KO Ratchet with Takara Ironhide and Grapple.

 

Beautiful wrist stripes. How did you get those so clean? Have we had this conversation before?

 

Lol possibly.
Hobby shop pinstripe kit by Testors.

 

Yes! I remember the conversation. I look forward to asking you again in a year.

 

I love my KO Ratchet and Ironhide but have no basis to compare them to the original. That being said I busted the hinge for the side panel that folds to the back of the leg on Ratchet transforming it back to van mode; it was stuck and several parts of the transformation do require some force so I thought that was the issue. I don’t know if that is a KO problem or an issue with the transformation, but the other leg folds back and forth no problem.

 

It's a KO issue I have the same issue with my KO Ratchet. That panel on one leg is really stiff and mine doesn't quite fit flush. On my official Ironhide, those panels move with ease.

 

I like him. Some parts were initially stiff, but they loosened up after a half dozen or so transformations.

 

Does anyone have a junker mp ratchet that they would be interested in donating or selling for parts? I'm in need of a right leg!

 

I just got this guy today, and boy of boy did a moron assemble mine, here were my issues:

1- They took absolutely no time at all to get rid of any of the flashing from the sprue marks. I must of taken over 45 minutes just cleaning up those with a razor blade. The unfortunate part is not all the piece are flush because they were assembled with the excess sprue plastic. It's not horrible, but it is annoying.
2- The windshield chest piece was pinned on the wrong hole so it wasn't aligning correctly at all. How the dumb ass thought you were supposed to pin in the other hole is beyond me. Luckily I am not a stranger to knocking out pins and such. So I knocked out the pin (which was broken!) and repinned it back together.
3- I created a "tool" get out the part out of the bumper and worked that back and forth MANY TIMES. Now I can pull out that part rather easily during transformation.
4- I was able to work the heels free using an extremely thin and small screw driver. Once I did that I shaved a lot of access plastic around the screw and such. I did it until I was able to get the proper clearance. That is part of the problem there. The other part is that it's tight on the pin. So I worked that back and forth MANY TIMES as well. So now that part is able to easily transform.
5- The figure had A LOT of dirt marks, paint over oversprays and even a red line of paint randomly on his leg. All those came off rather easily using an rubbing alcohol swab.

Two things I have yet been able to fix are:
1- The arm door panel where the window is, is slightly bent. Yet again the rocket scientist who put this together didn't bother clipping off the excess sprue plactic then he went to drive a pin through the area. It bent that piece all out of shape. It's only slightly visible, but you can tell it's warped.
2- Does anyone know how to take apart his head? I have a thicker then normal line down the middle. Yet again, I am 100% sure it is because the village idiot who put this together couldn't take the extra second to get rid of the excess plastic from the sprues. So I am sure if I was able to get the head apart I can make that extremely flush.

All in all, even though my version was a cluster fuck and a half, I would still highly recommend this KO. I think I just had extremely bad luck having the factory idiot put mine together. If you had a component worker who spent 2 extra second cleaning off the plastic and paying attention, I could see others getting a very good version. I got mine for $30 shipped, which is pretty much the price of a Voyager shipped. It really is a no brainer.

Just a bit of warning though, as you may need to do some work on it.

 

Mine has the issue with tight heels/bumpers that won’t budge and the grill under his windscreen won’t swivel. There is a yellowy nature to some of the whites and there is a small amount of overspray red on white.

My genuine mp ironhide is far superior but that’s the KO lottery for you... he’s ok for the money.

 

It took me a few transformations to get those heel bumpers to move smoothly. A spudger really helps to loosen them up.

A spudger also helps to swivel the grill under the windshield. Push down on it from the top with a spudger (while he is half transformed). That should do it. If not, you may need to take him apart and loosen him up by hand. The parts may be stuck by dried paint.

 

@CigarJackal: spudger trick worked a treat on the heels but still no joy with the grill. Try again tomorrow, thanks!

 

Any tips on where to get him for $30 shipped?

 

Shadow Fisher kit for Ratchet
Shadow Fisher SFM-04 Upgrade Kit for MP-30 Ratchet

 

What I did on mine was to unscrew the front piece where the grill was attached and manually moved it with my fingers to break it loose. I kept working it back on forth until it loosened up a reasonable amount. There is a lot of paint (too thick of a layer, I think) on unnecessary parts of the grill. You can scrape some off where it won't be seen to make it turn easier.

Even now it is still tight. When I transform him, I slide a long, thin spudger down from the top (between the chest piece and the body) and push down on the grill piece to rotate it. There is just no way to get mu fingers in from the bottom with enough clearance to get a good enough grip to rotate it. The leverage from the spudger works well.

 

Well, here is $33 shipped. I got him during an ebay sales, so it was sub $30 at the time:

TAKARA Transformers MP30 Ambulance Master MP-30 | eBay

He is a trusted eBay seller, and also who I got mine from.

 

I was messing with 2 different KO Ratchets and was surprised to find they were completely different assemblies.

Looking at the waist/crotch piece - I noted the following differences:

a) One was red plastic while the other was white plastic, painted red.
b) One used stubby black screws, one used longer silver screws.
c) One had super floppy crotch joints and the other was only semi-floppy.

I used to think that KO's primarily all came from the same factory and the qc would depend on lucky of the draw as well as which batch you got - however based on the above changes, it definitely looks like the same factory either made running changes or it was from a completely different factory. Wierd...

Still looking for an extra right leg for my amputate Ratchet. Anybody got any good ideas on what I could use him for otherwise?

Maybe I'll try to figure out how to give him a peg leg...

 

Hey man. I got a right leg for you. It's just missing the chrome bumper on the heel. If you still need it, PM me.

 

Well, a few days ago I got a RoadRage KO at a very low price that came decent. No flaws that I could find (IDK If the original or the KOs have any) asside the red paint on her tailfins. Very tight joints all around too.The guy painting the tailfins must have had Parkinsons (sue me if you feel offended) so that part needs a little bit retouching, and IDK how it also got a red smudge on the crotch piece. Anyway I felt I came off pretty good (have a very good KO streak thus far) and I impulse bought Ratchet(need to finish that SG MP Autobot cast). Crossing my fingers on what I will find inside the box.

 

Ratchet? Dunno m8, just ordered him couple of hours ago.