Reviving G.I. Joe Classics: A Deep Dive into the 2009 R.H.I.N.O. and Its Legacy
Story by Mitchell Smith
Welcome to the Outpost. Today I’m taking a look at the 2009 G.I. Joe R.H.I.N.O. with driver Rampage. This was a repaint of the 2005 version that came with driver Cannonball. Although I love Rampage whose name was changed in 2003 from Heavy Metal to Rampage and came with the Split Fire, I would have loved to see Cannonball too. Heavy Metal is of course the driver of the 1985 Mauler, a vehicle I would have loved to see in a modern version, but I’m happy we did get this version of Heavy Metal. Cannonball would have been epic as a copilot to Rampage and packed with this vehicle. The RHINO was first used by the Sigma6 team and this version is relatively large.
I would say it is roughly the size of the 1990 Avalanche. One of the cool features is the hidden helicopter that springs up and detaches to create a second vehicle. This is a cool helicopter with a two seater cockpit and single rotary blade. I kind of wished they had used the cockpit design for the 2009 Dragonhawk which was the modern version of the Dragonfly. This was only a 1 seater but easily could have been a 2 seater as it is very close maybe slightly bigger than the RHINO’s helicopter. There is plenty of space to make the RHINO a full on transport or command station. There are seats and workstations that make this a great mining command outpost.
I took the projectile missiles off mine but it looks fine either way. I like mine without just because it’s a bit more realistic without them, but they do blend in well and create playability for a battle with your friends. I thought about writing this up as an under appreciated vehicle but this was a Target exclusive and a large vehicle. 2009 rolled out a lot of vehicles so I think most people with enough cash and room would have picked this up. At the time I probably had neither but that’s just how I roll. Over all, this is a great vehicle and one of my favorite helicopters that just has a bad ass look as an attack chopper. Who had this vehicle? Make sure to check back for our next discussion.
