DC Super Friends Matty Collector Hawkman

I found several of these DC Super Friends action figures on eBay last summer, including this Matty Collector exclusive Hawkman. The DC Super Friends figures have a lot in common with the DC Imaginext and DC Hero World lines produced by Fisher-Price, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel Toys. These also remind me of the Mattel Batman: The Brave & The Bold series, in their chunky, pre-school design. 

Mattel released a version of this Hawkman in his conventional red & green color scheme a year or two before this Matty exclusive was released on their website back in 2009, but he's not easy to come by. This version's deco emulates the Hawkworld outfit, the 1989 reboot featuring Katar Hol and Shayera Thal's adventures on Thanagar. This MattyCollector release unfortunately came without a mace: according to BubbaShelby over at Toyriffic, after acquiring exclusive distribution rights to the line, Target had safety concerns over the said accessory and stopped selling him altogether. Mine was still in his white MattyCollector box when I got him.

While these are simple toys, I appreciate the design of these as much as any DCUC, DC Direct, or Marvel Legends figure. Their happy colors and bulky tactile appeal make them both comforting and inviting- "Play with me, I'm cute!" Like any good toy, these are made for play.

While limited in his articulation, Katar does have cut joints in the wrist and a ball-jointed neck in addition to shoulders/hips/elbows, greatly improving his expressiveness. His nicely sculpted wings are also articulated. As best I can gather, the clip on the backs of these figures were intended to activate sounds in some of the vehicles from this line of toys, but I'm not sure how this feature worked.

While the JLA color scheme version of this guy is undeniably classic DC goodness, this Hawkworld variant has a certain charm I'm quite fond of. I'm a sucker for a variant, and think Katar's darker color scheme here looks really cool!

Hawkman's accessory is this peculiar glider apparatus, the mace that came with the JLA version fired out of the end of this, capped on this variant release. The gripping claws on the underside flex by pressing the button on the side, in case Hawkman needs to swoop in and rescue a friend   :D

Super Friends Hawkman with Imaginext Hawkman and  ShadowTek Hawkman:

More Later- Make It FUN!