TRANSFORMERS TOYS AND MERCHANDISE SECTION

Robot Mode:
Alternate Mode:
Box Art:
Technical Specifications:
STR
INT
SPD
END
RNK
CRG
FPR
SKL

The Reverend's review: Ramhorn

Name: Ramhorn
Allegiance: Autobot
Function: Warrior
Sub-Group: Cassettes

"Flee before me or else you'll fall before me."

Don't touch him if you value your life, 'cause he'll smash you. Extremely territorial, nasty hair-trigger temper. Best way to deal with him is from a distance. His charge is virtually unstoppable -- can knock a train off its tracks or upend an 18-wheeler with one blow. Has two batteries of three laser-guided, heat-seeking missiles that can lock in and hit a target up to twelve miles away. As cassette, can vibrate and destroy any equipment into which he is inserted.

Looking at his Tech Specs, it appears that Ramhorn is one serious badass. With a Strength rating of 8 and Courage and Endurance both drawing a 9, I take it that the little rhino is capable of smashing through just about anything he feels like, or at least damaging the you-know-what out of it. But his Firepower grade is only a 3, so it appears Ramhorn's twelve-mile missile range is sort of wasted. Well, who cares. If he can upend an 18-wheeler with one blow, surely he can cripple a Decepticon warrior's leg with his headstrong charge. And the smaller ones (like the Terrorcons)? Rodimus should have had Blaster turn Ramhorn loose more often, they'd probably win the war decisively. But I guess that would be no fun...

Alternate Mode:

Ramhorn is a red mini-cassette in this mode, a bit oddly shaped along the top edge. He bears the expected cassette-detail label on one side, with molded cassette-reel teeth. The label is broken up by his leg joints, although they've tried to make up for that by adding extra cassette detail at the bottom center. The markings indicating the tape reels are a solid color now instead of the gradient that was standard on the early Decepticon cassettes. He looks less like a real mini-cassette than some of his brethren, honestly - the gap between his chin and tail at the top is kind of damning - but at least his head isn't obvious like Ravage, Slugfest and Overkill.

Robot Mode:

Ramhorn transforms into his rhino mode in a manner similar to the other quadriped cassettes, although his head flips out from a niche in the side instead of being part of the top edge of the cassette, which is nice. Although he shares the "near-flat" look of his comrades, he's still rendered well with a lot of detail on his head and body, plus hip, knee and ankle joints on each leg. His (non-firing) missile launchers look good on his large body (clearly, the designers wanted to retain the "stout" look of a rhino) and he has prominent ears and horns - the nose horn is particularly large and wicked looking. He has little short legs, but he probably wouldn't look so much the part of a rhino if they were longer. Mainly a dingy red, Ramhorn sports chrome on his legs and golden eyes. Interestingly, his head will not fold down far beyond the "looking ahead" position - so Ramhorn can't "headbutt" with the tip of his horn as bulls do. Then again, since he's shorter than most of his enemies, this probably doesn't matter.

Notably, Ramhorn's weapons actually look the part the Tech Spec describes - three missiles each with a laser targeting scope on top. And since he's got such a large body, the oversized launchers look "right" on him. The cartoon made him look somewhat more cuddly than the toy appears, but I actually prefer the toy's look anyhow. The only thing is... since they opted to hide his head in the cassette's body in alt mode, it had to be slimmer than the heads of Ravage, Overkill and Slugfest. So does he carry his brain module in his head, body, or is he just dim-brained like the dinosaurs? I don't know.

Marks out of ten for the following:

Transformation: 4/10. Easy stuff, although getting the legs back into position for tape mode takes a few tries the first time. The hidden head in cassette mode is an improvement, although it results in another questionable aspect.
Durability: 8/10. The projecting parts on his head could theoretically be weak points. But he's a sturdy little fellow from all appearances.
Fun: 6/20. Smash! Smash! Smash! Well, why not?
Price: 4/10. Getting a complete one costs a few bucks, though not THAT much.
Summary: 6/10. Some people would prefer the Autobot cassettes just didn't exist. I can understand that. But this is a pretty good one.