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Brightest Day Hawkman Action Figure

By Hervé St-Louis
March 14, 2012 - 13:06

The Brightest Day Hawkman action figure features the latest redesign of the character and his reboot in the yearlong comic book series. Hawkman played an important role in the series as the avatar of the air elements that had, with the help of his wife Shiera Hall, defeat their ancestral opponent and thus end the cycle of death and rebirth they had been subjected to for centuries.  

The action figure is a composite of the designs from Ivan Reis and Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark and Joe Prado. I believe Ardian Syaf was the principal illustrator of the Hawkman segments. Fine details such as Hawkman’s harness are carefully reproduced. The trumpeted nose beak on his helmet which differs from that of several Hawkman classic illustrators before Syaf is reproduced too. The one thing that’s missing is the claw of Horus which Hawkman carried continuously during the series. The wings on Hawkman’s helmet are also considerably larger and longer than in the comic book.

DCDirect is using a similar mould for all of the Brightest Day action figures, so the sculpt is unoriginal.  It’s Hawkman looking mostly down which is not great. I wish he was looking up and that his body wasn’t so push forward. Of course, the wings, on his back it makes sense. The wings look way nicer than some other Hawkman figures like the Identity Crisis Hawkman but nit as beautiful as the first Hawmkan action figure ever created by DCDirect, the classic set that came with Hawkgirl from 1999. Hawkman just stand there like a super hero and so the pose it boring. Because of his wings, it’s difficult to pose him in any other way.

The paint job is excellent with no spills and lots of shiny painting on his helmet and his boots. I’d say, the boots are the least good looking part of the painting. The gold paint application is not thick enough to completely cover the base shiny red underneath.  The default calves rotation means that the gold stripes on the front his boots are not aligned properly with the lower knees areas. The wings have nice tones instead f being just uniformly grey.

Hawkman is about 6.75 inches tall. He towers just a bit over the first DCDirect Hawkman action figure. However, he is taller than the Martian Manhunter action figure released in the same series and that doesn’t make sense. I’d say the Martian Manhunter is probably the one with a problem. I put this Hawkman next to the Justice League International Batman and he looked fine.

Although Hawkman comes with a round Brightest Day action figure stand, it’s useless for him. He’s so stiff that only the foot in the peg hole rests on the stand. The other one floats. The stand does not help Hawkman’s stability at all. On surfaces like a table,  I found that Hawkman could stand up on his own for hours. However, his stability is very fragile and he will fall easily without the badly designed action figure stand.

Hawkman has 15 articulations and 17, if you count the wings on his back. The articulations are very stiff which is good. I’m not sure I would have given him articulations at the calves though. They serve no use and make the sculpting not as good.

DCDirect uses a tougher plastic that isn’t as soft as the one they used to make their older action figures with. It feels like the same grade of plastics as used by Mattel or Hasbro. It will make your action figure more durable. Hawkman’s arms and torso are built in a darker skin tone plastic.

I don’t count the wings as props. Although I like that you have to assemble them yourself.  The action figure stand had paint smudge on it, meaning quality control was deficient. The morning star used by Hawman is not my favourite. It find it too long, although it’s relatively easy to fit in Hawkman’s hand.

The packaging used by DCDirect felt like it was slit open at the top. It wasn’t. It featured generic information on the Brightest Day series. Still, companies like DCDirect still have not figured how to lower the packaging to preserve the environment. More cardboard is needed!

Released in July 2011, at the time of writing, this action figure was available from comic book stores and other hobby places relatively easily.  It’s not a rare item at all.

Rating: 7.5 /10

Last Updated: July 21, 2024 - 13:40