Dave's Hunt for the Decepticons Rant: Deluxe Wave 4 Axor (Lockdown remold) Rescue Ratchet (Autobot Ratchet redeco) Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/DeluxeH4 This is the last gasp of the Hunt for the Decepticons promotion, as the line between the "gold box" movie-style toys and the Generations toys gets progressively more blurred. The upcoming Reveal the Shield subline practically erases that distinction, with toys getting assigned to one trade dress or the other being almost arbitrary (although presumably any War for Cybertron designs will stay firmly in Generations). I didn't actually buy either of these for myself, despite liking both molds when they originally came out. I got 'em for Wonkimus Major, my trading partner in Tokyo (he likes Actionmasters and decided to skip the Autobot Ratchet version and just get the Rescue Ratchet one), although if I see them on $9 sale I might grab one or both for myself anyway. http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotF/DeluxeN2 - both original molds Note, it certainly makes sense to sell these two together, since they share a weapon-stealing trick with their original molds. The other new mold from their wave, Brawn, is getting redeco'ed as Fallback (they lost the Outback trademark) for the first Reveal the Shield wave. CAPSULES Axor: Original mold was recommended. This one has a new head and a near axe hand weapon. It's a good updating of the bounty hunter Actionmaster Axer, and if I weren't already drowning in redecos I'd probably have gotten one for myself on the spot instead of waiting for a sale. Recommended. $11.99 at Toys R Us. Rescue Ratchet: Original mold was recommended, and this is the inevitable red and white redeco. It looks good in vehicle mode, but the color balance in robot mode isn't as good. If you don't have this mold yet, I'd call it roughly equal in quality to the original, but if you already have Autobot Ratchet in this size I'm neutral on adding this redeco to your collection. $11.99 at Toys R Us. RANTS Packaging: Same trade dress as previous Hunt Deluxes, and each has the other as its cosell. The blisters have a small tab on either side taped onto the back, rather than long tabs. DECEPTICON: AXOR Altmode: Hunter Car Licensor: None Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (3) Previous Name Use: None (homage to Axer) Previous Mold Use: RotF Gimmick: Arm converts to axe, can use Rescue Ratchet's gun. Function: Bounty Hunter Motto: "Let's cut to the chase." Unlike most masters of bladed weapons, AXOR could care less about form. He is a whirlwind of destruction, caring only about seeing his enemies in pieces - as long as those pieces are still large enough to claim a bounty on. He especially looks forward to claiming the bounty on AUTOBOT RATCHET - and taking the healer's weapon for himself. STR 9 INT 6 SPD 7 END 9 RNK 8 COUR 8 FRB 7 SKL 9 Avg 7.875 Pretty high-ranking for a bounty hunter, especially since Lockdown has a Rank of 2. Heck, both Axers were only rank 7. Packaging: Two easily-untied rattan strings hold the car into the blister. A little shell is held over the engine block by a rubber band, presumably to keep it from detaching and rattling around inside. Color Swaps: The rubbery plastic is now a sort of desaturated medium blue, black plastic stayed black. The dark gray plastic is split into two batches. If it's part of the car body shell, it's now a medium-light slightly silvery gray. If it's not visible in vehicle mode (well, ignoring from the underside) then it becomes the same desaturated blue as the rubbery plastic. The clear red plastic becomes clear colorless (the lightpiping is either a separate batch or it's painted clear red). The gray rigid plastic frmo Lockdown is likewise two batches, split between a sort of greenish light gold and a slightly bolder antique gold. The ramplate, arm piston and thigh "bones" are the antique gold, while the rest (mostly joints, but also the upper arms) is greenish light gold. Paint Apps: In vehicle mode, the windows are painted gloss black with bluish-silver A-posts. The headlights (the details behind the clear colorless plastic lenses) and most of the engine block are also painted bluish-silver in the "dipped in paint" fashion, and there's a black Decepticon symbol on the hood. The louvres on the rear window and side rear windows are painted a dull faintly metallic red, as are the turn signals, taillights and the gratings on the sides just behind the front wheels. The various spikes are painted dark blue in a decent match with the rubbery plastic of the wheel hubs. In robot mode, that bluish-silver ends up on the pelvis and airbrushed on the top part of the axe. The upper face is regular silver, while the mouth area is painted dull gold. A V-shaped crest on the forehead is painted gloss purple, I suppose it sort of stands in for the missing Dececpticon symbol (the vehicle mode one is split in half between the feet). Mold Changes: The hook weapon has been replaced by an axe weapon reminiscent of