We finish this week’s look at the technically second but chronologically first wave of Silverhawks with the villains of the wave.
Like I said in my previous review, I’ve been looking forward to Silverhawks since before they were announced. I didn’t have very many of the vintage line, but I loved the cartoon and the comic, and I loved the concept. This new line is giving me the satisfaction I missed out on as a kid.
Mon*Star and Windhammer continue the trend from the good guys of the wave in that they are strong releases with only a few minor grievances. As much as I liked the heroes, I think I like the villains even more. Which isn’t necessarily a surprise given that the villains usually have the more interesting designs anyway, but it’s nice for toy and theory to meet and shake hands.
Windhammer is a beefy, chunky guy, with thick limbs and a stout presence. I particularly love his seafoam color scheme. It’s somewhere in between the cartoon and the original toy.
One thing I definitely have to point out is the decision to have his outfit fabric instead of plastic. I am firmly in the category of liking fabric over plastic for capes and robes and…pretty much anything that could potentially diminish the playability of a toy. If it had been plastic, even a flexible plastic, it would have been far less of a playworthy figure.
Windhammer has the same single jointed knees and elbows of the good guys. While not offering insane articulation, they get the job done. Once again, the range of motion in the hips affords him the ability to get a very deep and wide lateral spread.
The most important aspect of Windhammer’s articulation is being able to grip his weapon in a convincing way. Luckily, he can…at least about 90-95 percent of the way. You have to do a little creative fidgeting due to the stunted torso, but you can get him to hold his tuning fork convincingly.
The torso articulation has been my main issue With the Silverhawks—and honestly a lot of Super7 product—and it’s no better here. You can get a little jiggle in his torso, but the engineering just isn’t there for it to be much benefit in posing. I can deal with the choice in articulation, but what is there needs to work better going forward.
Windhammer’s accessories are probably my favorite among all the figures. First, there’s his tuning fork, which is a simple yet effective looking piece. The inclusion of vertically-hinged hands means that he can hold his tuning fork in as many poses as he needs to, which helps offset the torso.
In addition, he has a couple of effect pieces that plug onto the tuning fork that really sell the whole concept. There’s an electrical burst effect, a rock assault effect and an energy swoop effect. Each one is very well done, stays on securely, and looks great.
Every figure in the wave has been festooned with hands, and Windhammer is no different. He has pretty much everything you’d need for every gesture or action.
He comes with two heads. One has a calmer expression, with calmer hair, the other has an open mouth and more dynamic hair. I think I’m keeping that one as my default. It has a ton of attitude.
Mon*Star’s powered-down look makes his debut here. In the original line you got an armored Mon*Star whose head flipped around through a very ingenious gimmick (He was one of the other figures that I actually had back then), but this time we get a fully-depowered mode, before the Moonstar of limbo does its sexy thang. Might, muscle and menace and all that.
Mon*Star was always a little different from Mumm-Ra in that while Mumm-Ra’s evil form looked frail and helpless (At least from outside observation), Mon*Star still looked threatening. He’s a big muscled guy with wild red and black hair. It’s only when he powers up that you realize you were kicking sand in the wrong guy’s face.
Mon*Star continues multiple-hand trend, with everything from gesturing to fists to pointy hands. They all snap in and stay put.
He comes with three heads, that range from regular angry to angrier to manic angry. I think I’m going to keep the middle version as my default, because I don’t think I need him at full batshit all the time. But he’s not what you would call “subdued,” so that works for me.
The paint on his star eye is perhaps the weakest element here. I don’t think the paint quite hit the mark of the sculpted detail on any of the three heads, and that seems to carry over to other paintjobs I’ve seen. It’s not off enough to completely ruin the head, but it’s off enough to diminish the effect.
Again, all of his articulation works great except for the torso. I will say that he does have a slight bit more give, a little more back and forth, some side to side and a bit of twist, but it’s nowhere near where it could be.
Outside of the hands, Mon*Star comes with two versions of Skyshadow. One is a perched version of the toy design, the other is the pre-cybernetic-enhanced cartoon design. The attack version comes with the armored Mon*Star.
To sum up, I have enjoyed this wave, and am loving the return of Silverhawks. I think for the most part Super7 has done a great job of rejuvenating this property. I’m definitely looking forward to adding more figures to the collection.
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Source: The Fwoosh
