When Takara Tomy announced Transformers Masterpiece MP-27 Ironhide everyone knew that the Autobot medic Ratchet wasn't far behind. So it came as no surprise to anyone when Nippon-Yassan started taking pre-orders on the unofficially announced figure designated as MP-30. Thankfully this means he's a full fledged mass retail release and not an exclusive as some had feared after what they did with Ramjet.
He also isn't a straight repaint. Ratchet features a new head with swapable expressions, some new body parts, and a bunch of new weapons. He still includes that sled thing for weapon storage so that's great. All of the new weapons appeared in the original cartoon, original animated movie, or the original figure. Honestly I think Ratchet looks much better than Ironhide and I'm looking forward to his release.
Ratchet is expected to come out around April which actually is a bit of a surprise. We've gone years with only a few MP releases a year, but now Takara Tomy has really opened the flood gates. Just in the upcoming releases we've got Tracks for November (out now), Road Rage for December, Ironhide for January, Hot Rod (and the Ultra Magnus rerelease) for February, Shockwave for March, and Ratchet for April. Phew, that's a lot in short time!
On a side note I really wish they would have held off on using the designation MP-30. You see, 2016 is the 30th anniversary of the animated Transformers movie so it would have been perfect to have a movie figure take the 30 spot. Too bad.
[via Seibertron]
Following the reveal in the early hours of Friday morning, we already have some new looks at Masterpiece Ratchet, which was on display alongside Ironhide at a venue in Japan. Of note, the sample seen here lacks the "medical" variation Autobot logo details on the shoulders, likely due to being a fully hand painted piece and not indicating those elements will be missing from the final released figure. Click through and take a look at the new images!
