Marvel Select
Rhino Review

NoisyDvL5

We’ve got a Theme Week planned for next week, and that sorta encapsulates nearly all of my recent purchases (also, I haven’t shipped my POL in awhile), so I was looking across my shelves for a good, quick review subject. I didn’t see one because this guy isn’t on my shelves. He’s big, he’s too fun to bury in the back (even if he’ll tower his way into getting noticed), and my Marvel Legends shelf is like a house of dominoes. I don’t want to touch it.

Yep, Rhino is actually hanging out with some other unshelfable items. My boxed up Hot Toys Collection, my still incomplete & supine not-Superion (I should at least get that second leg out of the way),, and my really sweet set of 25th Anniversary Adventure Team vehicles*. Rhino hangs out there in his massive glory, but he hasn’t been there long. I actually passed on him when he was released late last year.

*- Gee, was that a list of reviews I need to get around to, or what?

My wonderful LCS Guy showed me Rhino when he came out. In the box, he’s damn impressive. His size is amazing, if not entirely ML-compatible, the sculpt and paint is wonderful. But I knew a secret about Rhino – his articulation is partially ill-conceived. For once, I showed restraint. I passed on him. Flash forward to a few weeks ago when I was at an out of town Hastings. There sat Rhino. His box crushed, but the figure intact. The markdown sticker partially torn off, but enough to get the point across. I turned Rhino down at full price, but everybody loves a discount, particularly for damaged, trash-destined-anyway cardboard.

I don’t advise this, but I opened Rhino while driving home. I’m sure there’s a “don’t open your toys & drive” slogan out there and I’m going to get an e-mail, but I did it. I admit it. He was half out of the package anyway! The highways in Kansas are pretty strai- alright, alright. I’ll try and do better. Thanks, Mom.

Out of the package, Rhino’s sculpt is even more impressive. The craggy level of detail is fantastic. The horns and toenails look great. The proportions are solid. He’s just gorgeous. I still regret parting with that awesome 4H-Sculpted Rhino from the ML Sinister Six pack, but this figure does help heal that wound more than I expected. I mean, he is too big for the MLs. Marvel Select runs at a larger scale – that comes in handy for some figures like Uatu or Thanos – and Rhino is big, but he’s not this big. The figure clocks in at a proud 9” tall. He makes Thor & the Wrecking Crew look small if that says anything. But I don’t care about scale on this one. This is my new Rhino. Spidey can suck it up. Continue to Page 2…

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21 thoughts on “Marvel Select
Rhino Review”

  1. I was thinking of getting the 4H Rhino from that Sinister Six pack at one point when this guy was announced and I just couldn’t resist getting him. Word of mouth on the sculpt and articulation was positive, so even though I don’t collect Marvel Select on a regular basis, I preordered one from BBTS.

    Can’t add more than what you’ve said already. The Rhino is one of my favorite Spidey Rogues and overall favorite Marvel bad guys ever. I don’t know how he turned out to be so cool when dudes like Gibbon and Grizzly bombed but it seems like Marvel just couldn’t catch lightning in a bottle when it comes to heavy, beast-based characters. I’ve been disappointed by various versions going back to the Toy Biz Rhino with pop-out head from the 90’s Spidey cartoon line, but this and the recent Marvel Universe release both hit it out of the park for me. The scale is off for Marvel Legends compability, yeah. But what the heck, so are the Wrecking Crew! And besides that, he’s too awesome not to display! I recommend him highly for any fellow die-hard Rhino fans out there.

    It is still neat that you found him on discount. I sure wouldn’t have passed up on him myself like that. 🙂 Congrats!!!

    1. Rhino and his pop-out head! Yes! He basically is just two awesome to pass up, that odd-looking, out-of-scale Rocket Red from Mattel could take a lesson! 🙂

      Are you excited about Rhino in the movie? It’s looking like a mecha so far…

      1. Yeah, the mecha is a huge disappointment so far but Paul Giamatti seems to be having fun with it. I’m happier to see him in the role than anything else. It’s certainly not going to be the Rhino we know and love.

