“Listen to me, that little witch is messing with your mind. You’re stronger than her, you’re smarter than her. You’re Bruce Banner!” – Tony Stark to the Hulk. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).
We finally made it! Next time it occurs to me do nine reviews in one week, three times the normal output that I’m already bad at hitting lately, somebody tell me to stop. Really. Just terrible. Rhino Week is so cancelled!!!
We’ve already reviewed Valkyrie, Vision, AoU War Machine, NOW! Iron Man, Thundra, Dr. Strange, & Blizzard (& Ant-Man for good measure), so we’re finally here!! We’ve arrived at the 9″ monster that is supposed to make every low-tooling figure, every painted costume detail, and every missing alternate hand worth it. Does it?
Boy howdy!
Now, I’m entirely biased. If you set me down on a desert aisle and said, “Daniel (cause that’s my real name), we’re going to strand you on a pacific atoll for an undisclosed amounted of time. You can only take one Iron Man toy with you, which one do you want?” Well, truthfully, I’d ask if I could have a Dr. Fate or Firestorm, but if I had to pick an Iron Man armor – there is only once choice: Hulkbuster.
Much like the Symbiote Spider-Man suit, the Hulkbuster armor was love at first sight. I already loved the Modular Armor, though I tend to call it Capcom Armor (I love that figure, never got the War Machine variant…) and so the idea that our armored avenger, with an already pretty cool suit, had to upgrade to a behemoth for specific tasks is cool enough. That’s it to fight the Hulk was just icing on the cake. I gobbled up that old Iron Man cartoon toy as a kid, lost all the add-on bits, and rubbed the chrome off what I didn’t lose. I was dismayed when my Marvel Legends comic-based Hulkbuster blew apart at the waist one random day – man, that was a cool figure and one I need to replace with the new Marvel select. But that’s all comic talk.
I think I loved Hulkbuster even more in Avengers: Age of Ultron. I was already fascinated by Igor in IM2, but he was only close. AoU delivered the Hulkbuster proper and made it cooler. The fact that Bruce Banner aided in the design is genius. The orbital platform idea is awesome. And, even the codename, Veronica, is great. This is the hard way to put Hulk down while Betty was the easy way. I loved it. I had to have a figure of it. Since the $800 Hot Toy is… irresponsible, it made more sense to spend $160 and get a set of figures to go with it. I knew I made the right choice right away because I couldn’t wait for the set to arrive.
And when it did? Well, let’s just say that I had to remind myself go back and free the individual figures well after I’d stole their BAF pieces. That’s not to say it’s perfect, but Hasbro did a really good job translating the movie version into a Marvel Legend.
The sculpt is easily the best part of the execution. Now, they didn’t go for movie realism here. The movie version, and you can see much of it on the $800+ Hot Toy, had a lot of fine details and paneling that just isn’t present here. And it’s totally okay because there is still a ton of detail. It’s probably best described as having a cutoff point. They got the broad strokes, they got the telling details, and they got some of the fine details – enough to get the look nailed down and, I think, make most of the folks happy. This is definitely a “toy” version and I think Hasbro knocked that goal out of the park. On the sculpt itself, the only thing that sticks out to me is that the head is raised a little further out from the shoulders than in the film, but it accommodates the articulation – which I would want, so I’m good there. Continue to Page 2…
He’s gonna need the Galactus Buster Armor from MvC3 for that one.
Like the look and wize and, aw hell I gotta get it anyway.
Curse you, now I want that BAF. Gah!
I’m in the same boat! I swore I wouldn’t buy figures I didn’t want or even care for simply to complete a BAF, the Thanos wave was enough for me with 2 ‘didn’t need’ figures in it.
And now Noisy…Noisy makes me want that Hulkbuster a whole lot.
(yes, I know, “So sell the figures you don’t want, big deal” but my OCD WILL NOT ALLOW for such logical action. 🙂 )
Altho I suspect MCU Dr. Strange will have a costume similar to what we see on this figure, so he might make a worthy placeholder until the official Movie version arrives AARRGGGHHH I’M RATIONALIZING NOW HELP ME!!! 🙂
Ever try customizing the figures you don’t want into ones you DO? I bought WAY more Hellcats than I ever thought I’d need, but how often do we get a decent F buck and in a light color like yellow? I’m making Crystal, Firestar, Vindicator, Magma, and…I know at least one other character. Several of those barely need any work, except for the parts where the yellow is too thin and the dark blue plastic comes through (lower legs, below the knee; forearms below the elbow).
