Review – Iron Man Legends Hulkbuster

Line: Marvel * Manufacturer: Hasbro * Year: 2011 * Ages: 4+

“Tony Stark is always thinking ahead about how to best protect the Earth. One of the dangers that has preoccupied him for years is the one posed by the Hulk. Stark built the Hulkbuster Iron Man armor, an immensely powerful suit designed specifically to take down the Hulk and prevent him from threatening the planet.”
— from the back of the card

This is a painful review to write. After so many times writing about the Hulkbuster armor in its various forms — Iron Man 2 Hulkbuster (review here, Iron Man Hulkbuster Mini-Bust (review here), and Marvel Legends Hulk Buster Iron Man (review here) — it’s not an easy thing to tell you that this latest Hulkbuster action figure is a disappointment. But it is, so go ahead and skip this review if you’re already planning to leave rude and abusive comments. I can do without another round of that.

This is Not the Hulkbuster Armor

My first complaint with this action figure is that it is simply not the classic Hulkbuster armor. What we get here is a semi-Hulkbuster suit of armor that has some similarities to the actual armor but is too thin and small and sports the wrong details. No, this is actually more like a movie-style Mark IV suit of armor with some bits tacked on to bulk it up. Now I’m not so obsessive that I couldn’t have seen this as another style of Hulkbuster suit . . . if the action figure had actually been well crafted. But it wasn’t.

An Articulated Nightmare

It’s not that large, bulky action figures cannot sport decent articulation — my own Marvel Legends Hulk Buster review demonstrates that an even larger figure than this can have good articulation — no, it’s that this particular toy has major articulation issues. It’s not the number of joints or even types of joints that are a problem, but more the way in which the sculpt restricts the movement of those joints. The feet are restricted, the shoulders have even more of a restriction than we’ve seen before with those flappy shoulder pad pieces, and the worst offender is the ball/hinge hips that just refuse to rotate into a position that allows Hulkbuster to bend his legs forward. And those vinyl pieces at the hips aren’t helping the leg movement.

I did a little searching for another review of this toy to see if my articulation problems are an isolated event — some of the joints feel really tight, almost like paint sealed them — but I had no luck finding any other reviews of the toy.

Sculpt

I haven’t been grabbing the 6-inch movie Iron Man action figures so I cannot say how much of this toy is old, but looking at him I strongly suspect that the upper arms, upper legs, abdomen, and the head under the helmet are all reused parts. And maybe even the lower legs, since it looks like the armored bits over the lower legs are glued on. In general the sculpt is good, with the lines sharp and the entire package looking exactly like it belongs in Iron Man’s armory. I would have rather seen the triangular pattern on the chest than the circle, but as a sculpted addition to my collection of Iron Man action figures and statues this is an acceptable piece.

Adequate Paint

The red and gold color are an improvement over the 3.75-inch scale Iron Man 2 Hulkbuster coloring (review here), but the quality of the paintwork is no better than we get on those smaller figures. Why have larger figures if the sculpt and paint are not any better than smaller figures? And at $18 I expected a better job than we got; basically, this action figure feels over-priced for the quality of the work.

Closing Thoughts

I am seriously disappointed in this Iron Man Legends Hulkbuster action figure. Too small, the wrong look, simply adequate paint, and terrible articulation all come together to make me ask why Hasbro couldn’t have simply re-issued the older Marvel Legends Hulk Buster action figure. Even at $35 or so that older toy would have been a much better buy than this design.

I have to say that the poor quality of this toy has me rethinking buying any other pieces in the line. As it is the 6-inch scale isn’t one of my favorite sizes — as is possibly noticeable by the reviews that I post — and there’s nothing about this toy that makes me want to grab more in the series.

Sad. I wanted to love this action figure, but he just doesn’t stand up (not really, the toy stands just fine) and is not at all worth what ToysRUs is asking for him. I suggest you skip this figure.

Philip Reed stills wants that massive Hulkbuster statue. The disappointment he feels for this action figure didn’t at all ruin his love for the basic Iron Man suit or for the real Hulkbuster design.