From the pics I've seen on the web the mettalic finish definitely looks better. For those of you who have this figure or seen it up close and personal. Is the metallic finish a painted finish or is the mettalic finish the actual plastic?

It's a paint or lacquer over the plastic. Some parts are just the regular finish.

It's painted.

While a cool figure, most of this paint is on the parts that make up the exterior of his truck mode, which leads to a bit of inconsistency in color as some of the green robot mode bits are just bare unpainted plastic, which looks to be pretty much the same shade used on the original Rachet. However, I forgive them for this because he has more black parts visible in robot mode (they took one of the sprues and switched it to black plastic) that look great.

Thanks fellas for the info. I already have the original lime green Ratchet. I saw the metallic version online for $50 and was wondering if it was worth getting if the differences between the two were enough for me to spend more to get it. If it's just a clear coat maybe it's something simple that I can do with my no skillz. I wish I could've had the chance to see one up close to make a better judgment. Unfortunately, the only way I will find out is if I buy it and I'm not sure if I want to do that.