Pros : It's Hawkeye! And we have many of them to choose from. Uniform is well designed including the texturingdon't
Cons : lacklustre paint job on head and hair. Quiver is too large and doesn't sit right. Bow clunky to hold and draw. Ugly torso joint.
Avengers Hawkeye was first released as a "true" Marvel Legend in the 2016 European "Hulkbuster" wave. The wave repacked and re-released a number of MCU figures alongside a darker red version of the Age of Ultron Hulkbuster.
The packaging carried the Age of Ultron logo, and while this Hawkeye could be an AoU release it is more accurately the Hawkeye we saw in the original 2012 Avengers movie especially when we look at the quiver later on. In fact the bulk of the figure is a re-use of a 6" figure released by Hasbro as a Walmart exclusive. That version was wearing sunglasses and it also had a silver shield logo on the chest - the re-release has lost both these elements.
The packaging is a deep red theme and carries a red hue image of Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye on the two spines. Round the back is an image of the figure against a deep red backdrop. Under here is a checklist of the Euro Hulkbuster, Hawkeye is number 6 and comes with the Hulkbuster waist section.
Hawkeye is clipped into the inner tray with his quiver and bow to one side. Underneath the accessories is the Hulkbuster part. The inner tray sits in an outer cardboard tray that forms the cardback, and printed onto this feintly is the Avengers "A" logo.
The likeness to Jeremy Renner on the figure is passable. It is consistent with the level of likeness Hasbro was getting circa 2015/6 before it launched the face print technology. The face lacks any paint aside fro the eyes, not even the lips are painted and remain skin toned. The hair is shaped well for Hawkeye as seen in Avengers but is a single brown tone that is too light. The whole head also suffers from an ugly neck line in the way the head has been cut up and under the ears.
The outfit is realised pretty well with a textured effect built into the top section that itself is then segmented between black and burgundy. The circular logo on the chest used to hold a silver SHIELD logo, it is now blank and therefore more accurate to Avengers where the logo was visible only as a shiny logo on a matt black circular section.
Like the head the arms are cast in a skin tone, with no further enhancements to bring out the musculature. The strapping and gloves are neatly painted on top with no obvious bleed.
The trousers are plain black although the boots, knee pads and thigh straps are painted in a glossier black to differentiate them. There is also silver buckles painted on the straps.
The figure does suffer a little from the body shape being determined by the articulation. Clint therefore gets very rounded hips, thin knees and a very slim waist that is even slimmer than some of the female figures.
These all however do work to make a highly articulated figure with 18 points of articulation. The head is ball jointed with full movement, and the same ball joint is applied at the chest. While the chest joint does give a good range of movement, it also suffers from a large gap in most positions. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulder, followed by a bicep swivel. Elbows are double jointed and fold back almost on themselves. The arms then terminate with pivot wrists.
The legs work in a similar fashion with ball jointed hips, thigh swivel, double jointed knees and ankle rockers. The ankles and legs do seem a little loose and Hawkeye is not the easiest to stand and pose - and I have had to drop him onto a stand in my cabinet.
Hawkeye comes with his quiver and a bow. The quiver, as we saw earlier, arrives separately then plugs into a hole on the back. For me it is oversized for the figure and it also doesn't sit flush against the body leaving it floating off the back,
The bow is cast in a black plastic with no paint apps. The bow is designed to fit into Hawkeyes right hand and the bow string then drawn by his left hand. The two hands are shaped as such but it is not easy to have Hawkeye hold the bow securely for any length of time.
The bow string is still cast plastic, so although there is some movement it can't be drawn as such - so even with the brilliant arm articulation a bow drawn pose is still restricted by the bow string itself. I'd much rather have seen Hasbro do a similar job as done by DCC with their Arrow figures and add an elasticated string bow.
With work some neat action poses are possible. My favourites include the "about to draw an arrow" pose with the left hand bent back and over the quiver.
Hawkeye as a figure does some things really well, and others very poorly. It has a real good range of articulation, but feels very awkward to pose and have stand still. The articulation also fouls the look of the figure with big gap around joints like the head and waist. The bow doesn't work like it should and the quiver is perhaps 20-30% too big for the figure.
That being said, this is still arguably the best Hawkeye you can get for your Avengers MCU display. I'd hope he gets a revisit in a future wave or perhaps in one of the do-over box sets they are releasing. For now, this version gets a just below average 2 out of 5 from me.
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