Everything About Hirelings I've Been Afraid to Ask.
 

Hirelings confuse me. I understand that they have two chief abilities.

1. They can hold one item and have said item's bonus count for you.
2. They may be sacrificed to automatically escape from one monster.

I guess my questions are
Do ALL Hirelings have these abilities, even if they don't say on their cards? Or just Hirelings from certain sets?
Is there a limit on what items a Hireling may carry? (Big Items? Race and Class restricted items? Steeds and Vehicles?)

Re: Everything About Hirelings I've Been Afraid to Ask.
 

Always go by the text on the specific Hireling card in question. Not all Hirelings can carry Items, and the ones that do will be clear about what they can carry and allow you to use.

The "automatic sacrifice" rule appears on the original Hireling card (which is essentially a slightly more flexible Cheat!, allowing you to use one extra Item at the risk of losing it if your Hireling is killed) and is found in the rules of later sets. All Hirelings have this ability if the rules allow it, unless a specific card says otherwise. (Remember that cards override rules.)

Re: Everything About Hirelings I've Been Afraid to Ask.
 

Ok, Thank you.

To sum up, ALL Hirelings can be sacrificed to escape a monster. NOT all Hirelings can be given items.

What has caused my confusion is that I've played so many sets and I got mixed up which was a general Munchkin Rule, which were specific set rules, and which were individual card rules.

Few Examples for my edification:
The Rides of Nightmare Before Christmas cannot be given items (though that set has a plethora of Ride Enhancers).
The Allies of Axe Cop also can't be given items, though there exists the Cat Suit cards which specifically says you can put it on an ally.
And only the Mooks from Munchkin Fu can be given Monster Enhancers.