Review: Ramen Toys “Silverhawks” – Quicksilver
With all the reboots, film adaptations, and Target graphic t-shirts aiming to exploit my generation’s childhood, Silverhawks is a brand you don’t see a lot of today. It was no Transformers or Thundercats, but Silverhawks was a cartoon I was obsessed with as a kid. But as a toy collector, Silverhawk figures were always an issue. 30+ years later, that’s still the case.
In the end, it turns out that Monstar wasn’t the Silverhawks greatest threat, it was overall product quality.
Kenner’s Silverhawk figures from the 1980s are beautiful, even by today’s standards. The villains, such as Monstar, Molecular, and my favorite, Buzz Saw, were sturdy and vibrant figures I played with for years. For the actual Silverhawks, though, it was a very different story. Characters like Quicksilver, Bluegrass, and Copper Kid looked sharp with their shiny paint jobs, but they all fell apart once you played with them. Literally. Because the figures were coated with thin chrome paint, they would chip almost immediately. Over the years, as I have attended toy conventions and browsed vintage toy shops across the country, my goal has always been to find an unboxed Quicksilver in mint condition. They’re hard to come by. Super7 announced a Silverhawks line in 2021, but my nostalgic boner drooped when I saw that the figures didn’t have that chrome finish – instead going for a cartoon-accurate grayish blue.
That was the appeal of this new Ramen Toys fig. Releasing before Super7’s – assuming that Super7’s ever launches – this Quicksilver figure appeared to be everything a fan of the old Kenner line could hope for – at least initially.
At first glance, Quicksilver mostly passes the eyeball test. The suit design is a modern take on the traditional Silverhawks design, and it gives Quicksilver an Iron Man-like vibe. There are a lot of things about the Silverhawks cartoon that didn’t age very well, but the character design isn’t one of them. But while I dig the design of the suit, I have a big problem with the color of it. You see, I pre-ordered the Ramen Toys figure and paid $50 more for it than the Super7 version because I wanted something that was a better representation of the toy line. However, in hand, the color of this suit is not what the promotional shots showed. Instead of the chrome-like paint that the promo shots had, the actual figure is a matte grey. It’s still a sharp character, but I feel cheated and lied to. I can go down to Lowe’s and buy a can of chrome paint for $6 and re-paint it, but I shouldn’t have to do that when I spend $100 on the figure itself.
The issues with the color are one thing, but the issues with the quality of the figure are a much bigger deal. When you’re paying a premium price for an action figure, you want to be able to feel that improved quality in your hand. That’s one thing that I really appreciate about Mezco and Mafex: Say what you will about their prices, but few people complain about it when they receive their figures. This Quicksilver does not have that. He feels flimsy and cheap. I’m scared to bend any of his joints because it feels like they’re about to snap off. He’s destined to sit on my shelf in a permanent T-pose because of that.
The inclusion of extra hands, wings, and faces is nice, but, again: Quality. Replacing the hands will leave an ugly gap between the hand and wrist; the pegs on the wings don’t want to fit into the openings on his side, and the face swapping is even worse. The additional face allows you to choose between a nakie-faced Quicksilver and one that has his visor down but switching those exposed the biggest quality problem of all. When you pull the face away from the head, there’s a magnet to make this seamless. Except they forgot to glue the magnet in place. So now, when you pull a face-off, you have to pry the world’s smallest magnet off the back of the face without dropping it – which is easier said than done.
Those frustrations aside, I do really like that Tallyhawk that’s included. He also comes with a swappable pair of wings, and those are actually really easy to do. I also really like that Tallyhawk can pose on Quicksilver’s arm thanks to some well-placed magnets – and those actually stay in place.
It hurts me to say because I have been searching for a Silverhawks figure for so long, but this ain’t it, friends. This figure is far too expensive for the quality that it is. Buyer beware.
