25th Hawk was never quite as good as he could be. I liked the shoulder rig, but hated that it made his epaulets and collar sit as high as it did. Plus, Hawk is blonde, Sunbow be damned. I didn't much like the original 25th Hawk head though. Too small and too harsh looking. Never could find a head I really like though, until PoC Duke. I hemmed and hawed over using it though, since it is a damn fine Duke head, but once Renegades Duke came out, he became my default, and that head looked different enough that I could use PoC Duke's head for Hawk.
Had to hollow the helmet out some more so it'd sit right. I also gave the elbows greater range of motion and hollowed out his shoulder holster.
So you all know that Jack Kirby is amazing right? Since we're all in agreement on that, you can understand why just seeing the package art he did for Mattel's Big Jim line would make me a lot more interested in both the toys and the story.
See? Isn't that just incredible? So I dug into the line (this was years ago now) and discovered a pretty cool contemporary of GI Joe, and a lot of great characters that fit nicely into the Adventure Team's 70s era. Plus, they had actual villains, which definitely puts the line one up on Joe. I really wanted to make customs of these guys, and I'm finally getting around to taking the piles of parts I've picked out for them into actual finished figures. A burst of warm weather gave me the opportunity to finish up Jim himself finally, but didn't hang on long enough for me to do much more. Rest assured though, the rest of the PACK, as well as plenty of other Big Jim characters (seriously, the European exclusive Big Jim stuff is awesome) are coming . . .
Jim here is the SE v54 torso, RoC Cobra Commander legs, Star Wars feet, a Star Wars head (X-Wing pilot John Brannon I think), and hands from a Star Wars ROTJ Deleted Scenes Luke Skywalker. Shoulder holster is RoC Hawk's modded and the pistol is from Wolverine Origins Maverick. The wrist communicator is a combo of the gauntlet from the shirtless RoC Storm Shadow, the blade from a Marauder Inc chainsaw modular attachment, and bits of a Star Wars Clone Trooper belt for the buttons. I'm really happy with how he turned out, and I'm hoping the rest of the team ends up this good.
Please, let me know what you think of them.
