Marvel Universe: World War Hulk

World War Hulk is hands down the best Hulk sculpt ever to be produced for the mass market. I want this sculpt in a Marvel Legends Icon scale!

Before I begin with the review, I want to take a look back at some of the past Hulk figures I could have bought, but passed on solely based on their terrible sculpts.

The Incredible Hulk movie brought the first Hulk figure I passed on. The sculpt was pretty good. The only problem I had was with the head. The heads of those Hulks were pretty derpy looking. Also, I had not yet encountered the awesome-ness that is Greg Pak's Planet Hulk and had no interest in the Hulk franchise.

The first Marvel Universe figure of the Hulk had a chest that was too big. It's like they modeled the sculpt off a Liefield drawing. The sculpt of the head was not that great either.

Planet Hulk was ugly all over. The head sculpt does a great job at mimicking the cover art of Planet Hulk, but that's not the Hulk I wanted a figure of. The painted arm and pants were too simple. I would expect this level of detail on a bootleg toy, not something branded with "Marvel Legends." The shield, helmet, and shoulder guard are really the only nice things on the figure. I bought a couple of Emmas from this wave. That entire first Hasbro Marvel Legends line was very disappointing to say the least.

I was so excited when King Hulk was among the list of this Hulk only wave. When I finally held it in my hand, I almost bought it....Almost. The sculpt was a huge improvement over Planet Hulk. The head was good and the legs were awesome, but the arm! Oh god, the arm! They actually sculpted something instead of just painting it, but the mold and paint was still lacking. It still looked out of place with the rest of the figure. The shoulder guard missing also didn't help.

Hulk comes with a shield, axe, sword, removable shoulder guard strap, and figure stand. I was very happy to see the shoulder guard return on the chest strap.

The head has excellent up and down travel. The head joint is connected to a small neck piece. The neck piece raises the head up and allows it to look up. It doesn't look all the way up, but the up travel is still good. The sculpt of the head is also perfect. King Hulk's head was good, but this one goes above and beyond. I don't think I'll ever love another Hulk head like I love this one.

This left arm is what sells this figure for me. It's molded and painted beautifully. If the paint on King Hulk was like this, King Hulk would have been buy-able. The arm articulation for these big figures still aren't good. A good articulating Hulk would be able to do a thunderclap pose. When this is possible without it being a gimmick figure, Hulk will be perfect.

The rest of the articulation is pretty good. It's a step above Juggernaut. Juggs is pretty loose now and is hard to put into a good pose. Hulk's hands have a twist swivel joint. I really wanted it to have a hinged joint. The hands also don't hold the weapons very well. You will need to hold the hands closed to force it to grip anything. The legs are double-jointed and his thighs have the weird cut swivel just below the ball-joint. The loincloth and mold of the leg straps is good. The whole body paint is beautifully weathered. The only other paint job that is on the same level of awesome-ness as Hulk is modern Thor.

Overall this Hulk is awesome. This is the biggest bang for your buck Marvel Universe figure. I hope the Skaar figure coming out will be just as good. *crosses fingers*

Pros:

Sculpt

Paint

Accessories

Cons:

Hand articulation

Arm articulation can't do the classic thunderclap

I got Hulkbuster Iron Man during the holiday season too, but he's not worth a full review. He's okay. I think he really needed articulating fingers. His left hand is open for a blasting look, and his right hand is a fist.

Hulk is a larger figure and only needs to pass one pose test, and that is the thunderclap pose. Unfortunately, it fails.

Hulk's hands aren't even close.