Toy Review: Shocker Toys Shadowhawk Review by Dean René

Shocker Toys Indie Spotlight Comic Book Heroes: Shadowhawk

Shocker toys steps into the 6” super articulated action figure arena with their Indie Spotlight Comic Book Heroes line. As the title suggest, the toy line is indeed based around the premise of comic book heroes. However, unlike Marvel legends or DC Universe Classics, this line focuses on more obscure comic heroes, such as Dick Tracey, The Maxx, The Tick, and of course Shadowhawk, amongst others.




Immediately, when I head about this line, memories of the Toybiz Legendary Comic Heroes sprung to mind, since it was based around a very similar concept. After the Marvel license went to Hasbro, Toybiz continued to produce action figures based on characters from independent comics. While the articulation and sculpts were great and for the most part on par with their fantastic work that had been put into establishing the Marvel Legends brand, the legendary comic book heroes toys seemed to meet a lukewarm reception at retail. And I think that it is in part due to the lack of instantly recognizable characters.

So, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between that line, and what Shocker toys are attempting to do with their indie spotlight comic book heroes line.

The Shadow Hawk figure, in the packaging is reasonably well presented. It consists of the typical bubble and card back. The Shadowhawk figure does not look very dynamic in the packaging, and has a very neutral pose. This may actually be a good thing though, because it prevents the chances of warped joints due to awkward positioning in the packaging. It’s certainly a safe option, even if it is not the most exciting.

The back of the package strangely is a lot more interesting to look at than the actual figure while in its box. It shows a variety of the other figures available in the wave, some of which do look very impressive, such as The Maxx and Kabuki. Also on the back of the box is the bio for the character. I thought this was a very important and welcome inclusion because it allows people who are perhaps not so familiar with the character to gain a solid footing. It is well written and concise, and features a nice illustration of the Shadowhawk himself. The package is also reseal able which is a bonus, for people who like to display the figures, but also put the figure back in the box when not in use.

And onto the figure. By no means is this a bad sculpt. Admittedly it is somewhat rudimentary if directly compared to something such as Marvel legends waves 13 or 14 standards. But if compared to some of earlier figures such as series 1 Iron Man or Captain America, it holds up very well from a sculpting perspective.

But, in saying that, I do feel however that the paint on the figure could have been a bit better, and probably would have helped to significantly enhance Shadowhawk's rather basic sculpt somewhat.

The paint that has been chosen appears to be very matte and dull, which unfortunately does very little to help the figure appear more endearing to those who may not already be aware of the character.

In terms of articulation there is a ball joint neck, which has considerable range of movement, ball joint shoulders, double hinged elbows and cut wrists.

He also has a slight upper torso and waist rotation. As well as ball joint legs, double hinged knees and a ball joint ankle. As I said earlier, looking at this figure it is easily comparable to the articulation level of the early Marvel Legends or Spider-Man classics waves.

The figure does feature some small sculpting detail on his belt. This is interesting because it works well for the character, since the belt is an integral part of his storyline. But the level of the sculpting detail and paint quality on the actual belt itself is mediocre at best.

The figure comes packaged with 2 accessories; there is a little ISZ creature, and a type of grapple gun that attaches to Shadowhawks arm. Personally I thought the ISZ creature was a little disappointing since it lacks any kind of articulation whatsoever, and it does not motivate me to “collect other figures to build an ISZ army” as the back of the packaging suggests. I feel that a display stand may perhaps have been a better accessory to include with Shadowhawk, since he has very tiny holes in his feet.

The figure does look alot more impressive with the grapple arm attachment in place. And it fits on his arm quite securely.

There are a few quality issues with the figure. For a start, the figure has armoured plates to cover his shoulders, however, they are basically placed directly over the circular top of the shoulders, and have no connection points. As a result, one fell off as soon as I removed the figure from the packaging, never to be seen again. This was a bit of a disappointment, but I decided to remove the other shoulder plate as a result, and I actually think that the figure looks and moves a lot better without them.

The head also can be removed quite easily, but that may not be a bad thing.

To sum up, it is a little difficult fully recommend this particular figure to someone who may not already be familiar with the Shadowhawk character. Because to be fair the simple sculpt and paint apps do not really help to bring Shadowhawk to life enough to make him stand out at the forefront of a collection.

However, I would suggest that anyone who is already familiar with the Shadowhawk or any of the other characters in this line, should seriously consider picking him up because scale wise he does fit in perfectly with other 6” comic character figures. And this perhaps may be one of the few opportunities to collect an in scale and articulated version of this tragic character.

He is available directly at Shockertoys.com and at retails for around $18 including postage.

Review and photographs by: Dean René Middleton
Staff Reviewer