Marvel Select
Rhino Review

NoisyDvL5

The paintwork is similarly impressive. The washes on the figure’s rhino-suit really add a fantastic extra layer to the sculpted texturing. The figure also has this shimmer to it, which I can’t quite explain, but I like it. The duller paint used on the toenails and horn also help with the realistic feel (even a bit of slop seems to work), but the key paint area is the face and it’s done well. I’m still not totally sold on the yellow space between the teeth, but unless it’s got up-close, direct light on it, it actually seems to add much needed depth. It’s interesting.

And then we get to the articulation. It’s not all bad. In fact, some of it is deliriously awesome, but that might just further illustrate the one dark spot. There are a lot of fantastic ball-joints here. The neck has excellent range, including great side-to-side tilt. The ball-joints on the shoulders, elbows, knees, and the inverted ball-joints on the ankles are all fantastic with great range. The ab joint is particularly useful and the wrist swivels don’t hurt either. The knee ball-joints are a little loose, but it’s not a dealbreaker as the other joints are all tight and really make the figure shine. But dem hips.

The hips absolutely kill me. It’s frustrating because everyone in the toy industry should know – they should know – that putting the hip pegs up into the torso stinks. My hop bones don’t connect that way and for good reason. It’d be mighty hard to walk. For Rhino, it makes him difficult to pose. There’s not a ton of great range anyway, so I’m not sure having proper, horizontal pegs would do great things, but it would have to help. If you look at the pic above, even that slightly wide stance requires me to turn Rhino’s thigh to face inward. It’s just funky. Maybe they did this to keep them from being loose on such a massive figure – those knees are annoying, but there had to be a better solution so that the legs could be as possible as the rest of the figure.

Overall though, those bad hips and somewhat loose knees are just blemishes on an otherwise awesome figure! I kinda regret not picking him from my LCS earlier this year, but I can’t knock getting him on discount. He was worth the wait and he always would’ve been worth not waiting. I think I might have a soft spot for Rhino (Spidey villains are some of my favorite Marvel characters, strangely), but I think this is a must have figure form a Marvel Select line I rarely collect. The aesthetics are amazing and the articulation almost keeps up. With releases like this, Venom, and Wolverine, I think I need to be paying more attention to ol’ Marvel Select.

For all our Marvel Reviews, check out our Review Index.

Pages: 1 2

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.

Comments are closed.