Ratbat (WFC)

The name or term "Ratbat" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Ratbat (disambiguation).

Ratbat is a Decepticon Mini-Con from the Aligned continuity family.

Ratbat was once the Mini-Con representative for the High Council in the days before the great war, and was well known for being corrupt and in the pocket of the wealthy elite. The general opinion was that he believed only what he was paid to, and only while the payment was good. When the war began, he left that position and, along with fellow Council member Contrail, joined Megatron's Decepticons.

Nowadays, Ratbat is one of Soundwave's agents, but spends most of his time away from the others. What he does during this time is what he always does best, and that is masterminding incredibly complex financial schemes and scams to drag his targets in the red while he rakes in the credits. And they say war changes people...

Fiction

Aligned novels

Ratbat generally made useless interjections during Megatron and Orion Pax's hearing before the High Council, humiliating Orion when he joked he could imagine an end to their session when the young librarian complained the caste system had rendered the society imaginationless. Ratbat became more serious when Halogen began to concur with Orion and Megatron's beliefs, and was informed that no matter what, it was the beginning of the end for the castes.

Ratbat then mentioned attempts to find the Matrix of Leadership had been made by the rebels, and uncharacteristically commented since it had not been found, the Matrix was unwilling to give itself up. This in turn led to the Council's unanimous vote for Orion to become Optimus Prime and be given the quest to find it. An enraged Megatron killed Halogen, declared war and called the Decepticons to follow him. Optimus noticed Ratbat boarded Contrail and left with the Decepticons. During the war Polyhex, Ratbat's home, quickly fell to the Decepticons. Teracycles later, Ratbat's cowardly survival was notable enough for Teletraan-1 to inform Omega Supreme of it. Exodus

Ratbat's involvement in the preceding events, or events mostly similar, were also chronicled in the comic "Transformers: War for Cybertron."

As the Decepticons raged over the planet, Ratbat negotiated for his survival and became a member of Megatron's army. After the Nemesis departed, Ratbat became commander of the city garrison in Iacon under Shockwave's overall direction. Cowardly and self-serving, Ratbat was of little true use to Shockwave in keeping the peace, but fortunately Shockwave's experiments in social engineering thrived on the chaos Ratbat oversaw in the city.

When a group of Wreckers infiltrated Iacon, Ratbat led a group of Decepticons to capture them at Maccadam's Old Oil House, but was diverted when Omega Supreme began a long-range bombardment of the city as a distraction. Ratbat's fears about reporting his failure to Shockwave became moot when the Space bridge reactivated and the entire planet came under assault by an invasion of Sharkticons. The slimy Ratbat deserted his post at the first sign Iacon was lost, and tracked down the Sharkticon general Tyrannicon to beg for his life and betray the Decepticons. Ratbat led Tyrannicon to the Archives where Shockwave, Alpha Trion and the Wreckers were trying to orchestrate a resistance. Tyrannicon and the Sharkticons would've crushed the Cybertronians then and there if not for Megatron claiming the Sharkticon Matrix back on Aquatron. Tyrannicon's forces ran amok, forcing him and Ratbat to flee. Tyrannicon forced Ratbat to show him the way into Shockwave's tower, at which point he abandoned Ratbat.

A traitor with no allies remaining, it's unclear what Ratbat chose to do after that. Retribution

Games

Transformers: Robots in Disguise mobile game

Robots in Disguise

Toys

Generations

Sadly, a new body did not fit my budget, so I had to borrow Laserbeak's body for a while. Quite infuriating.

• Decepticon Frenzy & Ratbat (Legends Class, 2012)
  • Series / number: 01 / 002
  • Accessories: Disc case

Part of the first wave of Generations Legends Class toys, Ratbat is a redeco and retool of Laserbeak, and transforms from a "data disc" into a bat. He is designed to interact with the Voyager Class Soundwave mold, being capable of storing in and launching out of Soundwave's chest compartment, and features a fully automatic, spring-loaded transformation to bat mode that is triggered when a button on his underside is pressed. He comes with a clear-purple plastic case which can be used to store him in disc mode.

Ratbat has the same "circuit board" pattern as Sunder, but mirrored along its vertical axis.

He was only available in a two-pack with Decepticon Frenzy. The original Laserbeak version of this mold was redecoed into Buzzsaw and Sunder. The Ratbat version of the mold has no Autobot counterpart.

• More information on Ratbat at TFU.info

• Decepticon Data Disc Set (multipack, 2013)
  • Japanese ID number: TG-16
  • Accessories: Disc case

The TakaraTomy version of Ratbat features a darker metallic purple than Hasbro's. As a result of this difference, the Decepticon symbol on Ratbat's head stands out much better, as the Hasbro version's blends into the purple plastic visually. The black paint on the figure is darker than on the Hasbro version. His disc case also features a different shade of purple for the large Decepticon symbol.

He was only available in a four-pack with Frenzy, Rumble, and Ravage.

• More information on the Decepticon Data Disc set at Alfes Toy Blog

Construct-Bots

• Unicron Megatron with Ratbat and Barrage (Triple Team, 2013)

Packaged with the larger Unicron Megatron toy, Ratbat can transform from a bat into a buzzsaw-like weapon. He is also packaged with Barrage.

Like pretty much every Beast Hunters Construct-Bot, Ratbat along with his lowly minions Unicron Megatron and Barrage did not see release in the United States.

• More information on Ratbat at TFU.info

Robots in Disguise (2015)

Virtually every Robots in Disguise (2015) toy in this list has a scannable insignia sticker on it. For Hasbro releases, it temporarily unlocks that toy as a playable character in the Robots in Disguise mobile game, and can only be scanned once per day. TakaraTomy releases simply check that off on their mobile app's collection list. It's honestly quicker and less redundant to say which toys don't have this feature.

Much better.

• Ratbat (Mini-Con, 2015)
  • Accessories: two small blades, two large blades, two sets of spikes, gun, "harpoon"

Part of the second wave of Robots in Disguise single-pack Mini-Cons, Ratbat transforms from a bat into a Cybertronian torpedo. In this mode he is designed to be launched from the Deployer Fracture figure's sidecar. He includes a number of translucent accessories, packaged still on their Decepticon-insignia-shaped sprue, which can be attached to him using tabs and slots. Some of these parts can be combined with others from Beastbox, Sandsting, and Velocirazor to form an energy shark.

His scan-badge is on his beast-mode back, and while it's more accessible in torpedo mode, it's at a bit of an awkward angle to scan while still in-package.

Ratbat was later released in Japan as part of the Transformers Adventure Micron Giveaway starting on December 8, 2015. He was given away for free with the purchase of 3000 yen or more of Adventure products on the TakaraTomy Mall online store. Aside from his faction sicker now being in the Adventure style, the toy is unchanged from its Hasbro release.

This mold was also used to make Psychobat.

• Mini-Con Mega Pack (2016)

Notes

• Ratbat is described as being the Mini-Cons' representative to the Council. So it's not surprising that he's often described as being tiny and scampering. As of the end of the story, he's also the only Mini-Con that is depicted talking, versus communicating in beeps and tones. (Rumble and Frenzy are said to be able to, but use the coded beeps and tones when it's quicker or more efficient.)

Foreign names

• Japanese: Ratbat (ラットバット Rattobatto)
• Mandarin: Shǔbiānfú (Taiwan, 鼠蝙蝠, "Ratbat")