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Ratchet is the chief medic of the Autobots in the Transformers cartoon and comic series based on the popular toyline produced by Takara and Hasbro. His vehicle mode is an ambulance. Named after Nurse Ratched by writer Bob Budiansky, who originally intended the character to be female, an idea rejected by Hasbro. Ratchet is well-remembered by fans of the original comic series, in which he played a major role.
Ratchet would transform into an ambulance (cargo van type) and was colored white with red stripes and emergency lights. Ratchet had two robot modes, though only one was usually seen in the comic run and the television cartoon. The Ratchet toy transformed into the second form. Ratchet was one of the original and the longest-lived of all Transformers in the Marvel Transformers comic series. Often a fan favorite, he was a healer first, but a soldier nonetheless. His courage and loyalty are demonstrated time and again.
He was voiced by the late Don Messick, who also was the original voice for Scooby-Doo. Wally Blur once voiced him in Masquerade.
History[]
Cartoon[]
Ratchet was the Autobot medic, and therefore he seldom was ever seen in battle. He usually spent time at the Autobot base with Wheeljack creating and repairing other Autobots. The two of them were credited for creating the Dinobots in an attempt to bolster their ranks versus the Decepticons.
Ratchet was eventually killed in The Transformers: the Movie in an attack by the Decepticons on an Autobot shuttle. The Decepticons penetrated the hull of the shuttle that he, Ironhide, Prowl, and Brawn were flying in. Ironhide and Ratchet attacked the invaders together after Prowl and Brawn's death. The two suffered the same amount of fire from the Decepticons; due to Ironhide's strong armor, he survived the first strike but ultimately died. Ratchet, on the other hand, was killed easily. Luckily, his role as medic is taken by Junkion leader Wreck-Gar, who formed an alliance with the Autobots, and First Aid of the Protectobots.
Comics[]
Ratchet was one of the original members of the Ark crew who crashlanded on Earth and remained there for four million years. He was left in charge of the Ark when Optimus Prime took most of the Autobots to join Bumblebee in greeting their new human allies Sparkplug and Buster Witwicky. After Sparkplug suffered a heart attack, Ratchet used his ambulance disguise to get him to hospital.
Returning to the Ark after the incident, Ratchet was shocked to find all the other Autobots deactivated and Shockwave in charge. After getting Buster to safety, Ratchet entered the Ark to seek advice from the disembodied head of Optimus Prime. Encountering Megatron and discovering he had been deposed as Decepticon leader, Ratchet made a deal with him: He would help defeat Shockwave and return Megatron to power, in return for which Megatron would surrender control of the Ark and the deactivated Autobots. To this end, Ratchet found and revived the Dinobots, who he knew had defeated Shockwave before. When it became clear Megatron didn't intend to keep his side of the deal, Ratchet turned the Dinobots on him, only to watch in horror as Megatron easily defeated them. Ratchet dived at his opponent but was casually shrugged off; however, the impact caused the cliff edge Megatron had been standing on to crumble away, sending him hurtling to his apparent doom.
Ratchet returned to the Ark and brought most of the Autobots back online, although it would be some weeks before Optimus Prime returned. During the subsequent Dinobot Hunt, Ratchet accompanied Optimus Prime and Bumblebee to retrieve a number of Autobots left badly damaged after the Decepticons managed to set the now feral Dinobots fighting each other. Not long after the incident, Ratchet worked with Wheeljack to construct a battle suit so Buster could join their ranks, but Optimus Prime was disgusted with the idea of placing a human in danger and quickly overruled them.
Together with Optimus Prime and Prowl, Ratchet was shunted into limbo by the appearance of Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge from the future. There, together with the similarly displaced Shockwave, Thundercracker and Frenzy, they became caught up in an illusory battle between alien factions caused by limbo parasites attaching to them. Ratchet expressed uncharacteristic disgust with the human Donny Finkleberg, who had been a key member of the Robot Master conspiracy designed to make humans mistrust all Transformers.
After the death of Optimus Prime, Ratchet spent days trying unsuccessfully to repair him and declined to attend his funeral. Instead, he went to salvage parts to repair the other damaged Autobots but fell foul of the human criminal the Mechanic, who stole his medical tools to use as weapons and then followed him back to the Ark, turning its defences on the other Autobots. Ratchet only managed to scare him off by temporarily bringing Prowl back online and getting him to use his police car disguise. During the Autobots' brief alliance with G.I. Joe, Ratchet went to retrieve the remains of Bumblebee, who had been blown apart in a misunderstanding, and rebuilt him as Goldbug.
Ratchet attended the conference to choose a new leader and accepted Blaster and Perceptor's support of Grimlock. However, like the other Autobots, he soon tired of Grimlock's bullying command style and lack of interest in protecting Earth and was part of the unsuccessful attempt to replace him with Blaster. When Grimlock took the Ark into space and set up camp on the moon, Ratchet was extremely vocal in his opposition to leaving Earth to the Decepticons. Fortress Maximus' Autobot group then arrived with a recording of Optimus Prime's personality and Ratchet was the first to speak in favour of restoring their former leader to life.
Subsequent battles left many of the Autobots offline and Ratchet weighed under with guilt at failing to revive them. He was tricked by the Sports Car Patrol into accompanying them to Cybertron to use new repair techniques, only to find him a prisoner of Megatron, who used him to revive Starscream as a Pretender as part of a plan to gain control of Earth's Decepticons. Ratchet complied, but not only left Starscream's original personality intact under the ordered conditioning, but used the same technique to revive Grimlock, Jazz and Bumblebee (who he rebuilt from Goldbug). He also arranged to have the explosives Megatron had planted on the Ark transported to Megatron's base and held the Decepticon leader in place, with them both apparently perishing in the explosion.
It was eventually revealed that they had actually been blown through the still open portal into null-space, but when the other Autobots tried to retrieve Ratchet, they found he and Megatron had been fused together. Although many Autobots wanted the resulting creature destroyed, Optimus Prime ordered them separated and placed in stasis. Ratchet was later revived with nucleon but found his mind was still linked to Megatron's. Initially confused, he eventually rallied to beat down a mocking Starscream and, on realising Megatron had just teamed up with Galvatron, caused the Ark to crashland on Earth, leaving himself and most of the Decepticons on board inactive.
