After watching the awesome spectacle that is The Avengers, I rushed out to my local Toys R Us to pick up some toys... and I was thoroughly disappointed. The line was limited to the 4" scale, some figures had crappy paint apps, and the assortment was lacking with no Black Widow, Hawkeye, or Chitauri to be found. Fortunately, I did discover that two 6" lines would be available: one from Hasbro and another from Diamond Select. And Hulk, given his performance in the movie, was the clear choice to start my Avengers action figure team. But which to choose.. the Hasbro or Diamond Select version?
Competition between toy manufacturers working on the same property is always good for collectors because they can pick the figures that best fit their preferences. It's clear that the Hasbro figures have better articulation (see PoeGhostal for comparison shots), but articulation isn't the end-all, be-all for me. For one thing, articulation should never screw up a figure's look. If a joint messes up the appearance of the figure, it should be either redesigned or left out completely.
And that's what made my decision easy. Although the Hasbro Hulk has better movement, the joints totally wreck the figure's look. The ball-shaped hips are awkward (and more than a little like Microman figures) and the awful double-jointed elbows and knees segment the limbs into three unnatural pieces.
Marvel Select Hulk has less articulation but it's still pretty good: limited ball-socket neck, swivel-hinge shoulders, hinge elbows, swivel wrists, limited ball-socket chest, swivel-hinge hips, swivel thighs, hinge knees, and perpendicular-hinged ankles (two hinges moving perpendicular to each other). Some joints feel more breakable than others, in particular the hips, so try not to force anything. But most importantly the articulation works with the sculpt to keep the figure's appearance intact.
Diamond Select figures also tend to have better sculpts and paint apps than their mass-produced counterparts. This Hulk is a great example, with precise paint apps and a fantastic sculpt that makes the figure look like it jumped right off the movie screen. The detailing is fantastic. In particular, I dig the messiness of the hair and the veins in the bulging muscles. Even each of the toes was sculpted separately. This dude is greener than Hasbro's olive 4" Hulk, and I would say that the MS Hulk has a more screen-accurate coloration.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the mailer box was how huge this figure is. I was expecting a 6-inch figure but this Hulk is 6-inch scale, which means the figure clocks in at an appropriately huge 10 inches tall. That's a lot of plastic for $20.
But Hulk comes with no accessories. Some smashed bits of scenery would be great, or maybe some miscellaneous Chitauri body parts. As it is, having no scenery and being one of the very few Marvel figures in my collection, it looks a little out of sorts until I can get more Avengers.
But get more I shall! Marvel Select Hulk is a great start for any Avengers collection. Between this and the Hasbro Hulk, I think I got the better of the two. Still, if I see Hulkbro in the stores, I might be tempted to double-dip if it's a comparable figure.
12 comments:
Awww. You make me sad. :( I got an email this morning saying my order wouldn't ship till between the end of June through to early August.
Where did you get yours? My LCS is under new management, and they have cleared out most of their old toys, and have failed miserably at ordering new ones.
I also heard there is a cut you can make to the inner hip to give him further leg movement.
@URS: I got mine from Big Bad Toy Store. You might want to try there... they might have a few left in stock.
I don't see anything about the inner hip that could be adjusted to give it more movement, but maybe I'm not looking in the right place. I probably wouldn't try it anyway, I'd be afraid that I'd screw something up.
Also, fact-check: There are a Hawkeye and a Black Widow, they're in the second assortment and should be available [at least, they've reached the midwest, were at my local TRU] along with a Skrull that seems to be in the line only to have serves as a pre-release red herring.
@Ronnie: I haven't seen them yet, but I'm sure they'll be along soon enough. But it's weird how there were so many different figures in different scales for Green Lantern, and how little product there is for The Avengers.
I guess you might wonder why I'm complaining about limited assortments for the 4" Hasbro line but end up going with the Marvel Select line that only has one figure available. For me, a 4" line is best when you have large assortments of figures. Basically, the collection is cooler than the individual figures. But with the Marvel Select line, the figures are cool enough to stand on their own.
You mentioned another thing that I find annoying about the line: comic-styled figures interspersed with the movie figures. There are plenty of Marvel comic figures out there, I'm only interested in the Avengers movie figures. And those comic figures are just taking up assortment space that could be used by Chitauri or other Avengers.
I saw the second wave today. Picked up a Barton and a Skrull. Someone scalped every last Widow, and there had to be like 4 cases worth out on the shelf. I usually avoid movie figs like the plague, but this movie has really grabbed me. Even been buying the stupid collector cards. :D I'll wait to see how I like Clint before I go building a full team....I want an Agent Coulsen.
It's funny you mention being annoyed with smatterings of comic style figs in the movie lines. There are ton's of folks who think there isn't enough Comic figs in the movie lines.
They never find the appropriate balance. And really, with the exception of Avengers, the prior movie lines had little to expand on from the movie characters, so they toss in comic figs to balance it out and appeal to that collector base. We Comic guys get peeved when the wave of figs we want get dropped because the movie based stuff doesn't sell enough. There are still TONS of IM2 figs wasting space at my wal-marts in clearance, yet so many of us got jyped out of the final wave of Comic figs because of it.
It's my opinion that the movie stuff sells slower than the comic stuff. MU rarely stays on pegs more than a few months. Eventually even the peg warmers from that line get picked up.
Very nice looking Hulk i like it.
Nice job on getting it early! I had one in hand but the guy at teh local "flea" market wanted almost double what it retails for so I said I mihgt come back. One lunch later, both his pieces were gone. lol. Anyway I put down an order with my go-to store at the right price and it'll supposedly come in June...(twiddling thumbs...)
Passed on him the other day as I have a great Marvel Select Hulk, but he IS very cool!
@URS: Speaking of cross-pollination of themes in toy lines, I saw the new Amazing Spiderman toys this weekend. I was kind of curious to see the movie designs, but I had no idea what was a movie figure and what was a comic figure. Some are obvious: I know that the Doc Oc figure is a comic design and the Lizard is a movie design, but all those Spiderman figures are confusing. I think there are even some prototype designs in there. It's a great example of how meshing comic and movie lines can create weird branding issues.
I'm sure it says whether it's a movie or a comic design somewhere on the packaging, but it wasn't readily apparent and I wasn't too interested in standing in the aisle studying these figures for 15 minutes trying to find the movie designs. And parents looking for a gift for their kid are certainly not going to know a movie figure from a comic figure.
I'm glad Mattel doesn't do this with its DC movie lines. I can't imagine how frustrated I would have been collecting the Green Lantern line if it included a bunch of comic designs.
I agree there. The new SM series was crazy. It's impracticle to start a movie themed line off with nothing but Comic figs. I think the second wave was movie styled.
As for the other movie lines thus far, they started with movie figs, and then got into comic/concept figs. The Avengers and Cap lines are fairly well balanced.
Oh, and I finally saw Select Hulk in person this past weekend. I didn't want to pay $25 bucks for it though. Figured I could wait for my order to fill out.
I have both the Hasbro figure, and this Diamond Select Hulk. I can confidently say that the Hasbro Hulk, although does have greater range of movement, and costs a few dollars less, does not hold up well at all when compared to this figure.
Had I not found the Hasbro Hulk first, I doubt I would even own him.
@clark: That's good to know. I was wondering if I would have to go searching for a Hasbro Hulk, but from what you're saying, it's probably not worth my time.
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