Ratchet (G1)
| This article is about the Generation 1 Autobot ambulance. For the Universe Autobot emergency-response SUV, see Ratchet (TFU). |
Ratchet is the Autobots' Chief Medical Officer. If something's broke, he can fix it. Ratchet is known for his irreverent bedside manner; he loves having a good time, and his party-loving nature has given him a dry wit. He attaches little importance to his job, though this does not detract from the quality of his work, and believes he is expendable. Optimus Prime has trouble convincing Ratchet that this is far from the truth.
Although he's a healer, Ratchet often finds himself on the front lines of combat, and even on occasion the last hope the Autobots have. These pressures are sometimes too much for him to handle, but Ratchet ultimately never gives up.
Spanish name: Mécano
Fiction
Marvel Comic continuity
Shortly after arriving on Earth, Sparkplug Witwicky suffered a heart attack, so Ratchet drove Sparkplug and his son Buster to the hospital. It was during this leave that Shockwave freed himself from his four million year sleep and completely wiped out the fuel-deprived Autobot forces with one blast.
Ratchet soon discovered, to his horror, that he was the last Autobot still functional on Earth, up against the entire Decepticon army. Covertly invading the Ark, he discovered that even the mighty Optimus Prime had fallen. However, Prime's head, though detached, still functioned, and the Autobot Commander told Ratchet that he must rise up to meet this challenge. Ratchet did not believe he could; he was not a warrior but a healer.
Still, Ratchet tried. Shockwave had returned in full strength and deposed the mighty Megatron. In his weakened state, Megatron could not hope to defeat Shockwave and reclaim his leadership, but Ratchet approached him with a possible solution. Ratchet knew how Shockwave had fallen 4 million years ago, and struck a deal -- if Ratchet could defeat Shockwave, Megatron would relinguish Decepticon control of the Ark and its wrecked Autobot inhabitants.
Ratchet journeyed to the Savage Land, where the Dinobots had fought Shockwave to a stalemate, leaving all dormant in a tarpit prison. He dug up the Dinobots and repaired them. Soon after, he met with Megatron on a snowy ski slope, and announced that he had fulfilled his half of the bargain. Shockwave was defeated. Megatron, of course, went back on his part of the deal and threatened to kill Ratchet. Ratchet declared that he knew all along Megatron would not hold his end of the bargain, admitted that he had not, in fact, defeated Shockwave. The Dinobots sprung up out of the snow surrounding Megatron, and fought him, but did not succeed. Megatron now stood alone, triumphant, mocking Ratchet and his lack of a warrior's edge. With nothing to lose, Ratchet charged Megatron, but he was ineffectual. However, the charge had loosened the ground on which Megatron stood, and the Decepticon leader fell off the cliffside and disappeared.
Wrath of Guardian
The Mechanic
When an Underbase-powered Starscream decimated the Earthbound Autobot forces, Ratchet was left with the monumental task of repairing them. During a period of work-induced stress, he began to hallucinate visions of his patients attacking him and accusing him of being worthless. It was during this time that the Decepticon [Sports Car Patrol], posing as Autobots, offered to help transport Ratchet to Cybertron, where he could have access to new medical technology that had been created during his 4 million-year absence on Earth. He and three of the Sports Car Patrol took the bodies of Grimlock, Jazz, and Goldbug with him, though Ratchet was curious why Blackjack stayed behind on the Ark. Ratchet's concerns were answered when, upon arrival on Cybertron, he saw the believed-to-be-deceased Megatron standing before him, who had orchestrated the entire scheme.
Megatron brought Ratchet the remains of Starscream. He demanded Ratchet repair him while Blackjack held the Ark and its medical bay inhabitants hostage. Ratchet agreed, and he used Pretender technology to repair Starscream while secretly repairing Grimlock, Jazz, and Goldbug as well. After Pretender Starscream was sent to Earth, Megatron sought out Ratchet to kill him. Ratchet sprung his surprise on Megatron, but Megatron and his Micromasters were too powerful for them. The Pretenders and Micromasters' battle wandered outside the Decepticon base, and Ratchet was left alone. Sacrificing his life, Ratchet warped the bombs Blackjack had put on the Ark into the Decepticon base in an attempt to kill both he and Megatron. Megatron tried to escape through the warp portal, but Ratchet tackled him, and the base exploded.
