Today’s profile is part of a collaborative effort with Forgotten Figures and The Dragon Fortress that’s also why it’s on a Tuesday, as Mike T. is the elder statesmen! Thanks again to those guys for agreeing to my idea, and for being all around cool dudes.
The Tripwire mold was the most commonly released mold by Hasbro in the 1980s. Let that sink in for a moment. Why it happened is actually understandable, Tripwire has a non-violent specialty and his figure is actually quite well done.
Tripwire’s well sculpted, and his design is done in a way that he’s got uniformity with other G.I. Joe members, but just because he has long gloves and chest armor, he’s not using the Flash mold. He fits in, but is still unique. His head sculpt strikes me as something that would’ve likely had the helmet/visor/ear-phones get up that Thunder received, had Hasbro not been super stoked on the sculpted headwear in 1983.
The early design team seemed to succeed doing something innovative, and would then do it a bunch before moving on. The 1982 COBRA and Officer heads were probably at the end of that series’ design window, so it carried over into a lot of the 83 Figures. 1984 seemed to be the year of glued-in hairpiece. That’s just my observation, though I’m sure there’s a book that has the real facts.
Tiger Force is usually a classic Joe’s worst repaint. Not for the Skoog! He’s got the Listen ’N Fun version for that. TF Tripwire has a fairly unique TF color pallet, and is done in deep rich colours, with an olive drab that is a good call back to version 1. His colours do get a tend wonky when you notice the tiger pattern chest plate, but the orange isn’t as offensive as other oranges used in Tiger Force. It’s odd, since the Tiger stripes are obviously the worst colouring on the figure, they also are the colours that actually tie the entire figure together.
I really like the Tiger Force Tripwire, since even though he’s from the TF subset, he along with a few others are capable of blending in with other Joe figures. So because of that he can be used to provide a little bit of oomph to dioramas. I also have always used Tripwire in vehicles, mainly because as a kid the foot broke off of my Tripwire so he wound up sitting in the Silver Mirage or Slugger.
Tripwire’s the earliest of the cliched “behaves one way, unless around his specialty” character types, that had become far too common (usually with arctic figures!) as the line went on. Tripwire’s a klutz unless near explosives. Character-wise, Tripwire benefits from being someone who’s key trait is a physical manifestation. Since he’s a klutz, it’s a thing that can actually be used in play situations. His greatest nemesis being the stairs in the 1983 HQ.
His filecard also led to one of the best lines in the entire run “received his spiritual awakening on the grenade range”, which is up there with some of Buzzer’s filecard lines! Though, if his name is one of those Hama puns or in-jokes, it’s probably awful racist! (Look at “Skoog” in a mirror)
In the Marvel Comic Book, my favourite overall storyline runs between issues #12 and #18. The story doesn’t drag, there’s just enough going on for everyone to have something to do, and by the end, there’s some actual resolutions. In my overall favourite story #13’s “Last Plane From Rio Lindo” there’s about 6 panels where Hawk is wearing a black commando sweater. If Hasbro had done the Comic Packs in a way that wasn’t that ridiculous “Chronological Order”, that Hawk colouring would’ve made a decent comic pack figure. Almost a decade and a half later, that figure was made, by Red Laser’s Army.
G.I. Joe has been a fairly moribund brand for the last few years, and it’s been even mores for longer for the Vintage Style. This has allowed the factory custom market to move more into good guys and characters, than just strict army builders. Since this figure is obviously designed from my favourite G.I. Joe comic book, I’m quite a big fan of this figure. In fact the first thing I did with the figure was re-create the scene where he sets up the rescue mission with Grunt, Scarlett, Doc, Torpedo and Rock ‘N Roll.
As a character, my opinion of Hawk has changed over the years. As a kid, especially, Hawk was the fearless leader, who’d go out in the field when he needed to. As I’ve grown older and more in touch with the real world, Hawk’s appearances in issues #6 and #7 really began to hold more weight with me. In those two issues he’s doing some weird double dealing, and uses his own team as pawns. I now see Hawk as a man with distinguished, and decorated service, he’s just realistic and knows that if he’s the man to take down COBRA Command, he’ll be able to get into the Whitehouse in 1988 (I might have been influenced by those old Ollie For President t-shirts). However I don’t want to solely portray Hawk as a shadowy careerist, as a person from a “Real Loaded” background, like his, usually wouldn’t be working Artillery, and would instead be in Intelligence. John F. Kennedy was an officer in the ONI prior to his transfer to the Pacific where he was on a PT Boat.
So Hawk is now more of a character obsessed with his men getting results. Now it’s more a question of “if” it’s done, rather than “How” it’s done. Which is a different take on Hawk than usually seen, I think it is a thing that’s important to do. As sometimes motivations other than “It’s their job” or “service to the country” is lacking on the G.I. Joe side.
I’m glad that this figure was made, it’s a nice color scheme and design that allows the Hawk character a unique figure that isn’t quite as wishy-washy as the original glorified Short Fuze that came with the MMS. This Hawk still has the classic v1 look, but now can stand beside some of the more dynamically coloured Joe figures from later on and not look out of place. This design works well with the 82-84 vintage line, as well as the other factory customs and the 1997 G.I. Joe line.
 | A-Man on Great Moments In G.I. Joe… |
 | A-Man on Great Moments In G.I. Joe… |
 | Attica Gazette on Tiger Force Tripwire |
| Attica Gazette on Tiger Force Tripwire |
| A-Man on Tiger Force Tripwire |
