Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Encore’

My Ratchet Collection

April 25th, 2012 3 comments

“You break it, I’ll remake it.” Any TransFan worth his energon can immediately identify which legendary TF this motto belongs to. As the Autobot’s chief medical officer and primary physician, Ratchet is a major character across all Transformers universes. As far as I know, he made an appearance in every TF continuity. And more often than not, Ratchet plays a major role as part of the core group of Autobots belonging to Optimus Prime’s inner circle. This is seen in G1, the Movie-verse, TF Animated, TF Prime, and the TF War For Cybertron video game. Always a healer first, Ratchet is most often seen tending to comrades wounded in battle. However, Ratchet does possess decent fighting abilities, and is not afraid to get his hands dirty in a fight when the situation requires it. Ratchet is a favorite of comic writer Simon Furmon. In both the original US G1 Marvel comics and the IDW G1 reboot, Ratchet has a significant part to play in the fight against the Decepticons. His courage and loyalty is unquestioned.

So it goes without saying that I would have many figures of such an iconic character in the TF Universe. Below are some pics of all the Ratchets in my collection.

Front row (left to right): TF Animated Activator, TF Animated Deluxe (Earth mode), TF Animated Deluxe (Cybertron mode), TF Prime Deluxe, Universe Deluxe. Back row (left to right): Movie 1 Voyager, ROTF Deluxe, DOTM Deluxe.

Same Ratchets in robot mode

G1 Encore

For the group pics, I put all the Movie-verse Ratchets in the back, and all other Ratchets in the front. As I compiled all my Ratchets together, it dawned on me that I have exactly one Ratchet from each Bay movie. The DOTM deluxe figure is probably my favorite out of the 3 that I have. I also forgot I have 3 Ratchets from TF Animated. Believe it or not, the Activator figure is the first TF Animated figure that I bought. He came with Sunstorm in a Target exclusive 2-pack. That’s why I even have him, since normally I wouldn’t buy Activator figures. I found that 2-pack for $5 BTW. As for the Deluxe Animated figures, they’re both quite good. I really liked the Universe figure when I first got him. But now that I’m looking at him again years later, that head-looking-down issue is bugging me. Still, he’s not a bad update for the CHUG line. And last but not least, there is the TF Prime Deluxe Ratchet. This Ratchet is really well built and the design is brilliant. He’s probably my favorite Ratchet out of the whole bunch. At this time he’s readily available in mass retail. Grab him if you see one.

The only unopened Ratchet I have is the G1 Encore figure. To this day, I have not played with G1 Ratchet or any of its re-issues. Same goes for G1 Ironhide. So I have no idea how this figure transforms. Hardcore G1-ers like myself know that this figure does not come with a real head. I think maybe one of these days, I will open the Encore figure and finally check out how good (or bad) this iconic G1 figure really is.

Transforming all these Ratchets to take the pics was a good exercise. I kinda forgot how to transform some of the figures. But none of them are too tough to figure out. This was a good refresher for me. I actually think that Universe Ratchet is the most difficult out of this bunch, but other TransFans may disagree.

I also noticed that I didn’t buy doubles of any Ratchets. That’s weird. I kinda wish I bought more Universe Ratchets. The value of this figure has gone up considerably.

Until next time, Transform and Roll Out!

Categories: Pics

Encore G1 Devastator Giftset Reissue and Hercules Exgraver

June 16th, 2011 4 comments

Oh happy day! News broke that the G1 Devastator giftset will be re-released in the Encore line. This is finally my chance to get my hands on a complete set of the G1 Constructicons. Release is set for late 2011. MSRP will be around 10500 yen, roughly $130 US today.

I mentioned before that I am on a quest to acquire all the G1 Combiner teams. This brings me one step closer to that dream. Getting a complete G1 Devastator would have costed me an arm and a leg. Now that this set is on the horizon, I might get some of those custom Devastator parts by Crazy Devy. They’re not cheap though. Even at Botcon they were not being sold for any kind of discount. All the parts added together will easily surpass the cost of the giftset.

For the full story, click here.

In related news, the 3rd party Scavenger figure that I reported in my last post is now up for pre-order at your favorite online TF retailers (you know what they are). This product is being called Hercules Exgraver. I’m guessing Hercules is Devastator and Exgraver is Scavenger.

Here’s the pic I took at Botcon:

Another color image:

MSRP of this figure is right below $100. The obvious conclusion here is that this Devastator set will be $600, if they really make all 6. Am I hardcore enough to buy them? Only time will tell.

Dinobots and Constructicons were rivals in G1. At Voyager size, this Constructicons set will even give Masterpiece Grimlock a run for his money. “Prepare for Extermination!”

Constructicons… Transform and Roll Out!

Categories: Pics, TF News