Rhinox (BW)


 * Rhinox is a Maximal in the Beast Era portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.



Cheetor was on the mark when he said that Rhinox was the best of them. He is a Renaissance Bot. Intelligent, massive, strong, and stalwart, there are few Maximals one could depend on more. Rhinox is of a rare breed -- he's incredibly tech savvy, but mystically-inclined... without coming off as a burnt-out technohippie. He's quick and decisive in a crisis, with spectacular results, but is slow and steady. He loves to sniff the flowers. A behind-the-scenes charismatic and an on-his-feet strategist, he could lead the Maximals if he wanted to, but he doesn't.

If he sounds too good to be true, it's because he just might be. At times he can be borderline obsessive and single-minded. The Maximals are glad he's on their side, because if he ever had a change of heart, woe be to them. No, woe be to the galaxy.

Still, you can't help but love a bot who can fight Megatron to a standstill without breaking a sweat yet would rather take a nap in a patch of daisies. Rhinox considers Rattrap to be his best friend, though he also has a close friendship with  Optimus Primal. He appears to have some "older sibling/parental" emotions toward Airazor due to his role in bringing her online.

Rhinox's only weapons - besides his rather intimidating strength - are his twin chainguns, affectionately named "Chainguns of Doom."

Rhinox's core was an integral part of the evil Vehicon General Tankor.

"I'd say it's trampling time!."

- Rhinox


 * Spanish name: Rinox

Beast Wars
Voice actor: Richard Newman (English), Daiki Nakamura (Japanese)



Rhinox was a crewmember of the exploration ship Axalon when captain Optimus Primal got word that the Predacon criminal Megatron had stolen the Golden Disk and a ship with transwarp capabilities. The Axalon was the closest vessel that also possessed a transwarp drive, so Rhinox's ship was sent to engage them. After following the Predacons through a transwarp portal and appearing above a mysterious planet, both ships were damaged in the ensuing space battle, and before both ships crashed into the planet's surface below, the stasis pods carrying the rest of Rhinox's crew were ejected into orbit.

The planet was rich with energon -- so much so that prolonged exposure would short out their bodies, so the Maximals and Predacons were forced to take organic forms from the local creatures. Rhinox took the form of a rhinoceros.

When Optimus Primal was dematerialized and absorbed by a mysterious alien probe, Rhinox was forced to juryrig a gizmo to extract Optimus' molecular structure from the probe and reconstruct it. Whether or not this device would actually have worked is unknown, as shortly before he had a chance to use it, Rhinox blasted Waspinator with his chainguns (beginning the running gag of Waspinator being scrapped in every episode), and the wounded Predacon somehow accidentally triggered the Standing Stones construct, which then rematerialized Optimus on its own.

Rhinox later developed Sentinel, a hi-tech security system for the Axalon, which unfortunately went berserk when its control panel was damaged in a struggle between Dinobot and Rattrap. Rattrap however, was able to infiltrate the now-heavily guarded ship and deactivate Sentinel, which was then repaired and made fully-functional by Rhinox.

Sometime later, when the Maximals found themselves cornered by a Predacon ambush, Rhinox was able to take out their attackers with a carefully aimed spray of chaingun fire. Megatron was so impressed that he decided to make Rhinox a member of his merry band of thieves, by force. Rhinox was captured by Tarantulas and then reprogrammed into a Predacon by a device designed by Megatron called a "Transmuter". However, the newly malevolent Rhinox proved to be too much for Megatron to handle, as Optimus Primal had correctly predicted. He quickly dispatched most of the Predacons, working his way up to Megs himself in an attempted coup. Rhinox very nearly succeeded, but fortunately, Megatron was able to revert him back into a Maximal using the Transmuter, and Rhinox escaped to rejoin his Maximal comrades and smell some flowers.

Later, a stasis pod crash landed in a barren wasteland. Rhinox intercepted it and, with Cheetor's help, managed to save the protoform Maximal's spark. The protoform then became Airazor, who repaid the favor by saving the weakened Rhinox from Terrorsaur.

When Scorponok tested an experimental bomb on a group of Maximals, rendering them blind, it was Rhinox who led the group on the dangerous trek back to the Axalon, teaching them how to use their other senses. Of course, they succeeded, and afterwards, Rhinox again went off to smell some flowers.

