Astro Pneumatic’s wobble head ratchets might look like ordinary ratchets, but there’s something special about them. These ratchets have special drive heads that pivot up to 15° in each direction, making it easier to reach fasteners in tight workspaces.

I imagine that using these ratchets is kind of like using a super-low-profile wobble extension, except with the range of pivoting motion fixed to one axis.

Other brands make wobble ratchets, such as Craftsman, but I don’t recall ever seeing something like this from a professional brand before.

To be honest, I don’t see much advantage in these Astro Pneumatic ratchets over other brands’ pivoting head ratchets, such as Wera’s Zyklop and Gearwrench’s Roto Ratchet designs, or even Craftsman’s Mach ratchet, and so I’m hesitant to give them a try.

While other brands’ pivoting ratchets feature ordinary ratchet heads that pivot within a forked handle, the Astro Pneumatic ratchet has a special ratchet design with self-enclosed pivoting mechanism. This means a smaller head design, which should improve tight-quarters fastener accessibility as Astro Pneumatic claims, but it also a very limited 30° total pivoting range.

If this piques your interest, the 1/4″ drive and 3/8″ drive ratchet set will set you back $62 to $75.

There’s also a Woot discount offer that ends at 9am CT on 9/22/2014.

Buy Now(Ratchet Set via Woot)

For some unknown reason, Amazon has two listings and two separate prices for the 2-piece ratchet set. You can ask me what the difference is, but I won’t be able to tell you. Maybe the more expensive set comes with a blowmolded tray or retail packaging.

What do you think? Do these ratchets get filed under “I might need this someday,” or “there are better tools for the job” categories?