Wheeljack with Rhinox [Beast Alliance/Beast Weaponizers]

I really enjoyed Beast Alliance upon it's release (as you all noticed) and taking this look back to finish the series just as Transformers Wild King is debuting is making it a little extra fun. Both Wild King and Cyberworld feel like successors to the Beast Alliance series from Transformers: Rise of the Beats and I'm all for it. Today we're looking at Wheeljack with Rhinox from the Beast Weaponizers portion of the series.

Beast Battle Masters and the Beast Weaponizers were my favorite part of Beast Alliance and Wheeljack is a great example as to why. When I covered his mainline toy, I had a lot of fun joking about the naming, but really enjoyed the characters design all together (I really wish he was another character). I haven't gotten the Studio Series version of Wheeljack yet, but this might be my favorite toy of the ROTB version as good as that mainline toy was. Beast Weaponizer figures are similar to a Core Class figure, but just a little bigger. Wheeljack is nice and bulky with a pleasant amount of articulation. It's pretty amazing just how satisfyingly chonky this figure is in hand. There's some hollowness here and there and some skimping pf paint apps... but nothing feels lacking you know? They just did and all around good job.

Transformation is easy and everything just goes into place as it should. Thanks to the placement of joints, his windshield looks as though it has eyes. That's a funny little side effect of the engineering, but isn't overwhelming. Just funny. Unfortunately his Battle Master isn't a new character or new mold. Fortunately it's a good Battle Master with a slightly different deco. Beast Battle Master Rhinox partners with Wheeljack making a great pairing. Traditionally the two are smarty pants, but as this version of Wheeljack is beefy, they contrast nicely.

Rhinox is of course a rhino and as a Beast Battle Master turns into a gun that Wheeljack can either hold or be mounted to his vehicle mode. There's a good amount of points to stick a Battle Master onto Wheeljack, so maybe you'd prefer Rhinox to be arm mounted instead. Rhinox has less colors for this version, making him look more like a natural rhino. I do wish the barrel of his chain-gun mode had some color to add detail. Overall, I really like this set. Wheeljack's Urkel inspired looks contrast with his stocky build nicely and Rhinox pairs well with him. I'd love to see this mold get reused in Cyberworld or elsewhere down the road. It's a good one.