Later, Tarantulas infected Rhinox with an energon discharge virus, which made him expel his energon reserves via his nasal passages in bursts powerful enough to tear through the hull of the Axalon, threatening both to destroy the Maximals' base and completely drain Rhinox of energy. Rattrap and Dinobot were dispatched to acquire a countervirus, while Rhinox ate some wild bean vines to keep his strength up. When the bickering duo nearly failed in their mission, the other Maximals, including Rhinox, showed up, and the rhinoceros blew away the Predacons with a massive... energon discharge caused by his ingestion of wild beans. Megatron would remember this moment as the most humiliating defeat in his entire career. Rhinox was later cured by the countervirus via a Cybertronic beer hat.

During the Planet Buster crisis, Rhinox was heavily damaged by Tarantulas and Blackarachnia when they infiltrated the Axalon, forcing him to spend the remainder of the crisis in a CR chamber, thereby preventing him from being upgrade into a Transmetal by the quantum surge. Once Rhinox was fully repaired, he initiated a dangerous plan to bring the recently-deceased Optimus Primal back to life by using the hole in space-time caused by the destruction of the Planet Buster to astrally project his spark into the Matrix, where he followed the transion left by Primal's spark and led it back to the land of the living, where it was reborn as Transmetal Optimus Primal.

When Blackarachnia's attempts to become a Transmetal caused her shell program to deteriorate, threatening to erase her core consciousness, Rhinox carried out a very delicate procedure to surgically remove the shell program directly. Unfortunately, certain failsafes installed by Tarantulas, combined with a Predacon attack, caused the operation to fail. Fortunately, Blackarachnia was mysteriously resurrected anyway by the Transmetal driver.

After Megatron raised the Nemesis, Rhinox was ordered by Optimus Primal to execute Operation: Eternity, which apparently only Primal and he knew about. The purpose of the operation was to "move the Ark" by activating its engines and taking off; little is know beyond that, because the Maximals failed when the Ark's engines proved beyond repair. However, Dinobot 2 downloaded emergency data to the Ark about an Autobot shuttle hidden within the Ark. Rhinox piloted the shuttle and flew it directly into the bridge of the Nemesis, taking down Megatron and causing the warship to spiral out of control and crash somewhere beyond the horizon. Thus, the Beast Wars were won. Rhinox and the other Maximals left prehistoric Earth aboard the aforementioned Autobot shuttle and began the voyage home to Cybertron.

IDW Beast Wars: The Gathering comics
Rhinox stood outside the Ark as Razorbeast's chronally dispaced Maximals passed by. Although Optimus Primal could vaguely sense their presence, Rhinox theorized that the sensation was just a side-effect of Primal's recent upgrades.

Beast Machines
Voice actor: Richard Newman (English), Daiki Nakamura (Japanese)

Universe
When Primus gives Optimus Primal the ability to choose any Transformer, living or dead, from the Allspark to assist him in the war against Unicron, Primal chooses Depthcharge and Rhinox. Depthcharge is bitter about being brought back from the dead, but Rhinox is thankful for the chance to atone for his actions as Tankor.

Fan Club Cybertron comic
As Optimus Prime recalls the end of the Universe conflict, Rhinox is seen defeating the alternate Tankor and escaping with Primal back to Cybertron as Unicron crumbles.

Beast Wars (PSX & PC)

 * Voice Actor: ??? (English), ??? (Japanese)

In an alternate timeline, Rhinox joins his fellow Maximals in battling not only an entrenched Predacon threat, but the interdimensional monsters known as the Skriix.

Rhinox built a massive fortified base (described as an "urban zone") away from the downed Axalon. He eventually expanded it to within reach of Tarantulas' lair.

(Note: The exact situations within the game changed depending on what side you played as. In the Predacon path, Rhinox's base was judged a threat by the Predacons, who attempted to neutralize it. In the Maximal path, Tarantulas overtook the base and reprogrammed its defenses, prompting the Maximals to retake it.)



Beast Wars: Transmetals (PSX)

 * Voice Actor: Alec Willows (English), ??? (Japanese)

In another alternate timeline, Transmetal Rhinox stayed behind at the Axalon as his fellow Maximals went to battle the Predacons.

Transformers Legends anthology
After Tankor's death, Rhinox' spark and consciousness were cleansed and rejoined the Matrix. When Megatron was defeated by Nightscream, Rhinox saw an opportunity to redeem the fallen tyrant, and attempted to act as a spirit guide. Rhinox led Megatron through the ascending layers of Transformer afterlife (which is actually a tree!), urging him to leave behind his fixation on worldly power. Megatron was briefly tempted, but his repeated returns to Cybertron (in Spark of Darkness) convinced him that godhood was still within his reach. Tapping into the power of the Oracle, Megatron erases Rhinox' spark, killing him utterly.

