G.I. Joe: Retaliation - Ghost Hawk II

For folks who haven't been around the G.I. Joe community long the kind of fan outcry towards G.I. Joe: Retaliation is probably a new event. Ever since 2007, I think the fandom at large has been relatively happy with what's been going on from Hasbro, at least in regards to figure design, sculpting, and articulation.

Those of us who were online in the year 2002 know all too well what can happen to the fans when Hasbro dares experiment with a tried and true articulation formula. Now, with Hasbro's full blown regression to a 5 point of articulation standard with their vehicle drivers, fan rampage has overtaken the web, at least in regards to those specific pieces.

Honestly, I can't blame them one bit. I put a pretty narrow focus on this issue with a post about the comparisons between an unreleased Clutch figure and the upcoming Swamp-Viper and I stand by those thoughts. This reduced articulation is a real shame. I do understand Hasbro's perspective to a degree, and in talking with Derryl DePriest at Toy Fair, the cost reduction scenarios make sense, but that doesn't make it any less irritating for us long time fans who essentially got into this line 30 years ago because of how the toys could move.

Granted, the main line releases, by and large, maintain most of the articulation standards we're used to. Sure, there are missing ankles and only single joint knees in some cases, but not the massive and drastic reduction in movement from the vehicle drivers.

Now, unfortunately, because of the spotlight on these reduced articulation figures, many of the nice features of the vehicles themselves are being overlooked, especially when it comes to the Ghost Hawk II. Now, it's not perfect by any means, but it's a nicely sized, neatly designed attack aircraft that really fits the G.I. Joe aesthetic well.

When this vehicle was first shown, there were immediate concerns about how big it was, and I had those concerns myself. After all, it looked remarkably like the Black Dragon, and that Cobra helicopter was most well known for just how small it was. How could we expect any different this time around? Well, turns out by reducing the articulation on the driver and reducing costs for production, Hasbro was able to invest a little more money back into the vehicle itself and make it larger without a huge impact on the price point. This particular vehicle falls in line with the established $24.99 MSRP, yet manages to be significantly larger than the aforementioned Black Dragon.

Now what would have been really nice is if Hasbro was able to capitalize on this larger sized vehicle and actually work in some figure storage or nifty play features, both of which are conspicuously absent from the Ghost Hawk. It has an opening cockpit for the pilot, and it has a pretty neat rear transport door where a figure can be "winched" up inside, but unless the figure is just kind of floating around in there, it doesn't serve a huge purpose. As I've mentioned in my review of the 3-Pack Red Ninja, I actually really enjoy the whole zipline play feature, and this vehicle seems to tie pretty closely into that concept, but I'm not really feeling the long term play value of hooking a backpack to a figure and yanking them up into this vehicle.

But while this lack of "play fun" does detract a little bit, I still think the overall design and look of the vehicle is pretty nice. It's got a great, aerodynamic shape. I love the rotating thruster-wings, which actually do call back nicely to the first generation Sky Hawk pretty well. I would have liked to have seen some darker missiles, to be honest, but from a purely design ideal, the vehicle is really cool. Even if there isn't any storage for additional figures, the vehicle looks like there could be due to the large size. One thing you will notice the first time you pull this out to assemble it, though, is that the plastic does feel a bit... I don't know? Not cheap necessarily, but not as sturdy as we might be used to. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't feel like it's about to break or anything, but a lot of the plastic isn't solid...it reminds me of a lot of the vehicles from the 90's that contained lots of hollow elements throughout the vehicle components (which obviously does serve to save material costs). This is especially evident on many of the rockets, which have hollow bottoms and look kind of conspicuous when looking at them from below.

If you read the review, it does seem to sound overwhelmingly negative, and I'm not entirely sure why. I put this thing on my shelf and I do like it. It's large, it's got a great design aesthetic, and it looks really fun. But the missile colors aren't perfect, the play feature isn't the most fun thing out there, and the plastic quality could be better.

Just as a side note, I did not get a figure with this particular vehicle, so I will have to leave that part out of the review, but I suspect most Joe fans won't be that interested in the vehicle driver reviews as it is.

The end result is a vehicle that looks like a lot of fun and fits in really nicely with my modern G.I. Joe display. It's a vehicle that, by all rights, should be a home run, but has enough minor detractions to fall short of excellent. Final tally gives me a potential 4.5 star vehicle that is encombered by enough 2.5 star features to bring the average score down to about 3.5 stars. Where your own opinion falls will determine on how much weight you put into each element. If look and style is all you care about, you may love this thing a lot more than I do...but if you put a priority on play value and durability, you may score it a bit less. Regardless, it's my first G.I. Joe: Retaliation vehicle, and it certainly isn't a bad one. For the one newly tooled and newly designed movie themed vehicle, it fills a nice gap in the modern Joe line, and it fits pretty nicely into the Pursuit of Cobra theme that's been running since 2010.

One other nice bonus is the price point. Sitting at $24.99 at BBTS, that's a pretty affordible price for a vehicle of this size, that actually feels a bit larger than stuff like the 30th Anniversary VAMP, Black Dragon Copter, or even the HISS. Maybe there's a good side to these drivers after all...



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