Optimus Prime was devastated by the loss of Ratchet. He assigned the detective Nightbeat to investigate Ratchet's death, who hypothesized that Ratchet could possibly still be alive. There was an initial blast which could have knocked Ratchet into the portal and into Unspace, a netherworld between the warp portal's starting and ending points. A probe was sent to retrieve him, and it succeeded -- but it also brought back Megatron, who was fused with Ratchet as a single, monstrous being. The Ratchet/Megatron creature rampaged through the Ark, wounding several Autobots, but Optimus Prime would not let them harm it. This put Optimus Prime in an awkward position -- was the life of Ratchet worth the possible loss of his other troops? The creature fought his way into the engine rooms and began tearing stuf apart, and Prime's choice was made for him. The creature must be stopped. Prime fought Ratchet/Megatron to a standstill, and, alarmingly, the part that was Ratchet took control, and pulled Prime's gun to his own forehead, pleading for the Autobot Commander to put him out of his misery.
In an unpopular decision, Optimus Prime ordered Fixit to separate Megatron and Ratchet, even if it meant saving Megatron. Bonded at a molecular level, neither could survive without the other, even when separated.
Animated continuity
Voice actor: Don Messick, Wally Burr (US), x (Japan)
Ratchet served as chief medical officer on the Ark before and after it crashed on Earth and stranded the Autobots and Decepticons there. In addition to patching up his fellow warriors whenever someone (usually Megatron) had roughed them up a little, Ratchet was also in charge of helping whenever Wheeljack had another invention in the making. Working together, the two Autobots built and designed the Dinobots more or less from scratch - and did not do a pretty bad job, considering they were working with substandard materials. Ratchet was also responsible for saving Optimus Prime's life, performing a daring surgery on the Autobot leader while subjected to attacks by Laserbeak. When Skyfire refused to assassinate the Autobots and was gunned down by Starscream, it was Ratchet who reconstructed the giant Decepticon scientist and gave him the chance to reform.
Ratchet's greatest strength, unfortunately, also led to his downfall. While piloting a secret mission to Autobot City in order to gather a stockpile of energon, Ratchet and his allies were attacked by Megatron. In the middle of the fighting, Ratchet was distracted when his comrade Ironhide was struck down. Lowering his guard, Ratchet himself was then shot repeatedly and left for dead on the floor of the shuttle as the Decepticons continued with their attack on Autobot City. Ratchet's corpse was recovered after the battle, and left to lie in state aboard a funeral satellite with all of the other Autobots who fell that day. Sadly, it was not Ratchet's fate to rest in peace: his body was destroyed along with the rest of the satellite when it was obliterated during an attack by Galvatron.
Timelines: Descent into Evil
Years after the Decepticon and Autobot Wars have ended, Ratchet and five other Autobots are sent to Ceti Alpha Seven to destroy General Deathsaurus' Insecticon clone lab and stop his planned Decepticon uprising. After a team of four (consisting of Fallback, Chromia, Flareup, and Ricochet) fail, Ratchet and Ironhide follow to help. After battling swarms of Virulent Clones and Buzzclaw, they finally meet up with Deathsaurus himself. Ironhide stays to fight the general, and Ratchet separates to find their fallen friends. Ratchet manages to gather the fallen and escape as the clone lab is destroyed.
Dreamwave Comics continuity
8.4 million years ago, Ratchet accompanied Optimus Prime, Prowl, and red Alert to the Sub-Orbital District of Iacon, whoch had been devastated after Megatron activated the planetary engines. He found no life signs in the entire blast radius.
1.4 million years later, Ratchet remained with the Prowl-led Autobots after Optimus Prime disappeared in a space bridge explosion. He repaired Skids after he was damaged in a battle with Trypticon.
