Ghost Hawks

I don't discuss GI Joe vehicles very often on this silly blog, but I decided to take a look back at the Sky Hawk Ghost Hawk. I'm not sure what happened, but apparently Hasbro lost the rights to the name Sky Hawk and had to come up with a new name. 

Hasbro reintroduced the Sky Hawk as the Ghost Hawk in 2009. Everything about the new version was brand new. Nothing from the original mold from the 1984 Sky Hawk was reused. Maybe those molds are long gone. That really doesn't matter to me; Hasbro did a great job with the new one.

I've always liked the Sky Hawk when it first appeared and have always considered it to be an iconic GI Joe vehicle. Don't ask me how it flies or where the fuel tank is or how long it can fly. It makes no sense at all. Who cares? It's still a damn cool vehicle.

Like the Sky Hawk, I consider the Ghost Hawk to be a standard vehicle in the GI Joe motor pool. A light-weight air vehicle that just about any team member can jump in and fly. It always seemed like just about anyone could fly these in the cartoons and I'm okay with that.

I would think that nearly everyone would get checked out in the use of the Sky/Ghost Hawk. There's probably a few team members who wouldn't fly it. Perhaps Keel Haul or Heavy Metal or maybe the ugly dude who drives the Rolling Thunder. But then again, I can kind of picture the Flagg under heavy attack and the only way to get the Admiral off the ship is to get in his personal Ghost Hawk. Maybe?

In 2010, Hasbro revisited the new Ghost Hawk mold and breathed new life into it.

The unique design of the 2009 Ghost Hawk allowed Hasbro designers to come up with new parts that would give the 2009 model a new, slick look for 2010. A new canopy was designed, along with new skids, engines, and tail fins.

The new 2010 Ghost Hawk now looked more armored and ready for a little more serious air combat role. The new engines just looked like they had more speed and maneuverability. The armored canopy had less options for direct line of site for the pilot, but I'm thinking that technology upgrades gave it a whole new sensor suite of visual tools.

Does it look like it could be an actual flying vehicle now? No, not really. That still doesn't matter. It still looks cool and fits perfectly into the technology of GI Joe.

Let us not even speak of this.