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.

Devourer of Worlds review!

Before the Galactus review, I also got Juggernaut and Mystique to review.



Juggernaut and Mystique. $7.49 each. I liked the sculpt of Juggs and picked him up because of it. I was disappointed that the helmet isn't removable. His bulkiness inhibits the articulation of his arms a lot. His hands can't reach his face or the other hands. His legs are surprisingly articulated. He doesn't come with any accessories, which is fine.

Mystique is a typical female figure. She comes with a rifle. There is one interesting thing about the paint job. It looks like the figure was painted all blue for the base and the white parts painted on top of that. The white paint wasn't applied as well and it makes the blue show through. Particularly, her top looks like it's see through. Not that I'm complaining. It's quite funny. Mystique is my second favorite female figure behind modern Ms. Marvel.

Now for the main event.





Galactus. $49.99. He comes with Silver Surfer. This will be my second Galactus figure and first Silver Surfer. First Galactus was a Marvel Masterworks diorama. Easily the tallest figure I now own. Previously held by the Marvel Icons and 1/60 Freedom Gundam. He has a button on his chest you can press and he'll say a couple of phrases. The sculpt is really nice. There are two blemishes. On the back of the upper arms, there are visible tears from the molding process.


The chest piece and the skirt are rubber. The chest piece is fine, it doesn't hinder any arm articulation.



The skirt, however, prevents him from doing anything but stand straight. His head has excellent up and down travel. His hands are a great let down. For a figure this size, articulated hands is a must. I can't believe his hands are this lame. If he can't look like he's about to crush someone, why have an action figure this size at all! Icon figures are only a third less bigger, but their articulation blows Galactus's out of the water. It's nice to have a somewhat pose-able Galactus, but his flaws pretty much take away from the coolness of the figure. The electronics are mediocre. The light are orange and are not bright enough to look good. They should have just made it so it would light up the blue crystal they already have in the head instead of the orange. I would have loved it if they had some kind of attachable stand to have Silver Surfer flying around Galactus. I don't have the Legends build a figure Galactus, so I can't compare anything but looks. I like the Marvel Universe sculpt way more, but there is still so much to be desired.

Last pic will be size comparison. Galactus stands with Marvel Icons Venom, Play Arts Kai Snake, Marvel Legends (Ultimate) Nick Fury, and Marvel Universe Juggernaut and Mystique.

Two Marvel Universe and One Transformer review

Bought Rodimus today, and Mary Jane and Luke last week.


Mary Jane Watson. Wife of Peter Parker. What's that? One More Day? Never happened... Anyways, I always liked MJ and I actually didn't remember she was going to get MU treatment. I wanted it just to own it. The figure itself is pretty plain. The head sculpt is pretty. The shirt design is meh. She comes with a little puppy. Meh. Female MU figures I'm still waiting on: Emma Frost and (Young Avengers) Hawkeye.


Luke Cage, he's been shelf warming the pegs for a while. Picked him up because of a 2 for $9.99 sale we had. He comes with a beanie, bling necklace, and a contorted I-beam. His head sculpt has sunglasses. That really should have been another accessory instead. The I-beam is a lame accessory. The bling necklace is also pretty tacky, but at least it looks funny. The I-beam is just lame. I don't like the jean paint job. It just looks off.


Rodimus Minor. My third Animated Transformer figure. I bought him because I liked his vehicle mode.


Hot Rod looking good in vehicle mode. The bow ruins the look, so I prefer to leave it off. There is one thing about the vehicle mode that sucks.


There's a gaping hole on the backside. It should have been covered here. I still like his vehicle mode way more than his robot mode.


Robot mode isn't too bad. The head sculpt looks good, but the chest is too big. Articulation is about average. His head has great flexibility. The molding of his arm limits his hands. He would have awesome wrist articulation if the arms were molded differently. He's still better than Blitzwing, but he can't top the queen of Animated.