Beast Wars

 * Rhinox (Deluxe, 1996)
 * Japanese ID number: C-7


 * Rhinox transforms into a tan rhinoceros. In robot mode, his primary weapon is a spinning blade-gun/double mace-thing/lawn edge trimmer, though the television series liberally interpreted this weapon as a sort of gatling gun (the aforementioned "Chaingun of Doom").  His tail also detaches to become a blade.


 * The two panels mounted either side of his head close together to form his 'mutant' battle mask.


 * The Takara release of Rhinox added a thick layer of gray paint to the beast-mode parts that faded to reveal the original tan towards the lower body. Why is uncertain, as this made him even less like his show coloration.


 * Rhinox vs Shadow Panther (Multi-pack, 1996)
 * Japanese ID number: V-7


 * In Japan, Rhinox was available both in an individual release, and in a two-pack with the Predacon Shadow Panther.


 * Rhinox (Transmetal, 1998)
 * Japanese ID number: C-44




 * For the Transmetals line of Beast Wars toys, Rhinox now transforms into a robotic rhinoceros.  The rhino mode has fold-down skis in the front legs, and tank treads in the rear legs so he can become a kind of snow mobile.  In robot mode, he loses his projectile weapon, armed with only his blade, now formed out of his beast mode horn.


 * In the Hasbro line, early releases of the toy had a much paler aqua-colored chrome than later versions. Such chrome differences were seemingly common among the Transmetals, but the pale/rich-chrome Rhinoxes seem to be the most common and most likely intentional change.


 * The Takara release of Transmetal Rhinox has gold chrome instead of the aqua-blue, and replaces the "RHINOX" tampograph with "CYBERTRON" and the Maximal faction sigil.


 * This mold was used to make Armada Rhinox.


 * Beast Wars (Fast food premium, 1998)


 * Available only as part of a Hasbro-brand-names fast food promotion (which included miniature versions of other Hasbro properties like Mr. Potato Head), and labeled simply as "Beast Wars", this toy is an extremely simplified version of the Transmetal Rhinox toy, available only at participating Rally's and Checkers resturants.


 * Despite it being... well, look at it... it goes for mad money on the secondary market. Most people didn't realize the promotion even existed until after it was over, and the resturant chain seems to be small and somewhat regional.


 * Rhinox (Deluxe, 1999)


 * Part of the first wave of "Fox Kids" redecoes, and exclusive to Toys "R" Us stores, this toy uses the original Rhinox mold in pale green and burgundy. Hasbro documents listed this toy as "Energon Surge Rhinox", a name that never made it to the final package.


 * Rhinox (Deluxe Transmetal, 2000)


 * Part of the last year of mass-retail Beast Wars product (sold concurrently with the early releases of Beast Machines), the Transmetal mold also got a "Fox Kids" redeco in mainly blue and gray... an interesting color choice, given that it's the show-colors of Tankor, who Rhinox would become.

Beast Wars 10th Anniversary

 * Rhinox (Tenth Anniversary, 2006)




 * For the 10th Anniversary of Beast Wars, Hasbro redecoed the original 1996 Rhinox toy in more show-accurate colours, giving him a darker beast mode colour scheme, and painted gold details on his robot mode head, to more closely match the CGI model. They also tampographed a Maximal sigil on his beast mode's right foreleg.


 * Also included was the lower torso and right leg to Transmutate, and a DVD of the Beast Wars epsiode "The Spark".


 * Note: This version of Rhinox is assembled with his shoulders on the wrong sides, so the screws that hold them together are visible from the front of the robot.


 * Rhinox
 * Japanese ID number: TM-09
 * This figure has the same assembly problem as the US version, but it's partailly forgivable due to greater show-accuracy.

Timelines

 * Dawn of Future's Past (Multi-pack, 2006)




 * A redeco of Cybertron Landmine, "Axalon Rhinox" is one of five toys in BotCon 2006's Dawn of Future's Past box set. He transforms into a front-end loader, with pop-out blades in his rear tires that are revealed with the use of a Cyber Planet Key (or his Golden Disc Key, of course).  This gimmick and his spring-loaded missile launcher are usable in both modes.


 * This set also included "Axalon" versions of Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Rattrap, and "Darksyde" Dinobot.

Mechandise


In 2004, Hard Hero announced a line of Beast Wars statues, starting with Rhinox. As it turned out, Rhinox was the only one to be released.