the various "crossbow missile" missiles seen on toys like Wolfang, but with more bladey-ness. It has a weird bit of asymmetry at its connection hinge, making me think that they had to lengthen the rivet to prevent it from popping out. Given that the package photo doesn't include this short extension to the hinge, I expect that safety considerations were the reason for the modification. The head has been swapped as well, and we got a preview of it in the instructions for Lockdown. It does look like a movie-fied version of Axer's head, if not as close to the source as movie Lockdown is to TF:A Lockdown. It's rather bigger than Lockdown's head, made of blue plastic with red lightpiping. The molding makes it look like he has a mustache, something that the photoshopped package photo plays up quite a bit. Redneck bounty hunter mustache. Other Notes: While the axe can be folded out in vehicle mode, one of the blades ends up under the front wheel, so no Mad Max action. The engine block fits very loosely in the forearm on the copy I reviewed. It's snug in vehicle mode, so the fault lies in the forearm mold. You know, Lockdown and Axor make for a sort of redneck "bizarro" version of the Lambo twins. Or maybe Dreadnok versions. Overall: It's nice to see more Actionmasters getting some revival love, and it's certainly an appropriate mold for the character with some interesting updating. AUTOBOT: RESCUE RATCHET Altmode: Hummer H2 Licensor: GM Transformation Difficulty: Intermediate (3) Previous Name Use: TF:A, Movie1 (possible others) Previous Mold Use: RotF Gimmick: Launching EMP Blast Missile Function: Medic Motto: "Freeze, or I'll show you one of Highbrow's suggestions for this probe." AUTOBOT RATCHET has years of fighting experience, but there are dozens of ways to improvise in a battle that would never occur to him. Luckily, he's teamed up with HIGHBROW, who can suggest twenty ways to use a laser scalpel to cripple a DECEPTICON - even one as powerful as THE FALLEN. STR 4 INT 9 SPD 6 END 9 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRB 3 SKL 10 Avg 7 "Rescue Ratchet" has become one of the go-to trademarks for redecos of the current "Autobot Ratchet" mold, either a movie mold colored red and white or a non-movie mold colored yellow-green. But a lot of sites that index Transformers just list the character as "Ratchet" and don't play trademark games, so it's a little harder to find if I've missed a reuse. Packaging: Two easily-untied rattan strings hold the vehicle mode in the blister. The missile is in the launcher, but not fully loaded. Color Swaps: Unsurprisingly for such a monochrome toy, the green in Autobot Ratchet is split into many sprues. All of the green parts that become vehicle shell pieces are white on Rescue Ratchet. The head, upper legs and feet become a deep red plastic. The shins and arms become a silvery gray plastic. The dark gunmetal on Autobot Ratchet's torso becomes white, while the silvery gray in the torso, on the gun and on the shoulder joints becomes a bright red. The rubbery plastic is light silvery gray, the clear plastic is a lighter and less-greenish blue, the black of the gun and wheels stays black. Paint Apps: In vehicle mode, they've cleverly added a bit of blue paint to the roof rack hinge to make it (along with the red plastic in the middle) look like blue and red roof lights. There's a red stripe along the bottom of each door which then angles up and straightens out over the rear wheel. "RESCUE" is left unpainted at the rear of the stripe. There's also a red Autobot symbol on the center of the hood, and red taillights. The main headlights are gold, but the central trio of lights is unpainted. The tubework on the rear rack and around the rear corners is painted silver, not a great match with the rubbery light gray plastic. The bottom lip of the rear bumper is painted matte black. Loads of paint in robot mode, mostly white. White paint is added to the thighs, calves, toes and chin to make this mode look more white on balance. The face is gunmetal and the tops of the feet are black. Mold Changes: None that I noticed, although the white plastic of the abdomen lets you see a lot more of the details there. Other Notes: Making the arms silver lets them avoid having to paint the right forearm's rollbar pieces, although the rubbery plastic is a little lighter than the hard plastic, so there's not quite a match. Overall: Well, it's a pretty good shot at the G1 color scheme, but the robot mode is just a bit too weirdly color-balanced to work, what with the random red bits and hte gray arms. It's a good mold, mind you, and if you passed on the mold earlier because you can't stand the chartreuse of the regular movie Ratchet I'd suggest getting this version. But I doubt I'll get a copy for myself...I already have several red and white redecos of movie Ratchets (Voyager, Legends), and the novelty has worn off. Dave Van Domelen, wrote this review while home with a cold, but did not cough on the toys. Well, he's pretty sure he didn't.