Name: Rhinox
Series: Beast Wars
Allegiance: Maximal
Function: Defence
Alternate Mode: Black African Rhinoceros
RHINOCEROS MODE
Height: 7cm Length: 13cm Width: 7.5cm
A stocky, tan to brown Rhinoceros with a big golden horn. The upper is gently painted brown on the base tan, and it fades in quiet nicely down the sides. His eyes are red. While the colours aren't entirely realistic, they're close enough that the overall effect is good. There are a couple of screws and joint holes visible, but not enough to really detract from the illusion. He has a stubbly tail, toenails, a very Rhinoceros-looking skin sculpt and teeth inside his mouth, contributing to a good overall look.
Poseability is okay. His lower jaw moves, which is part of the transform, but opening it more than a little looks odd since it's hinged further back than a real jaw. It ends up looking like he's trying to dine snake-style if you open it too much, but at least it moves. The legs all move a little but you can't really do much more than wiggle them before you expose green robot bits. They do allow for a little bit of posing, but running poses are out unless you want to reveal green.
Whilst the poseability is limited, it's not like Rhinoceroses are acrobats. It looks good and is faithful to the show version. The colours are a little inaccurate but certainly look lifelike, and it's nowhere near as bad as Beast Wars Snarl.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Split the back into two panels, the tail comes loose and forms his sabre. You'll see a green disc underneath, remove it and set aside. Fold up the hindlegs and rotate 180°, then fold down the feet. He also has heelspurs, which assist already big feet in standing. Fold down the panel on his underside to reveal a green block, remove this and set it aside. Fold down his lower jaw to form his chestplate and reveal his (mutant) head. On either side of his head are two rhino-eye panels. Swivel them down to the sides of his torso. You have the option of leaving his rather ugly and large mutant head or opening it's halves out to reveal the more appealing and show accurate robot head. Lastly unclip his arms from inside the forelegs and swivel the forelegs back.
Give him his sabre, unclip the chain-gun's maces form under the tunic formed by his backplates, attach them to the buzzsaw-like disc, and attach this assembly to the block and put the whole thing in his hand. Whilst originally designed as a hand-to-hand buzzsaw of doom, the show portrays this as a rather impressive gattling gun. If you lift his forearm up and place it in the underside of the hand, it can work this way.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 12cm Width: ~10cm (varying according to tunic and shoulder pad positioning)
Whilst essentially a robot mode folded up inside a bunch of rhino panels, Rhinox's transform is satisfying enough that he looks like a robot with rhino bits than one with a rhino on his back. The tan & brown are retained, with the gold now on his groin & torso. His head, forearms, shoulders and knees are lime green, upper arms, thighs and feet are black. The overall colour scheme works quite well, thanks to the continued dominance of the subtle brown-tan motiff. His eyes are also red in this mode. He has white teeth (and a grimace).
Rhinox's robot mode has a lot of kibble, but it's dealt with fairly well. The forelegs end up being shoulder pads and the backplates are a very noticeable tunic - which is portrayed fairly well in the show as an armour skirt. The rhinoceros teeth on his chest are a nice touch. He looks very formidable, thanks to those and the big, bulky shoulder pads. He also wields two useful weapons.
Assuming you've unfolded the mutant head, he's got a very wide face with giant gold cheeks. While it seems silly, it works quite well. They're swept back, which helps a lot.
He's quite poseable, with nice big feet (and heel spurs), but the shoulder pads and tunic can hamper poseability a little. He has two joints on each shoulder, ball joints for elbows, his head turns, he has ball joints on his hips. There are swivels midway down his thighs and hinges on his knees, and his heelspurs can fold down. Basically, the full range of poseability, with some stuff hanging off. There are joints at either end of the struts holding the tunic halves and two on each strut holding the shoulder pads, however, which means most poses _can_ be achieved with a little repositioning.
With lots of bulk, a big and scary look, good colours, great poseability and kickass weaponry, it's hard to find too much wrong with this mode. I'm very impressed with the integration of what could have been annoying kibble into the overall aesthetic of this mode.
VARIATIONS
Reissued for the BW 10th Anniversary with an enhanced - but similar - paint job. There was also a Fox Kids! repaint in silver and two shades of red.
OVERALL
One of the first series of Beast Wars, Rhinox epitomises why Beast Wars was such a hit. With a great robot mode and a very solid if unposeable and slightly off-coloured rhinoceros mode, Rhinox is a good toy. The downsides to his rhino mode are largely minor. The show accuracy is good and despite being a one-robot arsenal of weapon bits, has great weapons - 9/10
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