Shockwave wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 12:01 pm
Dominic wrote: ↑Thu Jun 17, 2021 5:33 pm
If that were not exclusively available based on having a store credit card, I would consider it.
The Red Card is a rewards program, not a credit card. There are credit card versions of it, but it doesn't specifically need to be.
I believe you're thinking of Target Circle, Redcard is offered as a credit card and a debit card, both with 5% off and free shipping on many items on their website, but it's still a store credit/debit card program.
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Kingdom Rhinox is a beefy voyager-class, not as big as Cyclonus but bigger than Primal. I was skeptical about this figure but my feelings for the Thrilling 30 version are mixed and I do like the WFC articulation system. I won't be comparing T30 to this because my T30 is squirreled away. One odd thing I'm leaving out of the pros/cons below, his beast mode does have a pair of silver spiked testes, this may be either a plus or a minus.
Bot Mode pluses:
+ big, beefy dude
+ stable
+ strong joints, no floppy stuff at all
+ big beast jaw-styled chest plate has gold base and silver teeth
+ weapon storage on back
+ WFC articulation plus butterfly shoulders, limited up-down wrists
+ twin chainguns painted silver with dull gold middles, each has a pair of blast effects points in the middle
+ sports 5mm holes behind upper torso, sides of lower backpack, undersides of feet
Bot Mode minuses:
- design is a departure from BW look, with cylinders for ears and a totally different shoulder design, seems based on Forged to Fight look in the chest
- no Maximal logos anywhere, especially not on the head
- lower legs are massive, bulky things and not fully enclosed
- a few small gaps around the upper torso, the more you look around the more noticeable they get
- upper arms turn hollow when using shoulder articulation
- very waffled back torso
- backpack is cumbersome, moves out of position to block waist on handling
- chainguns are pretty shrimpy
- somewhat limited range of motion on neck, elbows, and waist
- no teeth in rhino mouth showing behind the head
- mouth-chest is wider than any Rhinox design I know of, very flat and has faux details from Forged to Fight's chest at the top
The bot mode +/- doesn't tell the whole story, the pluses are mostly all big and important things, while the minuses range from noteworthy to nitpicky.
Transformation pluses:
+ the arms add a little extra wrist articulation
+ the chest panel reveal is clever, probably unnecessary as the arms could have been sculpted around the panel, but fun
+ some interior tech detailing only seen during transformation
+ beast jaw can be opened all the way around to hide in bot mode
+ tabs feel substantial, not like they're gonna snap off with minimal use
Transformation minuses:
- lots of panels moving about in a very specific order with minimal clearance and even negative clearance, stuff like this is why I got out of Masterpiece
- tabbing on the robot lower legs isn't super great, they stay together but there's flex from poor tab positioning
- easy to forget to put in weapon assembly, challenging to get properly aligned inside beast mode
- lower belly panels want to ride up during transformation to bot mode, causing them to lock up the upper panel that's already miserable to get moving
- steps 15 through 33 are crucial in their order and hard to understand
- going back to bot mode, it's vital to understand that the bot-knee will clash with the rearmost large beast panels in order for them to move, you need to rotate that panel up via clearing that knee clash, and then it still won't move into its proper position which is actually inwards unless the rest of the leg is free; it won't be fluid and obvious the way it was going bot-to-beast because of that knee clashing so badly, and you need to adjust that knee a little to find the optimum clearance angle or bend the panel a lot
Transformation has a few nice bits, but becomes a miserable chore when you get to the bot legs/beast rear half. So much stuff clashes and is order-dependent that it sucks the fun right out of this figure, and practice doesn't seem to make it any easier. Even with instructions you basically have to already know what all the parts are going to do before you can follow them, it's really frustrating.
Beast Mode pluses:
+ thick, nicely bulky
+ fairly whole, no robot kibble showing
+ stable and solid
+ fairly well color-matched plastics
+ mouth opens, has silver-painted teeth and red interior
+ weapons store inside transformation
+ toes painted eggshell
+ can take a meditation pose (does need to be propped up)
Beast Mode minuses:
- nothing like BW cartoon design
- barely any movement possible
- underwhelming paint of some grayish spots around the horn and at the front of the front legs and ribs
- ugly gap top of the neck doesn't allow for much range of motion in either mode
- no upper teeth
- green rectangle at top of shoulders, back half of front legs
- horn layout is unusual, front horn curves over long rear horn
- proportions are a little simple
- red eyes
- waffled inside of rear legs, hollow front feet
- lots of bot junk visible on the very underside, only visible when you pick him up
Beast mode pluses and minuses mostly balance out, it's not very articulated or BW-accurate but it's stable and has a certain charm, I like it well enough.
Overall, this one's better than it looked in initial photos with a fair though not spectacular beast mode, and a decent but not perfect bot mode. Unfortunately, it's woefully damned by the miserably problematic lower leg transformation, it's really hard to like this toy as a whole because of that, there's a frustrating gulf between two nice modes. In some ways I can tell I like Kingdom Rhinox a lot more than T30 while in others, mostly details and transformation, I like it a lot less. For a WFC fan like me, I'm glad to have him, but I won't be surprised that not everybody gets on board.