Right now we are on the edge of Toyfair, a time when we learn some of what we may be spending our money on in the coming year. It’s a time of continuation, and a time of rejuvenation. It’s the rejuvenation I’m looking at in this special edition of Update This!
There are tons of properties that are due for updated figures. We already know that Mezco has the rights to Thundercats, so hopefully we may find out something about that. But there’s a similar property that needs an update. They’re partly metal, they’re partly real. They’re Silverhawks, and they could have some great toys.
Silverhawks were a solid B-list property. They had two waves of toys, a cartoon that ran a requisite 65 episodes, and a comic under Marvel’s Star imprint. That’s essentially the trifecta that makes a property a B, just underneath the juggernaut trio of G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe and Transformers.
Like Thundercats, the Silverhawks were a themed team that came together to fight a dual-natured enemy who surrounded himself with some neatly-designed bad-guys. I had a handful of the toys as a kid, but unfortunately grew quickly frustrated by the limitations of the toys due to the wing-spreading action feature and the lesser points of articulation. I watched the cartoon religiously and had several issues of the comic…but I wanted more out of the toys. It was the mid-80s and even a toyline like C.O.P.S. managed to sneak in nearly G.I. Joe levels of articulation. Silverhawks, however, managed only 5 points of articulation. As cool as they were in concept, they just couldn’t compete with other, more playworthy lines.
That could all easily be rectified with a renewed look at the property. They could easily benefit from Marvel Legends-level articulation. Unlike the originals, I’d steer away from chrome for a metallic paintjob on the main Silverhawks. Each Silverhawk would require an alternate head depicting their fully-masked face, something I sorely missed in the original toys.
It was such a badass look, and one that I actually preferred. They each also came with extra birds, the coolest of which was Sideman that came with Bluegrass, who was both bird and guitar. Cowboys–every line had one.
You need a good bad guy for a cool toyline, and Silverhawks benefited by having the aptly named Mon*Star, a giant, armored and spiky bad guy who oozed potential. While the original toy tried (more or less successfully) to give us both his pre-powered up and post, fully armored form by nature of a rather ingenious rotation head gimmick, we should be able to manage two distinct figure to fully replicate his different before-and-after appearances.
My second favorite bad guy was Buzz-Saw, another fully armored dude with (naturally) buzz-saws on his arms, shoulders and head. An updated version of Buzz-saw would be completely nuts. Both of these figures would easily slide into other compatible toylines as great-looking armored characters, so that’s a win-win.
Even if they decided to stop at the core group of five Silverhawks—Quicksilver, Steelheart, Steelwill, Bluegrass and the Copper Kidd–and those two villains, I’d call it a succesful line. I don’t expect every line to have the monumental success of Masters of the Universe when they’re updated. Even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seems to have some difficulty, and you’d think that would be as evergreen as could be. So a nice, small adequate assortment of the main characters would probably scratch the itch. Buuut…there were several ancillary characters in both the toy and cartoon that would be cool to get. Some that were on the cartoon—the super-snazzy Poker Face for one—didn’t get an action figure, and it would be nice to finally get one.
In my eternal quest for everything I loved as a child to receive standout updates, Silverhawks is way up in the top tier of properties I’d love to finally own great versions of. Whether a small core or a cup runneth over deluge, I’d certainly be all in. Maybe this will be the year for them to Update This!
