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Hasbro- Transformers- Generations Thrilling 30: Rhinox
So just this last Friday of this writing the much anticipated Hasbro Pulse Fan Fast was held much to my anticipation and subsequent disappointment given that they over promised with some sizable hype and under delivered with some (IMHO) very lackluster revels across all their brands. That said, the best showing was that of the Transformers brand as there were some figures that I could actually see myself picking up. That said, I have some thoughts on the two big “surprises'' that most people are talking about.
First was the Titan Class transformable Arc figure. I suppose it's a cool idea to have the Arc in toy form and it would look cool with the other oversized Titan releases, but it’s just not for me. Space in the collection is a consideration and the toy itself just does not look that good. I’m not sure where designers got the idea that bigger equals better, but releases of this size are just not that fun and never worth the ever increasing cost. The better bet was to make a voyager sized figure to appeal to a larger audience; yes I would be WAY out of scall, but even as a Titan sized figure it's out of scale and more collectors would be able to fit him in their collection.
Second and perhaps the most egregious was the self “transforming” Robosen Optimus Prime. And when I say egregious I mean, a release that once again caters to a higher tier collector that has some serious disposable cash to burn given that it costs $700 US. And I get that this is a really special collectible, but this is on the heels of the Haslab Unicron project that again was geared to the elite; is there no room for just normal toys for collectors and kids to buy at Wal-Mart or Toys R Us anymore? Does everything need to be a Kickstarter pre-order that will get filled in 12-18 months? I dunno, this new Optimus is extremely futuristic, but I know that the regular old Optimus Prime that some kid or collector found on a toy shelf will always be more fun. And while I am a fan of Kevin Smith, I was extremely pissed off that Hasbro paid him of all people to unveil the figure. Yes, I suppose he is now the ambassador of all things geeky (oh joy) but did Hasbro not do any research on the guy and his views on the Transformers? Here’s the coles note: he never liked them. He’s said as much in his various podcasts, but made it quite clear in dialogue from Clerks 2. I won’t go into much detail, but he insinuates that Transformers fans are lame, which is fine, but don’t go shilling wares for Hasbro pretending that you are some massive fanboy of the series when it’s simply not true.
Pros: I was very excited to pick up Rhinox when he was released given that he was always one of my favorite characters in Beast Wars and while there is a lot to love, a few issues really soured me on this figure. On the PRO side, he looks great in both modes and captures the look of the character really well, the transformation is challenging, but overall not too difficult aside from some trickiness with a few of the panels and I really appreciate that they included his iconic guns (of which a friend and member here took as a namesake: chaingunsofdoom)
Cons: Not since my days getting GI Joe toys as a kid have I had an action figure this loose and floppy. I am not even kidding, there is no friction on any of the hips of knee joins and make posing all but impossible. I was able to tighten a bit using one of my old tricks, but was such a disappointment. Outside of that the Beast mode is really limited in terms of limb movement and the various panels in beast mode are frustrating to line up.
