We are being overrun by pop culture archers. Whether it's Katniss Everdeen, the Green Arrow or Princess Merida, the world is reminding us how awesome it is to stab somebody from a distance. How else would you explain ace archer Hawkeye managing to wheedle his way into The Avengers, a team that features a laser robot, a raging radioactive monster, and an actual God.
We can celebrate his shifty achievement with the extremely freshly released and highly sought after Hot Toys Hawkeye 1/6th scale collectible figure, the second to be assembled after Nick Fury who I reviewed earlier this year.
How does this eerie, life-like - yet tiny - Jeremy Renner stack up? See a whole lot more pictures... after the jump!
You have to be either a) very secure and self-assured, or b) a total pimp, to come packaged in a large purple box. Luckily Hawkeye is probably a little bit of both...
It matches up with the Nick Fury box to an extent, with the large lettering on the top, although the character picture here is much clearer than the last one. No fancy magnets or fold out boxes again either - you simply slide off the outer cardboard sleeve and Hawkeye is glaring at you beneath...
At first glance it might not appear like he's packed with much stuff, but it's actually just well hidden. Hot Toys are always full of surprises. The top layer that houses the figure has a few essentials like alternate archery hands, his iconic sunglasses, and one of his two bows.
But lift off that upper tray and you'll reveal a veritable archery arsenal lurking beneath. Look at all these crazy arrows! Sixteen of them in total and a whole other bow!
This second bow is the one that's permanently folded out and is the only one to have a string. The string is strong but quite elastic and seeing as how the arrows are notched you can pretty much fire them into unsuspecting eyeballs. Probably you're own while you're trying to figure out how all this works. Not that it matters because, as we learned from Nick Fury, eye-patches are cool!
Speaking of cool, look at this alternate arrow heads that can be screwed onto the arrows...
Mostly metallic they resemble a line of tiny lightsaber hilts. Some of them have translucent coloured plastic to resemble some kind of suspiciously nasty chemicals to stealth inject into oncoming adversaries and potential mates.
But you came here to see Renner right? Here's the basic figure without all of his stuff...
His uniform is great and you can see a lot of details on the chestplate that you probably missed in the actual film. It's more complicated than I expected and has little hooks that attach to his belt which then have to be removed if you want to turn his waist. Luckily I have younger sisters and have dealt with plenty of Barbie clothes so I aced all this.
It certainly conjures up Jeremy Renner. If anything I might say that it leans a little on the flattering side, but then so did the Nick Fury sculpt. We're getting the most iconic, heroic, idealised versions of this characters so if they hide the odd wrinkle or tuck in a few things here and there than I understand. But it is one of those sculpts that manages to look great no matter what angle you pose him in. It's an appropriate expression which works well in a variety of poses.
And then, of course, there's those sunglasses. They fit well. But why did I think the lenses should be red? Maybe that's just in the comics?
So let's kit him out. Here's the fold-out bow. This is what it looks like when it's compact...
And here it is fully extended, but without a string. Dig the laser sight on it though...
And the quiver is amazing. You'll have a bitch of a time threading all the arrows into it as they tend to bend before reaching the holes at the bottom, in fact the instructions even recommend using tweezers or pliers to help. I got about nine of them in before deciding that was enough. Let's assume that the other ones are sticking out of alien chests or gawking New Yorkers.
There's a ring of crazy arrow heads at the bottom which rotates so I guess that's how he is able to select certain arrows on the fly. But where's his giant boxing glove arrow? Surely he needs one of those. Honestly, Joss. Missed opportunity.
I've attached the quiver via a strap but there's also an extra hook piece that can be used to attach to his back without the strap. I couldn't get it very secure so I've taken the coward's way out, but your own results may vary.
So can he actually be posed using a bow and arrow?
YES! He actually can.
Now, I know very little about archery so if I've got this all messed up then you'll have to forgive me, but it seems to work - at least to my ill-educated eye. Hot Toys usually cover up articulation with rubber outer skin on bare arms, but here they've decided to go with visible joints instead. If you can get past the change to the aesthetics, it actually does a lot of great things for the articulation. His arms can be posed very easily and feel quite solid and flexible. It's the right solution and it gives him a far wider range of movement.
But who has the space to display him like that? I'm again going to take the coward's way out and display him bow and arrow pointing at the ground.
Cower in fear, ants!
And that, my friends, is Hot Toys Hawkeye, a fine addition to the slowly assembling Avengers. And how do you buy your own one? Well the sad news is that our dear friends at Sideshow have long sold out of him, although you may get lucky on their waitlist: Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series Hawkeye Sixth Scale Figure - The Avengers
The lesson to be learned here is pre-order these before they're all snapped up! The next ones on offer should be in December and they are Captain America: Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series Captain America Sixth Scale Figure - The Avengers and Black Widow: Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series Black Widow Sixth Scale Figure - The Avengers so if you're keen on these make sure you don't miss out!
I am very gratified that they have adequately captured Renner's arse-likeness.
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