Hawk O-7 (was O-8 for most of my JoeVerse time, but this figure (1986) has only "one star.")MOS: Artillery SMOS: Radar
This is one of my very earliest figures that I ever had, and often used alongside Low-light (1986) and Sci-fi (1986). Below on the left is my original Hawk figure and on the right is my newer Hawk figure that will be the "commander" of my small GIJoe team.
Back in the day, since I had fewer figures and stuff in general, Hawk was often out simply being a regular GIJoe guy out battling Cobra. On the cartoon, Hawk was in charge.As the years went on and I got more figures, Hawk still remained the head honcho of the GIJoe team for me, but the character (and whatever figure I was using) seemed to become more of a desk-jockey of sorts. And this happened with Cobra Commander as a character for me, too, where each of the top leaders were almost sitting on their command chairs, barking out orders.
Part of my reasoning for going to my "small team" collection was to get my imagination back in gear, and get Hawk back out in action again.
I always thought it would have been awesome if that pistol would fit in that holster. (Take that, B.A.T.-butt!)Interesting how Duke was seemingly the commander of the cartoon team until this 1986 Hawk came out, and the character made his way into the cartoon at that time. But, really unknown to me until 1991/'92, Hawk was the field commander in the comics.
Back in the day, I had Hawk and Serpentor. My Best bud had Beachhead and eventually 1988 Destro as his commanders. (Neither of us ever had Duke.)
Over the years, I have had the 1991 Talking Battle commander, the "jet pack" Hawk, and the 1997 Hawk that came with the A-10 (the figure quality just isn't there on those 1997 figures, in my opinion). The 2000 "TomaHAWK" had that sandy blonde hair that really combined the cartoon and comic characters together, and this was THE Hawk that was usually barking out orders from the HQ. I also bought the GIJoe vs. Cobra version, but that was due to me wanting Headman. (and for some reason I ended up with 2 of these Headman's, and I'm not sure why.)
From here on out, though, it is Hawk (1986), leading from the front...
Ready for Action!
JMM's Comics home page has a great write up on Hawk here!