In 1984, the 14-year-old Anthill had all but stopped playing with toys. Sure, my 8-year-old brother could occasionally talk me into joining him in a “battle” with his G.I. Joe or He-Man figures, but for the most part my interest in plastic playthings had waned, and my allowance was being spent on grown-up stuff like comic books. As luck would have it, this ad began to appear on the back of many comics of the time:
I was immediately captivated. Having grown up in the 1970s, all of my comic book action figures were Megos. Kenner’s 3 3/4-inch made my beloved toys and their cloth costumes look positively antique. Their bright colors, sharp sculpts, and overall aesthetic hooked me immediately, not to mention made me consider DC in a new light. Growing up, I was a Marvel zombie; DC characters seemed like kids stuff, thanks to years of uninspired comics and Saturday morning fare like the Super Friends. The Super Powers Collection changed all of that for me.
While I fell short of meeting Kenner’s mandate to “collect them all!” I did pick up a few. I snagged a Green Lantern, Batman, Robin, and the subject of today’s article: Hawkman.
Hawkman was an impressive figure for the time and still looks great today. For a start, he’s ripped; this guy looks like he could open a beer bottle with his biceps and do laundry on his abs. His wings, while small, still sport an impressive amount of detail, with both the lesser and greater coverts, as well as primary, secondary, and axillary feathers. That’s pretty remarkable for a mass-market toy, let alone one from this time period.
Especially impressive is the figure’s head sculpt. It’s a great likeness that doesn’t skimp on little touches like the helmet’s wings and iconic beak-nose. It’s kind of odd to see the Avian Avenger smiling, but hey, it was the 1980s — it seemed like our best days were still ahead of us.
Hawkman sports his classic color scheme of green and red, with yellow accents. With the exception of a small amount of spillage between Hawkman’s pecs, everything here is super-clean, from the stripes on his boots to the black hawks-head tampo on his harness. Areas like the torso and arms are molded plastic, but it’s a nice, even tone that looks better than a lot of the “flesh colored” plastic of today. Considering the character’s Egyptian roots, he might have had more of a tan, but it’s really a non-issue with a figure this sharp.
All of the Super Powers offerings were equipped with an action feature activated by moving the figure’s arms or legs. Hawkman had “power action flight wings,” which sounds mighty impressive, but was less so in person. Squeezing his legs made his feathered appendages flap slightly back and forth — it wasn’t great, but happily it did not impede the figure’s articulation. Hawkman moved at the neck, wings, shoulders, hips, and knees. It’s fairly basic compared to the toys of today, but it was still more impressive than the industry-standard “big 5” scheme. Unlike your Star Wars figures, Hawkman could actually sit in a chair — that is, if you could find one that could accommodate his wingspan.
As far as accessories go, Hawkman came with a mace. It was molded in a silver-grey suggestive of the Thangarian Nth metal all of the Hawk’s weapons were forged from. Sadly, mine is long-lost, but the DC Universe Classics figure featured a fairly faithful update.
While he certainly wasn’t one of DC’s most popular characters, Hawkman was nonetheless included in series one, along with heavy-hitters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Unlike the toy offerings of today, Kenner made it a point of including older figures in case-packs along with newer figures, ensuring that kids who were “late to the party” still had a crack at their favorites. It was a great retail model, and one that today’s toy manufacturers would do well to reconsider.
The Super Powers Collection sadly ended after wave three, but that wasn’t the last toy collectors would see of Hawkman. At least some of the figure’s tooling was later used on the ToyBiz DC Superheroes version of Hawkman, as well as providing the arms and torso for Little John in Kenner’s own Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves line.
Nostalgia is a funny thing. It often colors our memories, making the mundane into something more mysterious and magical. Happily, I can say that Hawkman is just as cool as he was all those years ago. He can easily stand against any 3 3/4-inch version of the character released since, which is pretty impressive. In spite of advances in sculpting, paint application, and articulation, he remains a terrific figure and a worthwhile addition to any toy shelf.
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Jason R Mink is the Man in the Anthill
