Dave's Transformers Rise of the Beasts Rant: Beast Weaponizers wave 2+

Wheeljack (minibus) and Rhinox (redeco of single-pack)
Predacon Scorponok and Sandspear (scorpions)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotB/Weaponizer2

Arcee and Cheetor was going to be part of this wave, but has been bumped
to the lone new figure in wave 3. Instead, Wheeljack shipped with more of
wave 1's Optimus Prime and Chainclaw.
To flesh out this review, I'm also adding the Buzzworthy Target
exclusive set in which a scorpion wields a scorpion.

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/RotB/Battle1 - Rhinox original deco

CAPSULES

$15 price point.

Wheeljack and Rhinox: Rhinox mold single-pack was recommended, this is a
somewhat underpainted and bland deco of it. The Wheeljack mold is pretty
good, too bad it's even more blandly painted, to the point it looks way
cheaper than it actually is. Mildly recommended.

Predacon Scorponok and Sandspear: Both of the scorpions have legs that
cause problems in their other modes, and for some reason both have six legs
instead of eight. But otherwise decent toys for the size class, and unlike
Wheeljack there's a decent amount of color in each. Recommended.

RANTS

Packaging: Wheeljack is in the same sort of package as the wave 1 Beast
Weaponizer sets. Scorponok's in the same shape of package, but with
Buzzworthy trade dress.

AUTOBOT: WHEELJACK
MAXIMAL: RHINOX
Assortment: F4615
Altmode: Minibus, rhino/rotary cannon
Transformation Difficulty: 11 steps (Wheeljack), 6 steps (Rhinox)
Previous Name Use: Yes
Previous Mold Use: None (Wheeljack), RotB (Rhinox)

Packaging: Five ties hold Wheeljack's robot mode to the card, although
you don't need to cut the one around his backpack. Two ties hold Rhinox.

Robot Mode: While the Jungle Mission Deluxe version looked pretty close
to the screen colors, this one doesn't really try, going with a light
sandstone color and two shades of medium-light brown (one of which is also
used for the wheels). The mold isn't too bad in terms of shape, it still has
the (unpainted) seatbelt suspenders and the fake taillights on the thighs.
5" (12.5cm) tall in almost entirely the two aforementioned shades, plus
a little silver, blue, and a red Autobot symbol printed on the chest. Light
sandstone plastic is used for the head, torso front, backpack panels, and
vehicle panels on the underside and inner faces of the forearms. The torso
core and pelvis are a medium-light brown that's a little on the washed out
side under strong light, while everything else is a warmer medium-light
brown.
There's medium-light brown paint with a very slight metalflake effect on
the top of the head (except for the mohawk shape), on the wide "belt" area at
the bottom of the torso front, and around the headlight area of the
backpack. There's extensive sandstone paint on the thighs and upper boots.
The face and the bumper molded on the belt area are painted silver (the rear
bumper pieces across the lower shins are not painted). The eyes are bright
blue, but there's no paint on the glasses rims. A red Autobot symbol is
printed on the chest center.
There's so many places where a little more paint would help a lot, such
as the glasses, the suspenders, and some of the fake vehicle details.
However, due to how the transformation works, I do worry that any owner-
applied paints on the torso front would get scraped off during
transformation.
The Weaponizer figures continue to get good articulation compared to the
Beast Combiners or the Battle Changers. The neck and waist turn, while ball
joints are used for the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. The ankles are
hinged way at the heel end for transformation and do not have useful
articulation. The knees have additional hinges where they meet the thighs so
that the legs can fold double for transformation.
The hands can hold 5mm pegs, and there's 5mm sockets on the outer faces
of the forearms. While not intentional, the heels will hold a 5mm peg pretty
solidly so I guess he could wear some Modulator/Fossilizer boots. There's a
3mm socket in the back of the pelvis.

Transformation: The feet fold back into the hollow boots and the legs
bend double to form the back chunk. The torso front folds upwards and the
backpack unfolds to cover the robot head and chest. Rotate the waist 180
degrees, and then it's just a matter of fitting the arms into the resulting
gaps, with the sandstone panels folding out to become the roof and upper
walls of the center third. Getting all the tabs in place may require a
little massaging, but it's not a difficult transformation.
In going back to robot mode, it's really hard to get the vehicle front
end detached from the torso front...in fact, it's a lot easier to pop the
roof off and just leave the front behind.

Altmode: Wow, the brown wheels really just make the minibus look so much
worse. I mean, it could also stand some other paint on the side windows,
roof rack, headlights, taillights, and rear window (which is technically
painted, but the same color as the body panels on the top half). But the
brown wheels are just qualitatively bad. I did try popping out one wheel to
see if maybe I could dye the wheels black, but such a pronounced stress mark
appeared on the mushroom peg that this might be a bad plan. (Hmmm, dye the
wheels and Rhinox's barrel black in the same batch?) On the plus-if-you're-
weird side, the stress slots in the windshield make this look almost ready
for a Cars (Pixar) crossover.
4" (10cm) long, most of the top half is light sandstone (the paint and
the plastic don't mesh up very well) and most of the bottom half is warm
medium-light brown, including the wheels. The front side windows suffer
badly from being a mix of plastics with some big gaps so even painting them
bright blue to match the painted windshield won't help much. There's
slightly metalflake brown paitnt over the parts of the front that have the
headlights, but no paint on the headlights themselves. The sandstone of the
rear third is all paint, with no separate paint for the windows, and no
decals to complete the disguise. There's lip service given to a roof rack,
albeit unpainted. All this could be forgiven if the wheels were at least
black or dark gray.

