Red Hawk

Choujin Sentai Jetman is the Super Sentai series that began airing in 1991. It is also freakin’ amazing! However, we here in the United States did not get an English adaptation of this series, as it was the one that aired right before Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, which was destined to become the first season of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.

Reddo Hawk!

 Ryuu Tendo (天堂 竜) is one of the five chosen Sky Force officers.  After the Vyram attack the ship they are on, Ryuu is the only one of the Sky Force officers to survive.  His job then is to find the rest of the Jetman team, which is comprised of civilians who by random chance were exposed to the same Birdonic Waves that allow Ryuu to transform into Red Hawk.  Since Ryuu Tendo is the only member of the team with actual training, it is only natural for him to take the role of the leader of the Jetman (or is it Jet-people in its plural, non -gender specific form?).  Besides leading the team into battle, Ryuu is also a major driving force in the story as his romances are the cause of some of the conflict during the series.

For packaging, Bandai has given Red Hawk a nice retro-looking S.H. Figuarts box to call his home. The window for the box is in the diamond shape of the Cross Changer, which is the wrist-mounted transformation device for the Jetman.

Red Hawk looks great and very heroic in his S.H. Figuarts incarnation.  Red Hawk’s suit has a bird motif to go along with the namesake of the character. 

For those who are going, “hey, that kind of looks like a Gatchaman design”, you are not in the wrong. The bird motif of the series was selected to pay homage to the great Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.

While I like this figure, I felt that it failed to capture the spandex look of suit in the TV show. On the positive side though, the joints at the hip help make diminish the fact it looks Red Hawk is wearing short shorts.

I also wanted to mention that this toy is rocking a pretty noticeable panty line, which in the show is just a small, barely noticeable seem in the suit.

An iconic part of Red Hawk’s suit, as well as the suits of the other Jetman members, are the wings that allow the character to fly.  In order to recreate this, Bandai sculpted as separate back panel for the toy with wings attached. In order to attach this back piece, the original back panel simply pops off. This allows you to see what is inside of the back of a S.H. Figuarts without having to break one.

With the extra back panel attached and arms extended out, Red Hawk shows us his flying pose.

This is a pretty okay workaround that Bandai came up with for the wings, which in the show are made fabric and are also attached to the suit at the arms and sides of the suit. 

As for his arsenal, Red Hawk comes packaged with a bunch of his weapons from the TV series!

The Wing Gauntlet to punch his enemies with!

The Wing Gauntlet is attached to the hand that is holding the weapon. It simply attaches by sliding the gauntlet over the forearm and popping the hand into the peg. This keeps the Wing Gauntlet securely in place.

Red Hawk also comes with his Bird Blaster to shoot up some monster of the week Jigens! 

He also comes with his Bringer Sword! 

Also included is a combination of the previous two weapons in the form of the Jet Hand Cannon. 

However he does not come with his Beak Smasher gun or the Smash Bomber, which are used by the Jetman during the latter part of the series.

This S.H. Figuarts release actually has two distinct flavors, as the American release and the Japanese release are a little different. The Japanese release comes with a cherry on top of its arsenal-sundae. Fans of Akibaranger will remember that Red Hawk (the transformed hero, not Ryuu Tendo) made an appearance in the Akibarangers’ delusion-driven battles. Red Hawk becomes one of Inordinate Powers of the Akibarangers by transforming into the Jet Winger, which allows the Akibarangers the power of flight a la Jetman.

For the Japanese release Bandai has included the Jet Winger. Unfortunately this extra had to be removed from the American version due to licensing issues. It would seem that Saban owns the rights to all new Sentai shows, even Akibaranger.

The back of the Jet Winger is sports the Jetman logo and is reminiscent of the Cross Changer (the henshin device of the Jetman team). Each of the five wings is a different color, with all but one colors corresponding to a member of the Jetman team. The only exception is the pink wing since Jetman did not have a pink member. In Jetman, spot of the pink member was filled by White Swan.

Articulation for Red Hawk is up to par with most S.H. Figuarts releases.

It does, however, lack a bicep swivel. That was a little frustrating when trying to get a couple of the poses out of this figure. Jetman has some great choreographed fights, and it was a shame that Red Hawk S.H. Figuarts was a somewhat restricted by the lack of a bicep swivel. Bandai, why must you make us suffer with bicep swivel-less S.H. Figuarts releases!?

In closing, the S.H. Figuarts Red Hawk is a great figure that is a blast to play with.  His wide array of weapons, along with a good amount of articulation makes this figure that you can pose over and over. If you are a fan of Red Hawk from his appearance in either Jetman or Akibaranger, then this toy is a must-have.