Well, that title is a bit of a word salad, eh? Anyways, here's a look at the Paradron Medics set that's recently been released!

(This is also my first review, so please bear with me!)

Lifeline

A redeco of Arcee, Lifeline comes in a nice shade of mint green, and what would appear to be more paint apps than her moldmate. Her face, and car mode pick up some extra paint which definitely help her visual appeal.

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Robot mode definitely looks good enough, despite the backpack. Lots of points of articulation all over, but I find she's not that fun to pose. The knees don't hold up her weight (what little of it there is - she's light!) very well, so she tends to flop a bit. The ankle tilt is a bit compromised, being either straight, or tilted all the way over. I'm not sure if that can be remedied at all. The head seems to just more or less swivel. At least the arms can do an awful lot.

Transformation, as we've all heard with Arcee by now, is not the most fun or satisfying endeavour. Lifeline just folds up underneath the shell of the car, and doesn't really peg into anything. Fortunately, the various robot bits can be tucked into place, but it takes effort, with some trial and error tossed in. I'm not even entirely sure that I've gotten it right, but at least she sits on all four wheels in vehicle mode, so that seems like it's on the right track. At least the shell can be massaged into place, though YMMV.

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The vehicle mode still looks like a bar of soap to me, but in hand, it's not as bad as it initially looked. The rear antenna came right off on the first transform, but since I seated it back into its attachment point, it's been solid.

Overall, I'd say she's just okay. Time will tell if I warm up to her more.


Ratchet

Now, this is why most of us likely bought this set (as it was the case for me). Having owned the Siege version from last year, I was happy when it was announced that this version was heavily remolded, as it was a solid base to work from.

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In robot mode, Ratchet is predominantly cast in white, highlighted with red accents, grey fists and headcrest, and pale blue clear plastic for the windows. It does come off a bit plain, and I can see a few enterprising individuals adding the missing red paint to the waist and hands, to match the classic G1 model. That's beyond my abilities, so I'll be leaving it as such, which will be just fine.

In terms of articulation, it's on par with the Siege mold, and the joints are all nice and tight. Ratchet can pose very well and is solid.

One thing to note, that the windshield on my copy was slightly misaligned, so it takes a little bit of extra effort to align it with the tabs on the chest. They peg in nice and solid all the same, though.

Transformation is very similar to that of Siege Ratchet, with the big difference being the new roof panel, which pegs in at four different points, so it stays and holds everything together well.

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The blaster can also peg in underneath to store in this mode. There are various pegs and ports all over it, and I'm sure there will be a few third party options to turn it into the battle sled that it does evoke

I do have a leg panel that pops off, much like my copy of Siege Ironhide. A minor nuisance at most, which I'll look at resolving.

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Vehicle mode is a mixed bag. From the front, it definitely looks the part, with design cues to the classic Nissan design. The sides also pick up earth vehicle details like door handles and windows.

However, on the downside, this mode retains the Cybertronian wheels, the feet hanging off the back, and the shoulders that protrude out of the sides. It will be your tolerance of this that will make or break the experience for you. I think there will be solutions out there as time goes on in order to remedy some of that. It is a shame, though, that Hasbro couldn't have tweaked the design a bit more to mitigate these issues.

At the end of the day, though, this is the first dedicated Earth-mode Ratchet that we've got since Universe 2.0, and it's definitely feels like a step forward to me. If you're a fan of Ratchet, then definitely endeavour to get this figure!

 

Pretty good for a first review.

 

The backpack on my Lifeline refuses to peg together no matter what

 

What? I don't see it...




 

 

I still can't believe they just left the exposed shoulders, feet, and Cybertronian wheels. What a half-assed attempt at an Earth mode Ratchet and Ironhide. Combined with the lazy roof "shield" and the grey hands, it's obvious they didn't even try.

What a waste.

 

Mine just came today.

 

Agreed about the feet, sort of neutral about the shoulders (I think they just need paint, they don't seem to jut out far enough to be a drawback tbh), but disagree about the roof "shield". Even MP Ironhide, and by proxy Ratchet had a "battle sled", which you can actually still do with his "roof". And while personally I would have gone a different route, it fits considering they're going for a G1 aesthetichere. Plus they had to make the vehicles taller than their Siege counterparts, since Ironhide and Ratchet's vehicle modes have always looked like that.

So not really a waste.

I think the feet should be the focal point here. I'm sure they could have made it some sort of flip-around deal that would give him a proper back.

Also I think he should have come with medical tools. Or at least recolors of the tools his Siege mold came with.

 

Lifeline has more paint on the head and side of car compared to Arcee. However, as mentioned in the other threads, there's an obvious factory error where they did too much and painted the front helmet the same as the face making it look awkward. It's fixable, though.

 

I don’t think that’s a factory error, that just looks like her face to me.

 

Oh, it's definitely an error.



There's no media or Arcee mold figure with a painted face that includes the obvious front of the helmet:


It's a unique error, I'll say. If it doesn't bother people, that's fine. If it does, then hobby / craft cotton swabs and 90% isopropyl alcohol will fix it. There's some stray bits of gray paint on my ER Arcee car shell that I'm removing at the moment with IPA.

