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Series: Botcon Exclusives
Allegiance: Maximal
Categories: Deluxe Convention Exclusive
Year: 2006
Looking upon the powerful form of Rhinox, one would imagine he is engineered to be a terrible machine of destruction. However, the truth is, the large Maximal is one of the gentlest souls you will ever encounter. His entire being is focused around the defense of life - from the largest space faring creature to the tiniest insect. His function as a defense specialist belies his fearsome appearance, but make no mistake, in combat Rhinox is one of the most brave and potent forces on the battlefield. In robot mode, Rhinox is adept at close quarters hand-to-hand combat, utilizing a brutal style that inflicts maximum damage with minimal movement. His dense armor protects him from most forms of conventional firepower. In vehicle mode, his powerful shovel can lift up to 50,000 tons. The shovel, composed of a special alloy Rhinox developed himself, reflects most energy weeapon fire back to its source. Often serious, Rhinox does have a congenial sense of humor that is neither mean-spirited nor spiteful. Rhinox is an expert at defensive technology and tactics while also having a vast knowledge of engineering, including weapons development and metallurgy. These are just a few of the reasons Optimus Primal holds Rhinox´ abilities and counsel in the highest esteem.
Prelude: This is actually the fourth Rhinox figure I’m reviewing in less than three months. What can I say, I love the big guy. Rhinox has become a staple of the Transformers franchise ever since his first appearance in Beast Wars way back in 1996 and there have been many incarnations of him since. Such as this one here, an exclusive from the 2006 Botcon convention. So grab your Chain Guns of Doom and let’s say Go!
Many thanks to my buddy Fuchs Geronimo for loaning me Rhinox for this review.
Robot Mode: Rhinox was part of the Botcon 2006 exclusive “Dawn of Future Past” line, which shows the Beast Wars cast in their pre-Earth designs on Cybertron. Rhinox himself is a repaint of Cybertron Landmine, whom I have previously reviewed. It’s been eighteen years since that review, though, so I guess we can take another full look at this figure, can’t we?
Rhinox is a Deluxe-class figure, which would have been my first complaint, seeing as Rhinox was always a pretty big guy and should at least be Voyager-Class. Then I reminded myself, though, that the original Beast Wars Rhinox figure was also a Deluxe (and a smaller one at that), so I guess we cannot fault the FunPub guys for choosing a Deluxe for their Botcon set after all. This was years before the first Voyager-Class Rhinox.
There were no tooling changes to the Landmine figure, so only the paintjob is different and consists of mostly green and beige parts, which fits with the original toy and more or less fits with Rhinox’ coloring in the TV show. The head is still that of Landmine, just repainted to look a bit more like Rhinox. I’d call it a partial success. If you don’t look too closely, there is some resemblance to Rhinox.
Like most Cybertron figures, Rhinox has a decent amount of articulation, so he can pull off several good poses, including a running and a kicking pose. The shovels of his alternate mode on his shoulders make him look broader than he really is, which does fit with the character he is to portray. He still has Landmine’s molded Autobot symbol on his chest, but added Maximal symbols to his shins to distract from it. His primary weapon is a missile launcher, though that weapon is not the reason the Landmine mold was chosen for Rhinox.
As a repaint of a Cybertron figure, Rhinox comes with a Cyberkey, of course (patterned after Beast Wars’ Golden Disc), which activates a gimmick. The two big wheels from his back flip up behind his head, extend blades, and twirl around. In the Galaxy Force cartoon this gimmick was called “Tornado Cutter” and it does somewhat resemble Rhinox’ famous Chain Guns of Doom. Not perfectly, but enough to establish a connection.
So bottom line: while not a perfect fit for a pre-Beast version of Rhinox, this robot does manage to look like him simply by changing colors and by virtue of his gimmick. And it’s a solid robot mode, too.
Alternate Mode: Seeing as the figures of the Dawn of Future Past set are showing these characters before they came to Earth, none of them have beast modes, of course, but actual vehicle modes. In Rhinox case he transforms into a front-end loader, which is a somewhat fitting answer to the question what the vehicle equivalent of a rhino would be.
The transformation is rather simple and the vehicle itself is solid and does what it’s supposed to. The shovel can be raised up and lowered, the wheels turn, and in theory you can activate the Cyberkey gimmick here, too, if you want. So bottom line: definitely not the most exciting alternate mode of all time, but solid and workable.
Remarks: The only in-media appearance of this version of Rhinox was in the Botcon-exclusive Timeline comic book titled “Dawn of Future Past”. It described how Megatron and his Predacons stole the Golden Disc from Cybertron and escaped, causing the Maximal Elders to send Optimus Primal and his crew on board the Axalon in pursuit. Rhinox didn’t do much more than man the controls of the ship in the comic, though he did save Tigatron and Airazor from death by removing their sparks from their damaged bodies and putting them in blank protoforms. The comic book ended with the Axalon following the Darksyde through a Transwarp portal, leading directly into the opening scene of the Beast Wars TV series.
As a figure, Rhinox is mostly unchanged from Landmine and so is my final verdict. A good, solid figure that is neither spectacular nor flawed, but stuck on the good side of average. Some bonus points for being part of a truly great Botcon boxset, but that’s probably offset by the aftermarket price of this guy.
Rating: B-
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