Got my MP Ratchet today. He's nice. Not much to say about him, because he's still just the MP Ironhide mold at his core, but that mold is still awesome to me. No noticible signs of degradation or anything, but that wouldn't really be there with only the second use of the mold. He's as tight as Ironhide was.
I've seen some complaints about the face sculpt elsewhere, and in person I really dig it. It looks like Ratchet to me. It still feels like the cranky old medic jumped off the screen. He's got a fantastic set of accessories just like Ironhide and they feel well tailored to his personality.Colors are all really nice and crisp as well.
Only things to note are his shoulders and arms look really bland without the stickers. Takara has offered 2 sets of stickers here. Crosses with autobot logos on them and crosses with squares. They can't offer the original crosses for obvious reasons, but it's easy to cut the cross shape out of the set with corner squares and give it the traditional look if you desire. I don't think the autobot logo ones look bad, but I prefer the cartoon accurate plain crosses in the end.
One funny thing is his lightbar can actually be pushed down into the top of his van for some reason. I'm not sure why you'd do it and it's not necessary for transformation, but if you want Ratchet as just a plain white van, the option's there for you. Also interesting that he lacks any sort of Nissan badges or logos like Ironhide had even though he's still a licensed product.
Overall, great use of a great mold. The Van Brothers mold is still my favorite release of the year and Ratchet looks just as awesome if not better than his brother.
