What’s that you say? The Ghost Hawk II?! Is that even out yet?
No, it has not yet been released officially, though I was able to acquire a nearly complete sample (minus the Duke pilot, which was pretty heartbreaking, I gotta tell you). The good news is, the vehicle is on Pre-Order at Big Bad Toy Store, and honestly, I strongly believe it’s worth your consideration, especially at a very reasonable $24.99 price point.
It’s far from perfect, and actually I almost feel like I nitpick it a little bit too much in my review, but I’m trying to be as objective as possible. It is a very fun, larger than expected plane that could potentially serve your G.I. Joe team well, if you can get over some minor detractions. The links below will give you what you need!
- Pre-Order this vehicle at Big Bad Toy Store!
- G.I. Joe: Retaliation Review Page
- G.I. Joe: Retaliation Ghost Hawk II
Thanks for the review. The orange missiles are just garish. The zip line is cool but the lack of detail is a bummer. The underside of the tail just looks unfinished. If you were to compare this toy against the Retaliator for example you would think one is a knock off.
This looks like a Lanard jet, and those missiles could almost have been lifted from a Toxic Crusaders playset or something. Yikes.
Not bad. This is the only vehicle from this line I intend to buy.
Great review, thanks. Is there a chance we could get a side-by-side shot with the Black Dragon?
Thanks! Unfortunately, I can’t at the moment. I’m in the middle of moving and pretty much all of my vehicles are packed up in storage.
Ah, I’m not surprised. You’re always good about the comparison pics, so I figured you didn’t have access to the Black Dragon.
The underside of the tail is hollow? Easy pass…
Awesome review, I’m liking the size and price point overall. I’m one of the few interested in seeing the driver. I want to see if his helmet is removable or not. lol.
It looks like a Steel Brigade Delta helmet to me so I would think it would be. I guess we’ll see.
Even cheaper at TRU, oddly: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12827408&prodFindSrc=search
They’ll probably make up for it in shipping, but $21.99 ain’t bad.
You know, if the change in articulation on the drivers will help with give us better sized vehicles, I’m fine with that. The Helicopter from RoC was incredibly disappointing because of how small it was. Same with the Black Dragon. This is the size that those vehicles should have been.
Although the Black Dragon is small I think it has a better overall “finish” than this product. The BD has the cool wings, gun and bombs while the zipline compartment on this just looks half finished. I really want to like this toy but I’m going to have to think about it before I buy.
Geez, it’s starting to look worse than Chap Mei quality – I always hated hollow ordinance…
Sorry, but this round the Joes loose to this:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11537933
True Heroes AB-115 Shark, which I know is more expensive at $45, but C’MON! Hasbro should take note.
http://trus.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pTRU1-10142310dt.jpg
Unless you want to regularly pay more for vehicles from now on, these are the sacrifices they have to make to keep costs down.
They could have chopped out the “double decker” engines and just put one on either side to further reduce the cost.
Or even rid themselves of the whole tilt-engine feature and wing tips, leaving just a pair of barrel engines.
And they could have chucked the refueling pipe, and half the stickers.
Hasbro could make this a whole lot cheaper so we can get this cheaper. Good call!
in the pics was that the Duke figure that the Ghost Hawk is supposed to come with? If not could you post a couple of picks of that figure just to see what its like?
He clearly states in his post that he doesn’t have the figure. I assume that’s the wave 1 Duke figure.
Ok, didn`t see that part of the post. I must have skipped over it when I read it the first time. Thanks Erik
maybe it’s an illusion, but it looks like it could have fairly easily been a two seater.
Lots of space in that shell….
You know. If they scrapped the figure entirely they could have probably knocked it into a lower price point . . . with all the figures I have and how many value packs are bound to be released I wouldn’t miss the figure tbh. I shouldn’t pick up anything aside from figures, due to space concerns, but I might give into temptation with this one.
I usually leave the driver in the vehicle anyway so I don’t care about the reduced articulation, but compared to other Joes it just seems like a waste.
Like I mentioned above there’s plenty of figures for me to cram in there so I wouldn’t have been upset by vehicles without figures.
I wouldn’t either but parents prefer having the vehicles come with drivers. They think they’re getting a better deal that way instead of having to pay more to get a separate figure to go in the driverless vehicle.
I am the only one seeing a great opportunity to repaint this as a modern, albeit smaller, Rattler? Perhaps it’s been mentioned before.
Nice review, when I saw your front and side pictures of the hawk; I couldn’t help but see that maybe as a prototype it had a longer wing span and a longer body. The front of the plane looks like it is larger than the wings and tail sections.