Finally, Rhinox gets
a toy more suiting his fairly large, bulky size in the Beast Wars show!
In rhinoceros mode, Rhinox looks astoundingly show-accurate, with the shade
of tan spot-on and some excellent mold detailing to give his skin that
leathery look of a real rhino. The bone-white paint used on Rhinox's horns
and hooves is another color that looks super-realistic, though gold on
the horn would've been more show-accurate. The ears are made of a soft
plastic, so need to worry about those protrusions breaking under pressure,
either. About the only thing I'd change about Rhinox color-wise in this
mode is that his eyes are completely black, whereas in the show they were
the more normal "white with black pupils"-- it would've made him look a
bit more "alive" in this mode. There are a few robot mode extras in this
mode, however-- the most obvious being part of his robot arms that make
up the backside of his front beast legs. You can also see a few green parts
on his rear heels and green hinges near his butt. These are all fairly
minor, though, and honestly I'm impressed that-- given how accurate he
looks-- he only has this many extras in this mode. Oh, he also has telltale
"seams" in his beast mode telling you where parts separate, but this is
unavoidable. Plus, for pieces where you have to tab in a lot to get everything
"just so" in this mode, they're made of rubbery plastic, so there's no
worry about getting everything to line up "just right" before you click
everything together-- just fold the rubbery pieces up a little into their
slots and everything's fine. For movement, he can move at the shoulders
on his front legs and slightly below them on the back legs, at the knees
on the front legs, and his ankles can tilt on the back legs. His mouth
can also move, though if you open it too wide it looks pretty weird.
In a nice touch, Rhinox's
transformation starts out just like in the show, with his rhino mouth opening
up and folding back as some parts rotate around and he "stands up". Because
of all the little animal parts that go into making his rhino mode look
so seamless, his transformation's a bit more complicated than your average
Generations voyager, but it's not super-complex, and there's some really
ingenious bits-- in particular how parts of his beast mode compress or
fold down to give him a bulkier chest or how his "back fat" pieces fold
over his back rhino legs to make them bulkier as well. The result is another
mode that is amazingly show-accurate-- the only major detail that isn't
really show-accurate are that his shoulders are just the rhino shoulders
and not the metal green shoulders he had on the show, and that the teeth
on his chest aren't sharp like on the show (though obviously the latter
is because of safety reasons, I'm sure-- and rhinos having sharp teeth
was dumb anyways). The only extras in this mode are the rhino upper head
and butt folded behind his back, but these were there on the show model
as well and stay out of the way, so I don't mind them. The fact that he
has so few extras while also having so near-perfect a rhino mode is one
of the best things about this toy, if you ask me. Rhinox's proportions
are largely spot-on, though his shoulders are a bit broader than on the
show, and his "hip skirt" is a tad smaller, both of them negligible in
the grand scheme of things. The detailing on Rhinox's robot parts is largely
show-accurate, with a few extra details here and there like on the sides
of his chest and a few extra lines on his headsculpt (which is very well-painted
with a characteristic stoic look on Rhinox's face-- though I felt they
de-emphasized his chin just a tad too much). The semi-metallic shade of
green is another shade that's spot-on, and along with the metallic gold
accents, goes together quite well with Rhinox's existing tan bits to recreate
his nice show color scheme very accurately. For weapons, Rhinox has not
just one like on his original toy, but TWO "Gatling Guns 'o Doom" that
have the same "press down on the slider on the top and they rotate quickly"
gimmick that the original weapon had on the original
Rhinox toy. They're a bit bigger proportionally here, which is a good
thing-- though I wish they had some paint on the front, as the fronts are
completely tan when the blades should be silver. Still, they fit into Rhinox's
hands quite well and are fun little weapons. For articulation, Rhinox can
move at the neck, shoulders (at four points), elbows (at two points), waist
rotation (but only if you lift some of his chest/back kibble out of the
way), and movement at the hips (at three points), knees, and slight movement
at the toes and ankles. I wish his lower legs were slightly more articulate,
but overall he's very poseable (albeit slightly back-heavy).
Generations Rhinox is
the toy that Rhinox fans have been waiting for for entirely too long. Short
of a "Masterpiece" toy, it's hard to see Hasbro ever topping this Rhinox,
which is astonishingly accurate in both modes, has great proportions and
weapons, nice articulation, and uses some brilliant engineering moves in
his transformation. HIGHLY recommended for Beast Wars fans; my favorite
of the "30th anniversary" Generations BW toys, easily.
Review by Beastbot