  2. Only need a non gimmick/actionfeature Shocker. I am still hunting both down. The mS for me the MU for my matvel loving cuz. Need somebody of same packaging for the new Hulk to be wrapped with. Unless find Abomination or A-bomb.

    The scale doesn’t bug me any cause I see him as a towering guy that and he fought the hulk. Now to find a Santa Suit for him.

    1. On the Shocker deal. I blame the 90s toon cause it paired the two together and I have been a fan of the pair since.

    2. Yes, Shocker would be one I could see grabbing if done right! I sold off most of my MLs years ago, but I kept a core group like Hobgoblin, Doc Ock, Kraven, Venom, & Carnage. Some I regret selling like Rhino & Sandman, but I don’t miss that Shocker.

  3. Marvel select has really upped their game with recent releases, but yes ,rhino’s hips are kind of the toy equivalent of metallica’s “load” album… They should have known better.

      1. Most of the other big guys are ball joints set at 45 degrees, until the recent switch to the dcu-style H hips

  4. For some reason I’m having a severe case of déjà vu. My mind wants to tell me that one of the first reviews I read here was a Rhino figure.

    Anyway, that is pretty cool. I just bet he’s beloved by customizers as well. Wouldn’t take much to make him a Pacific Rim kaiju, would it? 🙂

    But my main comment is, what’s this about 25th anniversary Adventure Team vehicles? And wouldn’t that be closer to 40th anniversary? But what does this MEAN?! At least have the heart to shoot a guy a link.

    1. I don’t think I’ve reviewed a Rhino before? Hrm.

      On the ol’ AT, it’s nothing you’d be interested in, Steve. The GIJCC went and made a set of the Adventure Team Joes on the 25th/Modern bodies and used some of the RAH vehicle molds to copy the older items. Most of it turned out pretty cool if you like the little guys though!

      1. OK, those. I recall it being announced long ago but I don’t think I ever saw all the final product. 4 of them, right?

        While RAH isn’t my Joe (well, it IS in some ways, historically and ‘toy fan’ speaking, blah blah blah 🙂 )I would buy the LIVING CRAP out of a mainstream 3 3/4 Adventure Team line, as long as it was actually pushed and promoted and lived past one wave. Yes I finally hunted down the Kre-o Land Adventurer.

        Fuzz Head and Kung-Fu Grip 4Life, brutha!

  5. I carved about (maybe a bit more) a fourth of an inch of plastic from the thigh sculpt so that the joint can move farther. The work i did now makes his hips move almost 90 degrees and it opens up posing sooooo much better.

    2. Um, no chance I could convince you to toss a couple pictures of that in the forum, could I? Please?

  6. Not a big Spidey fan, but this guy does look leaps beyond what ML has put out for him previously. I guess that was the problem with the big guys going early, was they hadn’t worked all the articulation kinks out, yet?

    Rhino, Thing, and Juggy all have thick limbs and lost articulation from both ML and MS because of it. then again, Juggy is about 20lbs of solid plastic (and/or cement). I’m not sure if it’s a patent issue or what, but Mattel’s DC lines seemed to have worked out the best hips, imo, and I’d like to see those hips on numerous Marvel characters.
    (then again, ML4 Beast had same hip artic, did he not?)

    Also, the new ASM2 trailer hit today so we can now compare this one to the Giamatti version. The triptych poster last week had me fearing a hideous new BayFormer, but the trailer seems to imply it’s armor, like Aliens’ powerloader suit? I need more than 2s of his footage to sway me either way.

    1. Punisher also had those hinge style hips, as well as numerous NECA figures. Definitely not a patent issue.

      1. Venom does too. I think they may not look as good on big guys like this though. Honestly, the ball hips are fine – Marvel Select just needed to plunk them to the torso horizontally instead of vertically.

    2. The 4H Rhino was pretty awesome – classic Romita almost, but I wanted him bigger the way I want this one smaller.

      I’m okay with the mecha if it looks cool I think.

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