Toy Review - RHINOX (Studio Series)

RHINOX
Series - Rise of the Beasts
Sub-line - Studio Series
Hypo-line - Rise of the Beasts
Size/class - Voyager
New/remould/redeco - New
Wave - 21
Released here - August 2023
Approximate Retail Prize - $55
Approximate Size - 18cm
Allegiance - Maximal
Alt-mode - Mechanical rhinoceros
Main Features/Gimmicks - N/A
Main Colours - grey with silver and bronze highlights
Main accessories - spiked sledgehammer/missile pod

https://i.ibb.co/Z1zpB5J/studioseries-ROTB-rhinox01.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/9rvNK1f/studioseries-ROTB-rhinox02.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/74kTnP1/studioseries-ROTB-rhinox03.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/L8tNbKM/studioserie...-rhinox03a.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/dLpysBh/studioseries-ROTB-rhinox05.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/HYf60xf/studioseries-ROTB-rhinox06.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/0ZWmYL8/studioseries-ROTB-rhinox07.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/McF6nt0/studioseries-ROTB-rhinox08.jpg

Pros:

• Gorgeous highly detailed and movie-design accurate sculpting, especially in robot mode. This looks and feels so much more like Rhinox compared to the mainline Voyager toy. The texture makes him look like he's made of aged metal, and the silver and bronze highlights are applied with a nice weathered look (something that Hasbro typically does badly with on TFs).

• Good poseability; able to strike some pretty impressive poses. Has ankle tilts in both robot and beast modes.

• Has flight stand port, something that I've been missing from TF toys of late!

Neutral points:

• As with other ROTB Maximals, Rhinox has a fairly monochromatic colour scheme. On one hand, it is faithful to the screen design, which is the whole point of Studio Series, but on the other hand, there's no denying that it is rather bland.

• I initially had difficulty putting the rhino head inside the torso when transforming from beast to robot mode. Make sure that the rear tail panel is already folded up before folding the rhino head away, or it just won't work.

• No chain guns. Again, I don't recall Rhinox ever using chainguns in Rise of the Beasts, so the exclusion of the chainguns seems to be more in line with the movie design/appearance.

Cons:

• While the front half of the rhinoceros mode looks great, the back half looks unfinished.

• Rhinox can only hold his war hammer near the top of the shaft, about one fist width from the hammerhead. While this looks cool when he's just standing around holding his hammer, it makes it impractical for posing him in an attack pose. Think about using a sledgehammer... you swing by holding towards the base of the shaft, not towards the top. I don't know why they couldn't have made the entire shaft 5mm and give people the option to adjust the grip length. Note: in the film, Rhinox grips his hammer with both hands; one towards the base and the other towards the top of the shaft.

OVERALL
Overall I would say that this is the best Rise of the Beasts Rhinox toy thus far, although admittedly there's not that much competition. I don't know why, but it seems that ever since Kingdom Rhinox came out, Hasbro continues to struggle making excellent Rhinox toys. IMO we haven't had an amazing Rhinox toy since Thrilling 30/LG. Worth buying? It depends. Mainline Rhinox does arguably do some things better than Studio Series Rhinox... but Studio Series does other things better than mainline. It really depends on what your personal criteria are, but for me, Studio Series wins out. I would rate this as "Only if," depending on what your standards are. Recommend either mucking around with someone else's Studio Series Rhinox or watching some video reviews first if you're undecided.

P.S.: the left forearm on my toy had its elbow joint assembled backwards. Thankfully it's held together with a screw, so it was easy enough to fix using a mini-screwdriver. :)