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[carfilledwithfish]

Went to Fred Meyer yesterday, and got a few more TF:A toys. They had a buy-2-get-1-free sale, so I got Prowl, Ratchet, and Blackarachnia. But I don't feel like taking a ton of photos of them like I usually do, so I'm just gonna talk about them.

Prowl
When I first saw pictures of Animated Prowl last year, my first thoughts (and apparently, everyone elses') were "How the hell does that thing transform?". All the other motorcycle-formers have tons of kibble hanging off of them, but this guy DOESN'T. And he's completely symmetrical. It just didn't look possible. But it is, and it's awesome.
The one problem with Prowl is his legs. They will pop off if you move them to a certain angle, and the armour on them prevents his knees from bending very far. But both of those problems can be fixed, with glue and a pocket knife.
(These aren't my photos. They were taken by Jin Saotome and posted on seibertron.com)



Ratchet
Ratchet's vehicle mode is kind of... lackluster. The thing that bothers me most about it is the windows. The windshield is translucent plastic, but the side windows are just painted blue. There's these giant hinges on the sides, too. It almost feels like a Scout-class, (a really big Scout-class, but still.) rather than a Deluxe.
However, the robot mode completely makes up for the lame vehicle mode. The only thing that stops it from being perfect is the kibble on the shoulders, which makes it kind of difficult to get the arms into position to turn him back into an ambulance. But I'm going to be keeping him in robot mode most of the time, so that doesn't matter very much to me. I also personally don't like his head-sculpt very much. It's done very well, it's detailed, and show-accurate, but I really would have preferred a "grr, I'm a grumpy old 'bot" expression rather than a "woe is me :(" expression.
Ratchet is ACCESSORY-TASTIC. He comes with a giant hammer, screwdriver, wrench, and scalpel. They can be stored in his backpack in robot mode, or he can hold them.

Blackarachnia
I originally wasn't interested in Blackarachnia. I don't like her character in the show that much, and as much as I love Beast Wars, I'm not a huge fan of robots turning into animals either. But I decided to pick her up at the sale along with Ratchet and Prowl because the only other figures they had were Optimus Prime (who I don't want, because I'm waiting for the Voyager-class one) and Bumblebee (who I already have).
I'm glad I did. After playing with her for a while, BA quickly became my favourite out of all the Animated toys I own so far. She looks great in both modes, her transformation is fun, everything about her is fun. My one criticism is that Hasbro made no effort to hide her hands in beast mode (her hands don't move at all, actually), but everything else about her is so nice that I just don't care.
If you don't have Blackarachnia yet, get her. Even if you don't like Animated, get her. Even if you're one of those Transformers fans who hates everything made after G1, or even if you don't like Transformers at all. Go out and buy her.