Rhino

A Russian mafia thug from an early age, Aleksei Sytsevich always dreamed of having the money and power to support his family. He enrolled in an experimental procedure to change his biology to grant him enhanced strength and durability, permanently bonding him to a suit of powered armor in the process. Under his new codename, the Rhino was deployed to New York to kidnap The Daily Bugle's J Jonah Jameson- something that would lead him into conflict with Spider-Man.

Rhino and Spider-Man clashed numerous times, with Rhino typically serving as dumb muscle for several other Spider-Man foes. Eventually, he cleaned up his life, served a prison sentence and decided to settle down with a nice girl and go legit. Unfortunately, a new Rhino appeared and, in part due to Spider-Man's attempted intervention, killed Aleksei's love, resulting in his decision to return to his life of crime, killing the new Rhino and vowing to do the same to his longtime foe as well.

Spider-Man (1994) Series 3- Rhino w/ Head Ramming Action (1995)
Rhino's first action figure was released in the third series of the 1994 Spider-Man toyline, based on the cartoon of the time, Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Rhino is a completely original sculpt unique to the character, though this mold was repainted and rereleased multiple times over the toyline's long run.

By the nature of the character, Rhino is quite a bit thicker and wider than the rest of the standard release figures in the line, with reduced articulation to compensate. Rhino includes no additional accessories, but he does include an action feature gimmick: his titular "Head Ramming Action". Rhino features a spring on his back that, when pressed, causes his head to extend out from his body, to replicate his signature charging attack.

Interestingly, due to a production error, Rhino was delayed past the release of the rest of his wavemates, and was initially extremely rare.

Spider-Man (1994) Series 7- Total Armor Rhino (1996)
A new Rhino was released in the 1996 seventh series of figures in the same Spider-Man line, briefly redubbed "The Amazing Spider-Man: Special Collector's Series". In an attempt to seem like a better value, each of the releases in the series included an increased number of accessories.

Rhino is a straight rerelease of the previous Head Ramming Action figure, with eight new accessories; a piece of chest armor, two shoulder pads, two armored wrist bands, two armored ankle bands, a large spiked hammer, and a large battleaxe.

Rhino retains the same action feature as the previous release; when the level on his back is squeezed, his head extends to recreate his "charge" attack.

Marvel Hall of Fame Series 1- Rhino (1996)
The first series of the Marvel: Hall of Fame toyline was a collection of slight repaints of other figures from the various 5" Toybiz Marvel lines, released at specialty retailers like Puzzle Zoo and Meyers, before the line transitioned into repainting figures into other, more obscure characters.

Rhino was another rerelease of the the Series 3 Rhino with Head Ramming Action figure, but with a completely different color scheme. He now features a dark brown armor, with a darker colored horn and the light grey detailing repainted gold.

Spider-Man:Web Trap- Rampaging Rhino (1997)
Released as part of the deluxe Spider-Man: Web Trap subline spin-off of the Spider-Man toyline tied in to Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Rampaging Rhino was the second original mold created for the character by Toybiz. The new mold features significantly more sculpted detail than the previous release, and stands even taller to be more in-line with the character's in-universe height. While the previous release of Rhino included slightly below average articulation for the line, Rampaging Rhino's balljointed shoulders give him a higher degree of movement.

Like the rest of the Web Trap toyline, Rampaging Rhino forgoes the inclusion of action feature gimmicks for a separate gimmick accessory; the titular "web trap". Rhino includes a "Web Foot Snare", a piece of wood with a snare made of Spider-Man's webs designed to open up and "catch" villains like Rhino on the foot.

Spider-Man 3 Movie Classics- Rhino (2007)
Rhino was one of the comic-based characters included in the 5" Spider-Man 3 Movie Classics line. Like the rest of the comic characters in the line, Rhino is redesigned to look more like a character in the universe of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, in this case, Rhino was designed based on the designs for the character seen in Spider-Man 2: The Video Game and Spider-Man 3: The Video Game, which in-turn draws some inspiration from the Ultimate Comics look for the Rhino.

The figure includes two accessories- a large signpost that he can wield in either hand as a bludgeon, and a removable Spider-Man sticker, included with every figure in the series. Rhino, like most of the line, also includes an action feature gimmick- in this case, he includes "Head Smash Action", involving chest bending forward to strike enemies with his head.

Spider-Man Classics Series 2- Rhino (2001)
The first of the 6-inch scale Rhino figures was created in 2001's second wave of the Toybiz Spider-Man Classics series, where he served as the series' one-per-case villain figure. Rhino is based on the second iteration of his classic costume, when additional armor was added including shoulder pads and a bulked up chest-piece.

Rhino emphasizes the increased sculpt detail that Toybiz's move from the 5 to 6 inch scale allows, at the cost of the higher standard of articulation set by the smaller figures in the line. Despite Rhino's massive size, the figure includes two accessories- like every other figure, Rhino has a detailed, unique based; a wrecked street with crushed Broadway sign and scattered debris, and a pack-in comic- The Amazing Spider-Man #41, the first appearance of the Rhino.