I tried dyeing the wheels black, but they didn't really want to take the
dye, nor did the barrel on Rhinox. But becoming darker brown helped anyway:
http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/weapwheeljack.JPG

Battle Master: The light gray plastic has been replaced by a medium-
light warm brown that matches the warmer brown on Wheeljack, the gray-brown
plastic stays the same. Almost no paint, just silver on the horns and that's
it.
The robot can hold the gun mode, but there's no provision for the gun to
be mounted on the roof of the vehicle. If someone actually cared, I guess a
third party place could make a chunk that fills the gap in the rear roof and
has a 5mm socket with a raised collar to let Rhinox-gun attach there.
Frankly, I don't think they intended for Rhinox to go with this one, the
only 5mm sockets on Wheeljack's vehicle mode are too low to let Rhinox fit,
but Cheetor fits okay and Skullcruncher almost does.

Overall: Wheeljack is a good mold utterly betrayed by a bad color scheme
and a paint budget that seems designed to have make it look unpainted.
Rhinox is a good Beast Battle Master, but not for Wheeljack.

TERRORCON: SCORPONOK & SANDSPEAR
Assortment: F4120
Altmode: Scorpion and smaller scorpion
Transformation Difficulty: 7 steps (Scorponok), 4 steps (Sandspear)
Previous Name Use: Scorponok: G1, BW, Energon, Movie1, DotM, RiD;
Sandspear: None
Previous Mold Use: None

Packaging: Four rattan strings hold Scorponok in robot mode to the tray,
two hold Sandspear in flattened beast mode (kinda halfway between modes) to
the tray, and Scorponok's stinger sword is held on the bottom interior of the
half-box tray by one string.
The instructions are in the yellow-orange color standard for Buzzworthy
toys, rather than in the RotB design and colors.

It's important to note that while there were a lot of robotic scorpions
in the movie, they were just scene-fillers and not characters. If any of
them transformed, I lost it in the chaos of the big final fight scene. So,
while technically Scorponok and Sandspear have more of a canonical presence
than Skullcruncher or the various Beast Armors, the toy designers didn't
really need to bother with screen accuracy. While the movie badguys were
Terrorcons, they really didn't establish one way or the other on-screen if
the scorpion drones counted as Terrorcons, so they could be Predacons in the
movie too, I guess.

Robot Mode: There's elements of G1 Scorponok (mostly the helmet and the
use of green) and BW Scorponok (mostly the shoulderpads) and maybe even a
little of the "Transmetal" Happy Meal Toy version in that the beast legs are
just sort of stuck to the boots. This both makes it difficult to pose the
figure dynamically and gives the feet extraordinarily long heel spurs so the
figure can lean way back without falling over. The face inside the helmet is
recessed with a sort of "trash crusher teeth" thing going on. Unlike most
other Scorponoks, the tail of the beast mode is detachable and used as a
sword. In fact, there's not really anywhere to store it other than in one of
the hands, not even an attempt to put a peg or socket on the back to hold it.
Oh, and the hands themselves each have a single claw on the back of the hand,
like Wolverine giving Cyclops the finger, so that they can pass as the main
claws of scorpion mode. The back is pretty hollow, with the beast
cephalothorax (the sort of head-and-torso fused thing that arachnids have
going on, as opposed to separate head and thorax seen in most insects) not
really doing a great job of covering it up (it'd need a swivel to do that,
rather than just a hinge).
5" (12.5cm) tall at the head, in a mix of taupe (light brown-gray),
slightly silvery medium-light gray, dark gunmetal, and neon green, with some
bits of silver plus orange eyes. Taupe plastic is used for the head, torso,
cephalothorax backpack, pelvis, forearm/fist parts, and boots. A slightly
silvery medium-light gray is used for the upper arms, thighs, hilt of the
sword and stinger tip of the sword. Dark gunmetal plastic makes up the
middle bit of the sword, the shoulderpads, and the scorpion legs hiding badly
behind the boots.
There's gunmetal paint on much of the chest. Silver on the chin, helmet
antennae, and fist claws. The shoulderpad front interiors are carefully
painted neon green, while there's a sort of airbrushed effect with this color
on the sword "blade" the kneecaps, shins, and toes. The eyeplates are dark
orange and a neon green Predacon (NOT Terrorcon) symbol is printed on the
center of the chest.
The neck and waist turn smoothly, the shoulderpads are hinged to lift up
for robot mode or snug against the arms (well, pedipalps) in beast mode.
Ball joint shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. The sword has some joints
too, but those are for its role as stinger in beast mode.
Lots of 5mm sockets, few of which can really be used with Sandspear.
Fists, outer forearms, outer boots near the ankles. I suppose you can mount
Sandspear on the forearm sockets, although the sockets are a little shallow
compared to the peg length. Makes it more of an oversized punch dagger than
a sword if you do that. There's a 3mm socket in the back of the pelvis.
The sword has a 5mm peg hilt with tabs acting as a sort of crosspiece
and limiting the peg length to 5mm, those tabs secure it between the robot
knees in beast mode. There's 5mm sockets on either side of the main
crosspiece, and on either side of the stinger-shaped tip...I guess to let you
mount borrowed guns on the tail in beast mode? 4" (10cm) long total.