It seems Masterpice Rhinox has been officially unveiled by Takara, in all his ridiculous wild bean vine-eating glory:

https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/transformers-mp59-masterpiece-rhinox-officially-revealed/47914/

Whereas the Kingdom toy was rejiggered a bit to fit the more "realistic" style for the beast modes, the Masterpiece toy is one hundred percent committed to capturing his CGI look, and oh boy, does it ever. The geometry of that rhinoceros head is absolute crazy sauce. It's fully accurate, but it's absolutely nuts to see it realized in three-dimensional space.

He also comes with a big ol' spark to clutch in his big, meaty hands and a few other accessories as well. He's only the... seventh? Beast Wars character they've produced as a Masterpiece toy, but it's clear they're committed to finishing off the first-season characters, if nothing else.

Zob (...hard to digest...)

On Friday, October 6, 2023 at 7:29:35 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> Whereas the Kingdom toy was rejiggered a bit to fit the more "realistic" style for the beast modes, the Masterpiece toy is one hundred percent committed to capturing his CGI look, and oh boy, does it ever. The geometry of that rhinoceros head is absolute crazy sauce. It's fully accurate, but it's absolutely nuts to see it realized in three-dimensional space.

He's available for order at BBTS and other fine e-tailers now. He goes for $219.99 and, if you're willing to wait a whole year for slow-cured rhinoceros jerky, ships in October 2024:

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/256397

He's very satisfyingly the CGI Rhinox in a way that the Kingdom toy just wasn't. So many wonderful details, like the little creases in his rhino tonenails or the visible texture pattern in the rhino tongue on his chest when he's in robot mode. (Is that even a tongue? It's more like the roof of his mouth, only whatever that opposite of that is. The basement of his mouth?)

Zob (when a spark goes online, there is great joy)

> On Friday, October 6, 2023 at 7:29:35 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
>
> > Whereas the Kingdom toy was rejiggered a bit to fit the more "realistic" style for the beast modes, the Masterpiece toy is one hundred percent committed to capturing his CGI look, and oh boy, does it ever. The geometry of that rhinoceros head is absolute crazy sauce. It's fully accurate, but it's absolutely nuts to see it realized in three-dimensional space.

I never really liked how the kingdom figure looked, I don't even really love Thrilling 30 Rhinox that much (mines a bit old and doesn't stand up at all anymore) but this figure is truly nice-looking, pure "Roger Rabbit effect" in action.

> He's available for order at BBTS and other fine e-tailers now. He goes for $219.99 and, if you're willing to wait a whole year for slow-cured rhinoceros jerky, ships in October 2024:
I'm so glad I don't collect masterpiece figures at the moment

> https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/256397

I gotta go off on a bit of an angry tangent about how annoying online stores are here in Canada, at least where I live, everything is $200 within like, a year. Some things just disappear, both Studio Series Jazz's (the 86 one annoys me the most because my original 86 Jazz broke a while back and I don't want to pay extortionate prices on Ebay), Earthrise Megatron, and ESPECIALLY Studio Series Rumble (blue) which I don't think ever reached online or brick-and-mortar stores here because I have not seen a single one for sale ANYWHERE.

> He's very satisfyingly the CGI Rhinox in a way that the Kingdom toy just wasn't. So many wonderful details, like the little creases in his rhino tonenails or the visible texture pattern in the rhino tongue on his chest when he's in robot mode. (Is that even a tongue? It's more like the roof of his mouth, only whatever that opposite of that is. The basement of his mouth?)

With all the meaningless accessories they put into modern Masterpiece figures i'm surprised he doesn't come with a wispy fart cloud, seriously does anybody display their Masterpiece Megatron with the Clone Control Helmet or Masterpiece Tigatron with the Megatron head.

Swivelbot (Is very sorry to hear about Gustavo Wombat)

On Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 2:51:08 PM UTC-6, Swivelbot wrote:
> I gotta go off on a bit of an angry tangent about how annoying online stores are here in Canada, at least where I live, everything is $200 within like, a year. Some things just disappear, both Studio Series Jazz's (the 86 one annoys me the most because my original 86 Jazz broke a while back and I don't want to pay extortionate prices on Ebay), Earthrise Megatron, and ESPECIALLY Studio Series Rumble (blue) which I don't think ever reached online or brick-and-mortar stores here because I have not seen a single one for sale ANYWHERE.

I'm not sure what distribution is like in Canada, but at time it's not much better in the United States. I've given up on finding anything at retail in brick-and-mortar stores—if I want it, I order it online. (I imagine Walmart does bigger volume than BBTS as a whole, but when there are thousands of Walmart stores, your chances of finding something specific in-store are next to nothing. At least with BBTS, I can place the order and then they deal with the logistics of geting the thing to my doorstep without me having to drive all over northern Utah. That's worth four dollars to me.)