A variant of the figure exists that replaces the reprinted comic with a foil poster of the character instead.

Spider-Man Classics Series 9- Rhino (2004)
Released after the creation of the Marvel Legends toyline spinning out of the design ethos behind the Spider-Man Classics line, the second Rhino figure from the Classics line represents the modified design ethics of the series after the original concept of pushing the boundaries of sculpting and articulation of retail figures, to being based more on action features and reducing the articulation to accommodate. Rhino is based on his Ultimate Comics redesign, but with the human face of his classic design.

Rhino's action feature involves a "Ramming Attack" gimmick, where his head extends upwards to strike things and knock things down, including his accessory- a large brick wall made up of four pieces that connect to a small base, which is repainted from a Hulk movie figure. Unfortunately, this action feature vastly limits the movement in both Rhino's head and his legs, and often leaves him with extremely loose hips that make him difficult to pose.

Marvel Legends Gift Set- Spider-Man's Fearsome Foes (2005)
Toybiz's final release of Rhino came in the Spider-Man's Fearsome Foes giftset in the Marvel Legends toyline. Included alongside a new version of the McFarlane Spider-Man seen previously in the Sinister Six set, Lizard, Vulture and an update to the previously released Carnage, Rhino is an entirely new sculpt based on his classic costume, combining the focus on sculpt that the original Classics figure emphasized alongside increased standards of articulation from the Marvel Legends line.

Rhino, like most of the figures in this boxset, does not include any specific accessories. He has a personalized small base like the others, which features a static image of Rhino on a plain, yellow background, and the set includes a poster book featuring images of Rhino and the rest of the characters in the set.

Spider-Man: Origins Series 1- Rhino (2007)
The first Hasbro Rhino figure came in the the collector-focused "Spider-Man: Origins" toyline, which was a rebranded version of the Spider-Man: Classics line, which itself was reshelled into the Spider-Man 3: Classics line of 5" scale figures based on the Raimi Spider-Man films.

Rhino is a repaint of the original Spider-Man: Classics series 2 Rhino figure, with the shoulder armor and wristbands painted into a metallic silver. The transition into the Origins line has caused the figure to lose his detailed base, replacing it with a simpler, circular black stand with the line's logo on it. It also loses the pack-in comic.

Marvel Legends Rhino Infinite Series- Build-A-Figure (2015)
Rhino was the Build-A-Figure for the second wave of the Marvel Legends: Infinite Series Spider-Man figures, and an entirely original sculpt based on the character's Heroic Age through Ends of the Earth costume, with an alternate head more based on the character's classic costume. Rhino's torso was included with either White Tiger or Misty Knight, both his modern and classic heads were included with the Ben Reilly Scarlet Spider, Superior Venom included the left arm, while Chameleon included the right arm. Rhino's left leg was packed in with Ghost Rider, while his right leg came with Kraven the Hunter.

While Rhino is intended to have swapping heads to represent both potential looks of the character, an unfortunate design oversight on some early shipped copies of the figure resulted in the mushroom peg where the neck connects into the torso is the same size as the limbs are, making a connection permanent without using boiling water to remove it, forcing one to shave down the plastic around the peg to make the fit less tight. This error was revised in later shipments of the figure, restoring the feature for all but the earliest adopters of the wave.

Spider-Man (2010)- Power Charge Rhino (2010)
Rhino is one of the few villain figures released in the first year of the 2010 Spider-Man toyline spun-off of the 3 3/4" Marvel Universe line. Rhino is an entirely original sculpt, with a great deal of sculpted detail and much increased size over the standard figures of the line.

Rhino included six accessories- a pair of gauntlets that fit over top his normal fists, a pair of spiked shoulder pads, and a pair of small knee-pads. The knee-pads are held on with clear rubber bands out of the package- without these rubber bands, the pads are only loosely held on by gravity and will fall off at the slightest touch.

Like all of the single-card releases of the line, Power Charge Rhino includes a set of interconnecting Spider-Man trading cards designed to interact with the dice game included with the series.

Spider-Man (2010)- Land Attack Battle Pack- Rock-Crusher Rhino (2012)
Near the end of the 2010 Spider-Man toyline's life, a number of three character Battle Packs made up of repaints focusing on some of the more popular, harder to find villain figures of the series' run were released. Rock-Crusher Rhino, included in the Land Attack Battle Pack, is a repaint of the Power Charge Rhino, changing his color schemes to a series of purplish-blue hues and bright orange highlights, meant to evoke a lava-style of lighting.

Rock-Crusher Rhino contains the same accessories as the single card release; two spiked shoulder pads, two gauntlet weapons and two kneepads, each repainted with a highlight wash in the lava-esque orange. Like the single release, Rock-Crusher Rhino's knee pads are held on by rubber bands to hold them in place for most poses.