Ratchet was among the crew of the Ark when it crashed on Earth, and awoke in 1984 to battle the Decepticons. After years of fighting, Ratchet and the other Autobots took part in Operation Liberation in 1998, a joint human/Autobot operation that defeated and captured the Earth-bound Decepticons. However, the Ark II, which was meant to convey the Autobots, the captured Decepticons, and a number of humans back to Cybertron was sabotaged by General Robert Hallo, sending Ratchet and his comrades to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Years later, Ratchet was recovered by the sinister Lazarus, who had recovered and reprogrammed a number of Transformers for his nefarious ends. However, when Megatron broke free of Lazarus' control, he hooked Ratchet and a number of other Autobots up to a device that generated a deadly 'metal virus'. Soon after, Optimus Prime detached Ratchet and the others from the doomsday device.
Repaired by his comrades, Ratchet took part in a battle in the Canadian Arctic with the Decepticons over possession of a crashed spacecraft containing Scourge. As the Autobots overwhelmed their foes, Shockwave arrived on the planet and gave them an ultimatum; surrender and return to a newly-unified Cybertron, or be destroyed. The Autobots returned to the Ark, where Optimus Prime assigned Ratchet to a Jazz-led team that was to remain on Earth. After Shockwave's lieutenant Ultra Magnus took Prime and others back to Cybertron, Ratchet and Wheeljack remained at the Ark as Jazz, Brawn, and Windcharger attempted to locate Scourge and his ship.
Devil's Due G.I.Joe vs Transformers
IDW Generation 1 Comics
The Autobots and Decepticons had waged a secret, hidden war successfully on Earth for many years. This all changed when, during an undercover mission, Ratchet revealed himself to three humans -- Verity Carlo, Hunter O'Nion, and Jimmy Pink -- in the course of saving their lives. This action subjected Ratchet to the wrath of Prowl for breaking procedure, who threatened disciplinary action. Ratchet defended his breach of protocol, citing his pledge to safeguard all life. He was seemingly alone in his convinctions, until Bumblebee agreed to help him and the humans investigate an abandoned Decepticon bunker in Nebraska.
Toys
Generation 1
- Ratchet (1984/1999/2001)
- Japanese ID number: 99
- Ratchet was originally a Onebox Ambulance Type toy from Takara's Diaclone line before Hasbro brought Transformers to North America. The toy transformed from an ambulance to a robot and gun-station. A variant of the toy included red crosses on the top and sides of the vehicle. Ratchet and his retool/redeco buddy Ironhide, like all Diaclones, were designed to be piloted mecha, which is why he has a seat instead of a head. The Transformers version applied a face sticker to the back of the seat in lieu of a real sculpted noggin.
- In 2001, he was reissued in Japan as an e-Hobby exclusive, paired with Ironhide. It is worth noting that Ratchet was originally only available as a mail-away during the original Japanese run.
Timelines
- Autobot Ratchet & Flareup (2005)
- One of two "souvenir" packages exclusive to BotCon 2005, Ratchet is a retooling of the Energon Autobot Tow-Line with a new head, transforming into a large utility van. In robot mode, his lower vehicle portion becomes a mobile battle/repair platform. The mold's standard "receiver dish" weapon was not produced; instead he came with a new "light bar" tah pegged onto his roof in much the same manner. He cold only be purchased along with Flareup.
Merchandise
A non-transformable PVC figurine of Ratchet was made for "Act 6" of Takara's Super Collection Figure line, a slight retooling of the Ironhide PVC with a new head and "gun"-hand (even though Ironhide's pelvis in animation was not the same as Ratchet's). He was placed in blind-packed boxes, and along with full-color versions, an all-pewter-finish version was made as well in equal numbers.
For the Hasbro Heroes of Cybertron version of SCF, Ratchet was cast entirely in clear-blue plastics then painted over completely, so a patch of unpainted plastic at the back of his would woudl emulate the light piping effect of previous toys. He was part of the fifth and final wave of Heroes of Cybertron, and came with the right leg to the "build-a-bot" large PVC of Metroplex.
Trivia
- Bob Budiansky has said that he named Ratchet after the less friendly medico Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
External Links
