for storage purposes in robot mode, or be held in his over-sized left hand by the rails. His front bumper-guard detaches to become a knuckleduster he can hold as well. All of the emergency equipment (including his sirens) are merely tampographed onto his roof instead of being newly sculpted parts.
The mold seems to be suffering from some degradation, as the running boards appear to be slightly misshapen and "bloated" compared to earlier releases of the figure (whether this is related to the fact that all previous releases of these pieces have been chromed is unknown).
Hasbro's stock photography of the toy shows him with white "Emergency" lettering, but the final retail release uses black letters.

Notes

[edit]
  • Ratchet and Inferno were released with the "sub-line" name "Machine Robot Rescue" printed on their cards in a fairly blatant, but successful attempt by Hasbro to prevent rival toy company Bandai from marketing one of their Japanese [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Machine Robo Rescue|{{#if:transforming robot toy lines|transforming robot toy lines|Machine Robo Rescue}}]] in the U.S. under that name. <ref>{{#if: We went to Japan during the development of Armada and, for those who don't know the history of it, Machine Robo Rescue [sic] is the real pedigree of GoBots, and they were bringing it back. Bandai was actively creating five-pack combiners of every theme. They were very colorful, easy, and fun. They had a show, absolutely. [...] So we looked at what they were doing and the potential of that coming to America and, I don't know how we stumbled upon this, but I think between Michelle and I- we're kind of tactical this way, we're both Virgos- well, "Machine Robot Rescue" or "Machine Robo Rescue" is not secured in the United States, so why don't we secure that and put it on some, y'know, toy? As trademarks go, as long as you use it, it doesn't have to make sense or be the lead communicator at all. It's just part of the name. So we put it on those two items. We created some kind of deco, some kind of emergency deco to create the theming and use that term as a somewhat defensive block, but subtle defensive block. And I actually had heard from a person that ended up working at Hasbro who had worked at Bandai that that pretty much gummed up their effort to bring it in the United States because if you do go to YouTube or somewhere to look at the anime, they had "Machine"- like, "MRR"- everywhere. They had it everywhere- on doors, on bumpers, on signage. It was like how we put the Autobot logo places, they were putting "MRR" all over the place. So when Hasbro secured "Machine Robo Rescue" or "Machine Robot Rescue," what he told me was that Bandai couldn't come up with another name that could be cleared based on what we had done that used "MRR" and that alone stopped that from coming into the United States. |"We went to Japan during the development of Armada and, for those who don't know the history of it, Machine Robo Rescue [sic] is the real pedigree of GoBots, and they were bringing it back. Bandai was actively creating five-pack combiners of every theme. They were very colorful, easy, and fun. They had a show, absolutely. [...] So we looked at what they were doing and the potential of that coming to America and, I don't know how we stumbled upon this, but I think between Michelle and I- we're kind of tactical this way, we're both Virgos- well, "Machine Robot Rescue" or "Machine Robo Rescue" is not secured in the United States, so why don't we secure that and put it on some, y'know, toy? As trademarks go, as long as you use it, it doesn't have to make sense or be the lead communicator at all. It's just part of the name. So we put it on those two items. We created some kind of deco, some kind of emergency deco to create the theming and use that term as a somewhat defensive block, but subtle defensive block. And I actually had heard from a person that ended up working at Hasbro who had worked at Bandai that that pretty much gummed up their effort to bring it in the United States because if you do go to YouTube or somewhere to look at the anime, they had "Machine"- like, "MRR"- everywhere. They had it everywhere- on doors, on bumpers, on signage. It was like how we put the Autobot logo places, they were putting "MRR" all over the place. So when Hasbro secured "Machine Robo Rescue" or "Machine Robot Rescue," what he told me was that Bandai couldn't come up with another name that could be cleared based on what we had done that used "MRR" and that alone stopped that from coming into the United States."—|}}{{#if: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE-MKJDLkNc&t=672s |Aaron Archer via The Toy Armada|Aaron Archer via The Toy Armada}}{{#if: YouTube |, YouTube|}}{{#if: |, ""|}}{{#if: 2025 |, 2025{{#if: 07 |/{{#switch:{{#len:07}}|1=007|07}}{{#if: 09|/{{#switch:{{#len:09}}|1=009|09}}|}}}}|}}{{#if: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE-MKJDLkNc&t=672s ||}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE-MKJDLkNc&t=672s%7C7%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE-MKJDLkNc&t=672s%7C8%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE-MKJDLkNc&t=672s%7C7%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE-MKJDLkNc&t=672s%7C8%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#if: | (dead link)}}</ref>
  • Glen Hallit stated that this Ratchet was from a 2001 Robots in Disguise universe, but there was nothing in published fiction to support it until a 2015 entry of the Facebook edition of Ask Vector Prime gave some background to Ratchet.
  • The Ratchet toy was apparently originally intended as an upgrade for Trailbreaker, explaining Trailbreaker's presence in the Universe comic alongside Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. However, likely due to trademark reasons, the plans for "Trailbreaker" were dropped, and the X-Brawn redeco became a different character with a different deco.

Foreign names

[edit]
  • Japanese: Ratchet (ラチェット Rachetto)

References

[edit]
<references />
Retrieved from "https://tfwiki.duckdns.org/index.php?title=Ratchet_(Universe)&oldid=1876307"