Dave's Beast Wars Rant: New Deluxes Rhinox (okay, okay, he's a Deluxe) Wolfang And just a note to confirm it, they've re-released Cheetor in this wave with red beastform eyes instead of the original blue. Yay Spawnlike variants. }-P CAPSULES Rhinox - Nowhere near as lame as he looked in the pictures. Complex transformation, neat weapon gimmick, good beast form and decent robot form (although the hanging bits make posing hard) in the samurai motif. Recommended. $9.99 at Target Wolfang - Big. Beast mode is a bit static and best viewed from one side and not the other, robot mode is very cool, transformation is complex and neat. Recommended. $9.99 at Target RANTS MAXIMAL: Rhinox Function: Defense Secret Weapon Location: Spinner unit in chest, blade on back of robot form, maces hidden under flanks along with sword. Quote: None The ground shakes with a terrible thunder as jungle trees snap like twigs. The noise draws closer in a cloud of dust and dirt. A herd of stampeding elephants? No. It is RHINOX, defending his territory from Predacon attackers! Courageous and cunning, has never backed down from battle, nor been injured in any way. Not even double-barreled laser cannons can cut through his triple-thick, steel-plated skin! If he comes your way, run for cover...fast! STR 9 INT 6 SPD 3 END 9 RNK 5 COUR 10 FRP 6 SKL 6 Avg 6.75 I expanded on the techspec listing for the secret weapon locations... this guy's like a walking armory. Beast form: No real undercarriage junk, although not much to look at from below. Aside from the gold horn and red eyes, looks quite convincing as a rhino. Legs move, but moving them reveals some of the green and black robot bits underneath...and it's not like rhinos are known for their poseability in real life. Jaw opens a tad unnaturally, since it's hinged farther back than a real jaw. Kinda scary effect, though. Transformation: Quite complicated, made moreso by the various places you pull weapon pieces from. You'll want to pay attention to where you take them from the first time...it took me a few tries to get them back into place. The simplistic instructions are almost no use (not that I looked at them until later) and it's hard to figure out exactly where to stick the shoulder pieces. Robot form: VERY cool samurai motif, down to the oni (demon) helmet effect you get on opening the mutant head up. Hint: pull the face halves all the way back past the shoulders. Poseability is good, but hampered by all the armor pieces hanging about. And the way the hips look, you'd think there was another joint in them, but there isn't. The feet have bits that fold out to improve stability, but they don't work too well. However, the armor skirt can be used as a third leg for some poses, which helps. Color scheme: Rhino is tans and browns with red eyes and a gold horn. Aside from the horn, looks good. In robot mode, add green, gold and black, which surprisingly look pretty good together. Come to think of it, the color scheme is a LOT like the Samurai E-Frame in the ExoSquad line. Weapons: Bony scimitar from the tail looks better in the art than in reality. However, the spinning mace blade thing is quite cool, especially since you have to assemble it from four pieces hidden about the toy's body. MAXIMAL: Wolfang Function: Infantry Secret Weapon Location: Tail becomes launcher, back becomes shield Quote: None A pair of glowing eyes pierce the night like twin lasers csanning for prey. Steel-plated fangs glisten as the full moon rises. A deep growl rumbles in the night air. It is WOLFANG, the warrior beast, searching for Predacon enemies! Swift and agile, prefers to hunt cloaked as an animal. But quickly converts to robot mode for battle, when he can best utilize the secret attack launcher disguised as his tail! STR 8 INT 5 SPD 9 END 5 RNK 5 COUR 9 FRP 6 SKL 8 Avg 6.875 Is it just me, or are the new notes a tad pretentious? Beast form: Looks pretty goo, but is essentially immobile except for the hind legs. Some undercarriage junk in the form of his robot arms, and a bit too much of his robot form is visible in beast mode. Too many screw holes and joints tend to blow the illusion (whereas Rhinox has only a few joints, mostly hidden). Transformation: By the numbers. First you remove the tail and back, to later turn into the weapons. Then the rear legs become the robot legs in a way reminiscent of Ransack's (the Insecticon), with pieces folding together. Then unhook a series of pegs that hold the front flanks together and get the arms out...but before you fully deploy them, split the head apart and rotate to become shoulderpads. Swing out side panels and then squash down the torso. Ammo for his gun is stored in his back, poking out his stomach, and his shield transforms. Very cool. Robot form: A little squat looking after you squash the torso, with major thunderthighs. But the shoulderpads and hip pads look good, the mutant head is more of a visor (although to make it work, the robot head's chin is HUGE...we're not talking Jay Leno here, we're talking Megaton Man). The overall effect is sort of a medieval knight/Batman thing. Articulated feet help poseability, and while the wolfen forelegs get in the way a bit, the shoulderpads don't. The post of the spare ammo sticking out his gut looks vaguely suggestive, but there's no other place on the toy to keep it. Color scheme: Wolf is grey with green eyes and blue robot parts sticking out. Robot is blue, black and grey, with red eyes in visor or green without, and silver shield. Very good colors. Weapons: Tail becomes a spring-loaded launcher for "crossbows" stored in the torso. Effective range about five feet or so. Looks like it should have a line attached to it as a grappling hook, but I supposed that'd be hard to explain in the wolf form. Shield is okay, but kinda like a trash can lid in the way it folds out. You can reverse things so it's convex like a regular shield, but then it's furry. Dave Van Domelen, Wolfang may not be the biggest in robot form, but he exudes an aura of "bigness" anyway....