For the record, I don't remember ever seeing Earthrise Megatron at retail OR Studio Series Rumble (Blue). There are a lot of toys I've never seen in a physical store... far too many to list.

> With all the meaningless accessories they put into modern Masterpiece figures i'm surprised he doesn't come with a wispy fart cloud, seriously does anybody display their Masterpiece Megatron with the Clone Control Helmet or Masterpiece Tigatron with the Megatron head.

I can kind of see your point. There are some character-specific accesories that sort of straddle the line between really cool and kind of pointless. If you think Takara Masterpiece is bad, the NECA Ninja Turtles toy line is even worse. I have literally an entire box full of accessories (extra heads, hands, weapons, scene-specific accessories) that I pretty much have no use for. I put characters on display. I don't try to recreate specific moments from the media. Every once in a while I'll put something in a toy's hand that's significant to the character in some shape or form, but for the most part I stick with their signature weapons, and that's it. Sometimes I'll stick a slice of pizza in Michaelangelo's hand, because he's an addict and he needs his fix.

On the other hand, we're kind of locked into a mentality where action figures are supposed to come with accessories, and a toy feels incomplete if it doesn't come with any. In the 1990's, Star Wars suffered from a tendency for figures to get saddled with guns and things that the characters never used on-screen, and I think the thought process was, well, they have to come with *something* in the package. At the end of the day, these are toy soldiers, and toy soldiers come with guns.

There are some accessories that come with Masterpiece, specifically, that make me go, "Wow, I can't believe Takara remembered that" and I'll attach it to the toy just to see what it looks like, but then I proceed to never use them again. But, I also may be in the minority when it comes to displaying toys. I have been accused in the past of having boring-looking displays, with characters standing at attention. The specific phrase was that they look as if they're "waiting for a bus." It's the one form of gatekeeping in the collecting community that still appears to be fully acceptable. People aren't supposed to tell you how to spend your money or shame you for not being able to afford armybuilders or make you feel bad for not having expensive display cabinets, but you'd better believe they'll lay into you about the specific manner in which you've *posed* your action figures.

Zob (had Masterpiece Inferno cradling Red Alert like a baby for a long time, but that got old)

On Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 5:31:42 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:

> I can kind of see your point. There are some character-specific accessories that sort of straddle the line between really cool and kind of pointless.. If you think Takara Masterpiece is bad, the NECA Ninja Turtles toy line is even worse. I have literally an entire box full of accessories (extra heads, hands, weapons, scene-specific accessories) that I pretty much have no use for. I put characters on display. I don't try to recreate specific moments from the media. Every once in a while I'll put something in a toy's hand that's significant to the character in some shape or form, but for the most part I stick with their signature weapons, and that's it. Sometimes I'll stick a slice of pizza in Michelangelo's hand, because he's an addict and he needs his fix.

Single episode accessories are also used a lot in the DC Collectibles line, for their Batman: the Animated Series figures (not an expert on DC Collectibles so I might get stuff wrong) they only take accessories from a single episode so a character like the Joker is left without a normal standard item like a gun but instead is packed with his iconic COMB.

> On the other hand, we're kind of locked into a mentality where action figures are supposed to come with accessories, and a toy feels incomplete if it doesn't come with any. In the 1990's, Star Wars suffered from a tendency for figures to get saddled with guns and things that the characters never used on-screen, and I think the thought process was, well, they have to come with *something* in the package. At the end of the day, these are toy soldiers, and toy soldiers come with guns.

I think in terms of weapons it's fine to include more niche weapons because unlike the random throwaway items that were only in one episode that you never use weapons are more displayable, the crucial example is Optimus Primes Energon Axe and Megatrons Energon Flail from "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2" which, while single episode weapons, are usable in a display and won't look stupid. (Though it does annoy me when Megatrons Flail isn't articulated even though I know it wouldn't be in the budget)

> There are some accessories that come with Masterpiece, specifically, that make me go, "Wow, I can't believe Takara remembered that" and I'll attach it to the toy just to see what it looks like, but then I proceed to never use them again. But, I also may be in the minority when it comes to displaying toys. I have been accused in the past of having boring-looking displays, with characters standing at attention. The specific phrase was that they look as if they're "waiting for a bus." It's the one form of gatekeeping in the collecting community that still appears to be fully acceptable. People aren't supposed to tell you how to spend your money or shame you for not being able to afford army-builders or make you feel bad for not having expensive display cabinets, but you'd better believe they'll lay into you about the specific manner in which you've *posed* your action figures.

Oh no I totally understand, I do not have infinite space so I literally can't put everything in a pose, most of my figures are in a box currently.
plus I think it looks nice to have everything lined up in the same ish pose in order from tallest to shortest even if the figures aren't specifically army-builders.

> Zob (had Masterpiece Inferno cradling Red Alert like a baby for a long time, but that got old)
Probably was hell on his joints.

Swivelbot (Is posting this late at night because he has nothing better to do)