1993 Mail Away General Hawk
A lot of the 90‘s mail aways are some pretty weird figures. Whereas early mail away items were often early releases of figures like Major Bludd or Duke, and often entirely new characters like Star Duster, by the 90‘s, they went to doing more repaints of older figures. The result of this was often gaudy figures that were non-essential to a collection, but are interesting in their own right for the bright alternative colors, such as with this General Hawk.
Straight away, the most distinct aspect of this figure is the loud color scheme he comes in. It’s actually not that bad, as the colors themselves look somewhat harmonious; the brightness of the greens and yellows are certainly on par with Eco-Warriors or Funskool, however. Since the figure’s exact role is somewhat open for interpretation, I could see him being used in a couple of ways with these bright colors. He pairs well with the Star Brigade, so using him as an extra astronaut alongside Roadblock is an option. He also matches up pretty well with Clean Sweep and ’91 Flint thanks to those colors, so it wouldn’t be out of place to use him as an Eco Warrior too.
Ultimately, the appeal this figure provides is pure novelty. Other versions of the sculpt including the original release are superior in most aspects, but the fun and distinctly loud 90‘s colors are what makes this figure interesting. The ‘91 Hawk mold is a really strong sculpt I like collecting repaints of, so it was inevitable that this figure would have a home in my collection. If I were less of a toy-hoarder and kept a smaller collection, I’d definitely chose a different version of this sculpt to have over this one. I don’t have to make those choices though, so I like this figure for how he pairs with his contemporaries.
The parts included here are pretty lackluster, though in ways they’re apart of the oddness that makes the figure fun. While the first release of this sculpt included a nifty jet pack with folding wings, you instead get a black version of Super Sonic Fighters Major Bludd’s backpack with this release. Additionally, the original gun and helmet from ‘91 Hawk are carried forward with this release, in bright green and bright yellow respectively.
For a very long time after his release, surplus mail away Hawks were available and cheap. I got this figure MISB around 2011, and paid a humble $10 for him as I recall. Not much has changed, and there’s still good amounts of these that appear sealed in their bags for around $20. There’s a few other versions of this mold I’d consider better than this release, but there’s something here to love if only for the neon.
It’s weird which mail aways have become rare and which haven’t. This Hawk was in the same mail away pamphlet as the Ninja Viper. Ninja Vipers are hard to find. Hawks are not. So, either Hasbro made a lot fewer of the Cobra mail aways, or they were all bought by the kids of the era and we only view Hawk as common due to the overstock that was dropped into the community. (Which proves how small the Joe the community is and that the difference between a “rare” figure and a common figure might be just a few thousand samples.
As for this figure, it’s visually spectacular. It’s worth having for that reason alone. Its one of those figures that I’ve very glad exist as it’s not something I would ever know I wanted. He’s a great companion for Roadblock and works with the rest of the 1994 Star Brigade, too.
Army builder hoarder mentality might be a factor, too. People were willing to pay more for more Ninja Vipers and then most of them never do anything with them besides the OCD rows of figures ona shelf. LOL
Lee’s Toy Scalper rag offered some mail aways for “Free” with a subscription to their magazine, International Action Force and Ninja Viper were among them. For all we know they are still hoarding them!
I mail-ordered this guy as a kid, but I can’t remember ever playing with him, even though I broke his gun so I must’ve used him at some point. I like what they did with the Bludd jetpack, becuase it’s something they did too rarely in the vintage and repaint lines: reassigning up accessories based on what they were, not just who they went with. Too often, when Hasbro repainted a figure, they either automatically included the original figure’s accessories, or else included random ones. Both approaches could be lazy. The former gave us oddities like 98 Vypra (why does she have ninja weapons?) or Volga (does every woman have to have an arrow-based weapon?), while the latter led to the other 93 mail-ins having useless accessories like Dodger’s rifle, and to the TRU 6packs having terrible accessories. But giving Hawk Bludd’s jetpack was a third way, that required some creative thought. I’d say the same goes for the Ninja-Viper; Jinx’s swords are a perfect addition.
Now that you’ve mentioned the possible use with Eco-Warriors, I have a strong desire for this figure. That picture of this Hawk with Ozone et al. works really well.
This mold is cool, but unfortunately the helmet is one of those commonly missing things, which makes picking one of these figures up require a little more work than I like! Hahaha.