Back in 2009, it seemed like all the toy companies were moving down to 3.75”/4” figures for the sake of cutting costs. Naturally, this made me ecstatic. Now I could have my G.I. Joes and Starfleet crew members fight battle droids and Terminators! Of course, the offerings Playmates put out weren’t the best, but hey, it was something. While I never collected them, it was sad to see Marvel Legends go, but I now had a reason to collect figures from that franchise. Now, it seems like Hasbro has been cutting costs once again, and now, they’ve sacrificed that one thing I consider sacred: articulation.
Hawkeye is one of those characters that I never really got. He seems to be really popular but he never did much for me. Maybe I couldn’t see past the silly purple outfit (and maybe that’s why I keep doing the STUPID STUPID act of not buying Dark Hawkeye whenever I see him…) but he was always just one of those “other guys” in the Avengers for me. Thankfully, his movieverse outfit is one that I can most certainly get behind.
Of course, looking nice isn’t all there is to an action figure these days, so let’s get down to it.
Hawkeye’s movie design has that sort of “forced realism” look movies based on comic books tend to have, but it actually works here. It looks realistic enough, and basically takes his comic design and makes it much less goofy. The dark blue and the purple complement each other incredibly well. The paint job is well-applied and sharp, down to every last silver buckle and even the SHIELD logos all on some of his straps. From a design standpoint, his uniform looks damn good.
His head sculpt is probably my favorite part of the figure. Even with the glasses on, you can tell that it’s Jeremy Renner, no question. The glasses do look a bit goofy, but I don’t think he’d be Hawkeye without them. They’re sculpted a bit strangely, however… like they go into his hair but don’t come out behind his ears? Oh well, minor details.
But now let’s get to the elephant in the room: the articulation. The Avengers figures have sacrificed a lot of articulation, and it really hurts Hawkeye. Maybe I got spoiled by buying him alongside Black Widow, but he just feels so lackluster. Hawkeye is one of those figures that I think would need a lot of articulation, especially ankle rockers and wrists. He’s got a bow; he should be able to use it!
And speaking of which… he sure has some weird ones. He comes with two bows; one of which is meant to be mounted in the missile launcher. The bows are nicely sculpted and fit in his hands with no trouble. The missile launcher is just weird, however. He has three different missiles which is cool, but none of them actually “click” into place. You have to pull them back, kind of like a real bow and arrow? Again, cool, but a little too odd for me.
While Hawkeye might look really cool, he sacrifices a LOT in the articulation department. It’s a shame, really, because I was greatly looking forward to this figure. Still, I’d recommend him just on the basis of being Hawkeye, and because of that he’ll probably be hard to find, so if you’re at FPNYC, be sure to keep an eye out!
