General Hawk (Attack on the Pit)

Being the General Hawk fan that I am, I cried a little on the inside upon learning that the movie-accurate version of one of my favorite characters was slated to only come with a $120 playset. A playset that, at the time, I thought looked ridiculous and well... very unfun. Well more recent images and posts have made the Pit look considerably MORE fun, but I'm still not at a point where I can drop $120 on it, so Hawk still continued to elude me... at least until now.

When we saw some early pictures of this figure, I was pretty far on the fence. Sure, he was obviously a Dennis Quaid inspired General Hawk figure, but in a t-shirt and gray camo pants? Hmmm...not sold. Well, then we all saw carded pictures, and a single thing changed my mind: JET PACK!

Sure, it's the same Jet Pack that came with Duke in the Resolute 5-Pack, but it's still a damn JET PACK! G.I. Joe newcomers might not be aware that Hawk came with a jetpack back in 1991, so this was a very cool homage, even if the General doesn't end up using it in the film. But even beyond the whole jetpack angle, getting a closer look at this single pack Hawk revealed just how bad ass a figure this is, even as a t-shirted fifty-something year old with skinny arms.

Honestly, how cool can a figure be, just wearing a t-shirt and camouflage pants? Well, the answer is, if you add in a removable shoulder holster, some cool weapons, and a jet pack, the figure can still be really damn cool. The head sculpt is nearly perfect, looking just like the Quaid version of Hawk looks like in the film. It baffles me how this head can look so close to the actor's likeness, but then Baroness looks nothing like the normally beautiful Sienna Miller. I'm sure there's a reason for it, I just have no idea what it is.

Beyond the head, you have a fairly generic lightly detailed t-shirt body. At one point Hasbro seemed reluctant to do bare arms with joints showing, or if they did so, they did it poorly, but thankfully they seem to have gotten beyond that. Hawk has some great swivel wrists that don't disrupt the sculpt, and has full range of motion in all joints. This is a Joe figure I can get behind, even as a fairly plain looking one.

The paint apps are generic, as many of these figures are, with a plain black t-shirt and gray camouflage pants, but I actually don't mind all that much, plus he matches well with the rest of the movie cast.

As I've already mentioned numerous times, what's great about this figure is the gear. His pistol is the same one that comes with many other Reactive Armor figures, and... good news! He actually has a holster for it, which is great. The holster is on his hip, not on his shoulder, which is too bad. He's got a permanently attached holster there. I really don't know why Hasbro's taken a step back this way, as they were getting pretty damn good at doing the holster/sheath thing in the Anniversary line, but this is one facet of the movie line I think they've taken a step backwards with. I like how the shoulder straps are removable, but it just seems too bad that there's no active holster.

The jetpack is great...I loved it with Duke, and I love it here, too. Flip-up wings, rotating stabilizers, a cool new deco. It looks great. I doubt it'll ever appear in the movie like this, but it's a great looking little backpack anyway and a nice homage to his '91 figure. What rounds off this very nice selection is a cool looking, high-impact assault rifle. Sure, the submachine guns are all well and good, but give me a flat out nasty looking rifle any day. This one looks really good.

From head to toe, even as an ordinary figure, this is a great one. Great actor likeness, awesome sculpting, good paint applications, and a nice load of cool accessories. One of my favorite characters, and a great rendition of that character, this is a figure I've really been looking forward to, and I wasn't disappointed. At some point I'll have to figure out how to get my movie-accurate "Pit" Hawk, but until then, this one fits the bill just fine.

Buy this figure at Big Bad Toy Store!

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