(NOTE: Because this is a repaint, this is not a full-blown review. This mainly covers any changes made to the mold and the color scheme, and merely compares it to Cybertron Landmine. For a review on the mold itself, read the review of Cybertron Landmine here.)

    The pre-Beast Wars form of Rhinox fits exactly with his Beast Wars self when it comes to color scheme, pretty much color-for-color. A few colors have been added, such as metallic silver, for the wheels and other details as needed, but otherwise his color scheme is definitely recognizable as good ol' Rhinox. The green is a great shade, and the blade and light bluish gray really serve as nice colors against it. The brownish gray used for the main color in the vehicle mode is a little more gray and a little less brown when compared to his Beast Wars form, but this was needed since it's a more vehicle-y color than a beast-y shade. The paint applications are great, as well-- the dull bronze on the shovel and the robot legs looks especially nice, as it approximates the bronze spray fade on the original toy without downright copying it. The head, which is not remolded at all from Landmine's, bears a bit of a resemblance to Rhinox regardless, but with the very well-detailed gold paint apps around the face that emphasizes the chin and eyebrows while de-emphasizing the small head antennae, it makes the toy look a lot more recognizable as Big Green. Plus, the Cyber Key-activated turbines on his face make great "Machine Guns o' Doom" duplicates when rotated over his head to face forward-- they have the small spikes on their sides and everything!
    Rhinox has no mold changes when compared to Landmine. The only place where this really gets to be a problem is the molded-in Autobot symbol on Rhinox's chest. He still has painted Maximal insignias on the sides of his legs, but the Botcon website tried to explain this away by saying he admires the Autobots so much he keeps their insignia on him as a reminder of the ideals they stood for. A cop-out? Yeah, you bet, but again, there's only so much remolding Fun Publications can do with their money, and this, rightly, didn't take priority. There's also a bit of an assembly error-- his shoulders are on backwards. But, it's nothing that a quick unscrewing and swapping of parts can't fix, so it's really no big deal at all. Also, like all the other toys in the Botcon set, the Cyber Key used in the Cybertron version has instead been replaced with a solid gray Planet X Key bearing a Maximal symbol and a painted bit of Golden Disk detailing over the main part of the Cyber Key, hence the new name "Golden Disk Key".
    Axalon Rhinox is a great repaint of an already great toy, and with those gold paint apps on the face and the right colors, he really does look genuinely like Rhinox, even without any remolding done to the toy. One of the best mold choices for the Botcon 2006 set, in my opinion.

Review by Beastbot

Back to Botcon/OTFCC Exclusives Index