Posted this in another thread:
First, make sure forearms are tucked away between the tabs and the sides of the car shell.


There's 6 areas to look out for. The double knee joint has to go inward a little bit for everything to fit (arrows). The knee joints fit into grooves (better seen in the last pic). The outer white knee tabs go under the pink tabs. The ankle joints also go under the pink tabs.


Grooves for the knee joints.


Now there should be (barely) enough clearance to roll.

 

I think the point here is that, while the face paint may not match the visual media, it's not a "factory" error in that the toy was always intended to look that way, as all previous photos of the toy show the head/face painted the same way. It might not be the 'right' way in some people's preference, but it's technically a 'decision', possibly an erroneous decision, but not apparently a factory-level error.

 

I highly recommend these wheel upgrades:

Earthrise Ironhide/Ratchet TIRE UPGRADE KIT | eBay

 

Well, whatever you want to call it, it's still a mistake. Production sample photos showing a mistake does not mean it's automatically ok or intended...it just shows no one caught or cared to fix the error before mass production. Hasbro has a long history of QC issues and this is not surprising.

 

I mean, it doesn’t, since they’re going for toon accuracy, and that one time notwithstanding, the battle sleds weren’t in the cartoon. So it does not fit.

They didn’t give them shield because they wanted them to have shields, they gave them shield out of laziness because they’re retools that transform in such a way that makes it difficult to add the vanette roof. There’s no other reason. The shields don’t even look like the battle sleds, they lack the treads. They’re just planks of plastic lazily plastered on to get around actually re-engineering them.

If they actually made the roofs turn into the old battle platforms of the G1 toys I’d buy it, but no, it’s just lazy parts forming that still results in a shitty alt mode.

Definitely a waste. The ER vanette’s are shitty, incomplete retools that parts form and still don’t have convincing alt modes. They’re a complete failure at both transformation and alt mode integrity.

If these toys were released ten years ago they’d be mocked relentlessly. I have no idea how standards dropped so low at Hasbro.

 

I'm digging the ER vans.

 

You know, I was going to mention Irish Spring specifically, too...  

Now that you mention it, I think I referenced your pictures, along with the Chefatron review, as someone else mentioned somewhere, too. So, yeah, I do have Lifeline lined up very similarly at this point now (learning a bit more with each transformation). So thanks for that guide for the rest of us!  

I would make the counterargument that if these were lazily designed, the roof panels would have been just a simple shell piece to plop on the top, but there was an effort made here, between the sliding thruster mechanism, the four pegs to attach to the figures' arms, the weapon storage, and the hinge mechanisms to fold in the window panels. Within the budgetary limitations of the deluxe class, that's all they could really do. The designers also made sure to add enough ports on the outside so that folks could add in those missing treads if they so chose (I managed to do that just for fun with my Centurion Drone). All in all, I do feel that it's the best possible outcome that probably could have occurred.

I also don't agree that these would be soundly mocked if they came out in Universe 2.0, instead of now. There would be legitimate criticisms of the vehicle mode against that of the Lambos and Datsuns from the line, but they would also be praised for their success in being actual robots that evoke their characters, unlike the actual van twins we did get, which had their engineering botched. Out of the two choices, I know which one I would have (easily) picked.

 

My dude I'm sorry, and I get why something being a separate piece may bother you, but again I need to bring up MP Ironhide and Ratchet. They were SUPER focusing on the cartoon look, and they still had a battle sled-like construct in their design. And theirs didn't even have the benefit of turning into a shield.

If you want failure, look at the Ironhide that we DID get 10 years ago. THAT one was incredibly poorly engineered, an unfortunate mash of G1 Ironhide and what seemed to be live action movie elements mixed in, but instead of a cohesive bot mode combined with a decent vehicle mode we got... Well, there is a whole thread about it I imagine.

This vehicle is coherant except for the aforementioned feet. The roof might not have been my choice but I fully understand why they chose what they did. And I think it fits him as a shield, as Ironhide has had a long standing tradition of being a tough bastard. A tank without being a... Well, tank.

So no, I don't think it is a waste. And I think a shield (or in Ratchets case, a impromptu surgical bed) is a lot better than an ungodly large backpack that you can't detach.

But I think this is one of those "agree to disagree" situations, so take it as you will.

 

Unpopular opinion perhaps but, I prefer the ambitious failure of the Universe Ironhide/Ratchet mold that at least attempted a modern van mode and robot without the shortcuts that the ER mold takes.

That said, I'm still buying this set and will probably plop another $20+ for whoever designs new feet and wheels for Ratchet :/

 

Not gonna disagree.
I have Ironhide, and while the bot mode is just ok, and it poses well... the alt mode just plain sucks.

Hasbro could DEFINITELY done way the heck better with the Van Bros.

Im not one who often says ‘lazy Hasbro’, but this is one of those rare times I do.

It is my hope... razor thin to non-existent chance... that SS86 gives us better Ironhide, Ratchet and Optimus.

 

Now this I definitely agree with. At the SS level of engineering we could definitely get better.