GigaRhinos: The Parts That Became a Cannon

A cannon from the parts left over

Five vehicles have become one robot. Now there is another assembly to do: the equipment taken off their roofs becomes Gigantis Buster, GigaRhinos’s enormous cannon.

That second build grew out of a practical problem. The artbook says these parts were originally meant to stow inside the body. Product-size constraints and related issues led to removing them during combination instead—and the cannon was born. Look at the silver dome and the pair of long working arms: details that give the vehicles character become the weapon’s most recognizable features. Artbook, p. 044.

The photographs show Bandai’s original Japanese GD-13 DX Chogokin Ju-Riku Gattai GigaRhinos. Its box promises five combining GigaWheels. This is the full combining set, distinct from the miniature vehicles supplied with GigaBitus. Original package and toy.

Three vehicles through the middle

In Seijuu Sentai Gingaman, the five GigaWheels unite as the Steel Starbeast GigaRhinos, which joins the heroes in chapter 30. Its cannon fires plasma rounds in the story. Artbook, p. 044.

Start with the three central machines. GigaWheel 1 supplies the head and back, 2 the chest, and 3 the waist. The gold oval makes the chest vehicle especially easy to track. Below it, the black body remains visible between the red arms and legs. Each pair of pictures lets you follow a vehicle from drawing to manufactured component. Original toy and combination photographs.

One vehicle for both arms, one for both legs

The last two machines divide the work differently. GigaWheel 4 splits lengthwise to make both arms. Its black rear sections become the fists. GigaWheel 5 supplies the entire lower body: the broad front separates into two feet, and the trailer folds upward into legs. The intermediate toy views catch both changes. Original combination photographs.

The wheels do not disappear into the robot. They become a repeated circular pattern across its chest, arms and feet. The artbook singles out the DX toy’s 34 tires, all made as separate parts. Even standing still, GigaRhinos looks like a fleet that has just pulled together. Artbook, p. 044.

Explorers with a rhino’s name

The early vehicles look equipped to investigate somewhere. Drawings 34–41 explore domes, working arms, opening bodies and a long trailer. The book’s caption points to solar panels and working arms and suggests a planetary-exploration image. That is a reading of the designs, rather than a list of fictional missions.

Below them, drawings 42–43 show GigaRhinos’s Starbeast form: a muscular, two-legged rhino. Set beside the vehicles, it makes the finished helmet’s animal identity easier to see. These are creature drawings, not an additional transformation of the photographed toy. The eventual design combines a rhino’s face with a body whose vehicle parts stay conspicuous. Early Sketches, p. 145.

The last part is a face

The red rhino helmet is removable too, but it has a different destination from the cannon fittings. Beneath it is a silver mechanical head, complete with green eyes and instruments above the brow. The finished drawing shows that inner face, and the original DX reproduces it. Artbook, p. 044.

The helmet gives the machine its animal expression. The cannon gathers up the equipment. What looked like a collection of parts to put aside becomes the final two steps of the transformation: arm the robot, then give it its face.