Rhinox is a great character for many good reasons; he's the perfect balance of being smart and strong at the same time, he's a major contributor to the Beast Wars, and he's so awesome that he doesn't even need to change his form in the entire run of the original show! He's almost like the love-child of Ironhide and Ratchet if we're being honest, given how he fits those roles (and maybe a bit of Wheeljack for good measure)? Some may find his transformation into Tankor to be unusual, but I find it to be a good idea nonetheless in terms of making Rhinox feel like the most antagonistic of the Vehicon Generals if you ask me. He was previously represented in the Generations Thrilling 30 line-up, which was paired up with Rattrap as the better Beast Wars update duo compared to Universe Cheetor and Dinobot. Now that Kingdom's going all out with the Maximals and Predacons, how does our new Rhinox stack up?
Here is Rhinox in his rhino mode. It's sculpted and proportionately accurate to how one would look in real life. I like the textures added to make the skin bumpy and wrinkly in areas, especially in the eyes where they're worn because he has red eyes (which look tut of place). The horn, ears, and the nostrils are nicely sculpted, and I appreciate that the ears are not only firm plastic but the horns are not super bendy and flexible despite being made of PVC. As far as paint apps are concerned, some lighter gray is applied here and there in order to make the skin look more organic, and I appreciate how his toes have paint applied. As for his robot kibble leaking through, I have to commend the designers for not making the design feel as broken up and remain naturalistic as possible (the forearms and the green of the robot shoulders are exposed, though).
The articulation of the beast mode is okay at best, with front and back leg movement here and there, while the hind legs are on ball joints. The jaw opens up and has some decent paint apps applied for it. Not that poseable but it is expected for a beast his size.
For a size comparison with the other Maximals, you can tell how wack the scale pretty much is. He should be the biggest one of them all but is no bigger than Cheetor is. He looks funny next to Optimus Primal and Dinobot, especially.
Transforming Rhinox into his robot mode is a lot more involved than expected. It's mainly the way the legs transform, as you need to make sure the hind legs are tucked within them in order to fill in the gaps. Additionally, the way the torso transforms requires that there be a faux chest. As for the resulting robot mode, I think it looks fairly decent in terms of the likeness to Rhinox. I do find the coloring to not be that accurate, and there are some paint apps missing, but what is there looks perfectly fine otherwise. I do not like how the legs look at times when they remind me of baggy jeans, but the gaps are even worse, especially from the back. They're pretty unsightly and remind me too much of the gaps that Siege Impactor had. Commenting on the fake chest, I like how it turned out as it helps make the chest pop even more if you ask me, especially with the silver trim of teeth surrounding the gold chest.
Head sculpt is certainly a Rhinox head, but it does look more angular and younger than I'm used to. I appreciate the gold paint apps applied, but the lighter shade combined with the facial expression makes him look younger than he needs to be. His articulation is on-par with the WFC trilogy line. His head is on a ball joint, the shoulders move front and back, in and out, the biceps swivel, the elbows bend, the waist swivels, the hips move front and back, in and out, the thighs swivel, the knees bend, and the ankles can hinge up and down as well as pivot.
The cannons can be held in his hands, and they have one pro and one con compared to the Thrilling 30 version. The pro is that they have paint compared to their predecessors, but the negative comes from the fact that they can't spin! Not even manually! WHAT?! They at least have some storage, but it's not enough to make me feel bothered that they can't spin at all.
After not getting a reuse (not even a Dark Designs one), Rhinox finally gets one in the Beast Wars again subline. It saturates the colors and makes Rhinox feel much more alive thanks to a richer brown and a metallic shade of green. His legs probably get annoying to transform, and his guns still suck.
For a comparison with prior versions of Rhinox, here are some pictures of the Generations and original versions of the character. The Thrilling 30 version certainly has some liberties of his own to make him look less like how he did from the cartoon in terms of proportions, and his rhino hide may not match the cartoon's brown exactly, but at least the figure had more paint, as well as a nicer headsculpt. I also like the way the legs look, but Kingdom Rhinox's feet are better designed as well as have tighter knees. The original Rhinox definitely shows his age with the dated design, kibble-tastic appearance, and amateur sculpting like with the Ninja Turtle-esque face.
Since I left her out from the beast mode comparison, here is Rhinox next to the Transformer he created, that being Airazor! They may be of different sizes and didn't get to stick together as much since Rhinox was able to reunite with his team while Airazor and Tigatron were far away from the rest, but it is nice to see these two with nicely done and modern versions of the characters that match up with one another in terms of their sculpt work and consistency. The only other time that was the case was with regular Beast Wars.
For another size comparison with the other Maximals in the line, here he is with the rest of the core-5 Maximals in the lineup. He's appropriately taller than everyone else except Dinobot, and I have to say that he fits in with the rest of the WFC figures in terms of aesthetics and quality if you ask me. Granted, he's probably supposed to be half a head taller than Primal, but it still works nonetheless.
Overall, Rhinox is one of those figures that I can be mixed on at times. The figure looks pretty solid for the most part, though some coloring choices could be handled better. I also don't like how the hollow gaps ruin the look of the figure, and I don't like how the guns can't spin. Does that make him a terrible toy? Hell no, but he doesn't feel as complete as the Thrilling 30 version despite this one having better proportions. I recommend getting him but know he won't be as good as the Thrilling 30 version in some areas. As for repaint potential, I hope Selects gives us an evil Rhinox!
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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