I can appreciate that, but there’s just not that many figures I’d want to customize, let alone the problem of skill area. Last figure I was happy I customed up was way back in the early ’80s, where I made a white ‘control room 3PO’ droid with the help of some nice Pactra flat white spray and a couple of ‘rank buttons’ made from carefully applied white glue that was then painted blue and red.
I have no idea what paints and glues work on modern figures. I haven’t painted a figure’s face since 1985. blahblahwhine. 🙂
(my instinct would be to make both Batrok and Hellcat into S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Bah.)
But thanks for the encouragement. I’m sure it frustrates you to see me sitting on those two. I do apologize. 🙂
no need to apologize, I was just offering up a suggestion since you didn’t want to sell.
If you do decide to customize, then acrylics are your friend. I have a few 20yo+ customs with enamels that are still tacky. some suggest taking the figure apart (heat gun/dryer vs hot water is a BIG debate) and sanding down the figure, esp at joints, so a- paint adheres better and b- less paint rub on joints.
Me, I’m just a quickie repaint, sometime part swap guy. Total respect for those who bury the original figure in sculpty and get fine details that really pop with great paint work.
My biggest peeve is the 60-thousand Spideys and Iron Men and now Cap variants, esp with great BAFs like Monger and Ult.Goblin, who makes a great base for Gargoyle. No clue what to do with the extra Spideys, but the armors can be repainted into my Sentinel Army. LOL
my custom list is a mile long and everything has been in storage for two years, just now pulling them back out (one more trip = done???!!).
I have probably a half dozen Bullseyes still waiting to become Hellfire guards, meanwhile, I’ve bought up some recent TMNT Foot soldiers to do the same…but at least their masks work etter and they have a good armory!
(don’t even ask about my 6″ scale Joes!)
Spitfire! she was the other one on my Hellcat list! LOL like I said, there are a number of yellow/light color costumes that aren’t even on the possibilities list, but then they throw in a wildcard like Hellcat and X-51 to make up for it! plus, her head makes a great start for Vindicator, despite Patsy’s looser hair vs Heather’s ponytail. X-51 is just a shade or two away from the Recorders. LOL
The Toybiz Face-Off Iron Man/Mandarin 2-pack had a variant.
It was Modular War Machine (aka Marvel vs.Capcom) and maskless Mandarin.
I’m sure you can find the figure.
Great review.
Oh this looks fantastic.
This looks awesome, and if they’d stuck it in its own box and charged like $50 for it, it would be a must-have. But buying all those figures I don’t want to get it? I really can’t justify it.
WAY better than the Titan Electronic version, which had a whole 4poa. I ordered a couple of those as soon as they hit HTS and….now they’re collecting dust on shelves everywhere, sure to hit clearance before xmas. sigh… At least that version has “ACTION FIST PUNCH!!” and the one in the box still goes off every time I step near it. oy.
I’m not a fan of the knee joint piece on this guy, but the armor hides it unless you actually look INTO the knee. Not a big worry.
What is a worry is the weight. I have mine sitting beside my couch and he holds my ipad wire when it’s not charging (so I don’t have to go digging blindly beside the couch). Then he fell over the other day when I was laying down and it conked me on the head. Luckily, it wasn’t a sharp corner, and he recovered nicely. LOL
Sorry to hear your ML11 HBIM got a case of the Iceman Crotch. that had to hurt.
oh, and the Rhino wave hit up here this week. I managed to snag all but Ben on first try Saturday, without even looking for them yet! AND ON SALE! just let me say KRAVEN RULES. and not many Misty’s have eyes looking in the same direction, it seems, tho?
YEP. Gona need this. I bought a Hulk just to prepare for it, too! He’s all lonely and took up punching Calix in the meantime.
In other news: Man, I can’t believe how Marvel Legends have taken me back in! I was all set to replace everyone for the Universe size, but then Marvel Legends come back and fix all the articulation issues I used to have. So many of these are dang near perfect, now.