Toys / Toy Collecting

Thunder Hawk (aka T.Hawk)

By Hervé St-Louis
June 18, 2005 - 23:26

A native warrior of the Thunderfoot Tribe, T.Hawk is a Mexican Indian that went into the Street Fighter tournament to get revenge against M.Bison who displaced his people from their home. T. Hawk is graceful and strong. He practices the Rising Hawk, Diving Hawk, and Spinning Face Slam manoeuvres. His first appearance was in Street Fighter Two.

Likeness

Everything about this figure is right. Sota’s sculptors added some extra details such as engraved markings on T. Hawk’s belt and patterns in the edges of the figure’s boots. Other details such as T.Hawk’s sparky eyebrows and leather material for the belt.

Sculpt

The sculpt is incredible. On T.Hawk’s jacket, there are two layers of fringes. Ditto for T.Hawk’s boots. T.Hawk’s hands feel lifelike. The back of each of his digit have skin folds, just like real people. Rarely do sculptors go that far in details. T.Hawk looks calm as if he were meditating.

Paint

The paint job is uneven. Whereas T.Hawk’s clothes have jeans’ material colouring, the skin colour of his hands and wrists don’t match. The application, however is clean. There are no spills. On a figure with so many sculpted details, it’s easy to have errors.

Scale

T. Hawk is in the large Sota Street Fighter scale. Officially he measures 7.5 feet. He is taller than M.Bison, Blanca, Sagat and Sodom. This makes T.Hawk the tallest Street Fighter action figure released so far. As all Sota Street Fighter action figures are in scale with each other, all figures fit each other.

Stability

T. Hawk is stable but not entirely. Although his soles are flat, T.Hawk’s toes bend easily. His heavy weight helps anchor him on the ground. Unfortunately Sota Toys doesn’t drill peg holes within his figure’s feet. This makes posing the figure much more difficult. The new double joint articulation makes adjusting the figure’s knees for balance more difficult as the joints are stiff.

Articulation

T. Hawk has 27 articulations at the neck, the abdominal, the waist, the shoulders, the biceps, the elbows, the wrists, the palms, the hips, the thighs, double articulations at the knees, articulations at the ankles, the soles and the toes. T. Hawk’s head, shoulders and hips have ball joints. Sota Toys uses a new single hinge to link the double articulations of the figure’s knees. It makes the figure more difficult to pose.

Plastic

Sota used PVC to manufacture T.Hawk. It’s strong enough, but be careful not to pull or push too much on articulations. They can break. Another drawback is that once the articulations are loosened, your action figure’s stability will continuously be shaky. The fringes, the jacket, his boots and T. Hawk’s hair and the feathers on his head are in soft rubber.

Props

T.Hawk doesn’t have an alternate head, unlike most Street Fighter action figures. He does come with his pet hawk that fits in a peg hole on his right shoulder. Besides the alternate set of hands, there are no other props. Feather patterns etched on the animal.

Packaging

All Street Fighter action figures from this wave came the same package as T. Hawk. The only change is the leaflet Sota inserted. Sota’s packages are clear bubbles and can only be opened with scissors. The package’s appearance have improved compared with the first wave released by Sota.

Cost

T. Hawk and other Sota Street Fighter action figures cost about $12 US and about $16 Canadian, depending on the store. These figures are much more affordable than other figures such as DC Direct. With all that one gets with the package, these figures are a steal.

Availability

T. Hawk is not the most popular Street Fighter character. Sota’s Street Fighter’s action figures are not as popular as say, Marvel Legends. If you want to get this figure, don’t wait too long. The first wave has nearly sold out within six months. The figures are difficult to find outside North America, and they ship later to comic book stores who use Diamond Comics as their distribution channel.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12