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G1 Red Cross anime Ratchet

Uploaded by: seekerjet
Video Description:
This is my G1 Red Coss anime Ratchet. It's based on the TakaraTomy Encore reissue Ratchet. The changes from the standard Ratchet:
- Red Cross symbols on the roof and side of the vehicle like the 1984 Ratchet figure. In robot mode, the crosses will be on his shoulders as seen in the TV-show
- I bought the BestToys Ratchet & Ironhide set of heads
A special thanks to jeditallica A.K.A. Mike/mikesgtrs. I was looking for custom Ratchet/Ironhide heads months ago but they were produced by an enthusiast in small numbers, thus the price of $100 on eBay. Mike found out BestToys began producing and selling them. They can produce these custom heads in huge quantities, thus the affordable price of $15 each set in consumer packaging.
The toy figure's default looks differ a lot from the cartoon character. The toy figure has it's head behind the windshield with a tribal-like sticker to resemble his face. A lot of kids in the 80's, including myself, were quite surprised when they saw what the toy figure of Ratched looked like. Since they always posed him on his station in the catalogues and the early comics that I read (obviously, I didn't read all of them), I thought his body was stuck to the station. TakaraTomy is known for doing their best to reissue G1 figures with cartoon-accurate color schemes. They couldn't do anything about Ratchet's overall appearance though. To make it up to the fans, they made cut-out cardboard heads on the box. Even though it looks cheap, it does work a little bit. I wasn't satisfied and wanted to either buy custom heads or make my own. I'm glad that one of those 3rd party toy manufacturers, BestToys, decided to produce them.
In order to make his arms not look like gorilla arms hanging on his hips, you need to turn them upside-down to mimic more proportioned arms. Since the original '84 figure had variations with the red crosses on the back of his hands, it turned out well because I can use that for his shoulders. One problem that remains is the huge blocks on his lower arms, but overall it's still better than the original mode of the figure.
In the first lineup of the Ratchet toy release in 1984, the figure had a large Red Cross symbol on the roof of the vehicle. Some variations also had the symbols on the side. Only a couple of years ago, the Red Cross organisation didn't appreciate the use of their symbols in toys and computer games so the symbols weren't allowed anymore in the production of toys. For some reason, Hasbro stopped using the Red Cross symbol on Ratchet after the very first batch of the figure in 1984. I really like the design of huge logo on the vehicle and his shoulders. Therefore, I decided to paint them myself. There are still some red smudges on the inner edges of the roof cross. They're quite deep into the plastic so I can't sand them. I guess I'll paint away those stains using white paint.
Sorry for my hands to be so rough in this video. I worked with quite some chemicals the past days and I washed them too often to get rid of the toxic stuff =)
There are variations of the box art of Ratchet. There's box art in which Ratchet has the Red Cross symbol on the palm of his left hand. In my TakaraTomy Encore reissue version, it's been removed. This Encore version does have half of the Red Cross on the vehicle's roof on the box art because half of the symbol is still not the same as the cross itself. It's obvious that TakaraTomy did try to "save" what's left of the original artwork without getting into trouble.
Ratchet's station wasn't seen often in the TV-show. The most memorable moment for me was when Ratchet and his station transformed in the very first episode of the series. The artists/animators did recreate the station to resemble the toy station. Ratchet was one of the most helpful characters in the series. After the 1986 movie, he disappeared and First Aid took his place.
If you're going to buy this figure or if you already own him, I really recommend getting the custom heads by BestToys.

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