So, this was unexpected. Here’s Marvel Select’s Hulk, from “The Avengers” film.
I bet the first thing in your mind is… WHY DID YOU EVEN BUY A MARVEL SELECT FIGURE?! Well, that was what I asked myself too. The reason is simple… I wanted to have an ‘Avengers’ collection of sorts. I have Revoltech Iron Man, War Machine and Spider-Man, so why not have some other Avengers too? I searched around the web, and chanced upon this big guy. He looks semi-in-scale with the Revoltech figures. Probably a little too big compared to the other Revoltech Avengers. But I have the funny feeling that if Revoltech were to release a Revoltech Hulk, it’d be too small in scale to match up with the Avengers.
I actually thought a lot about it before buying this figure from a local toy store. There were a few reasons for this hesitation, because of the fact that this is an American toy. When I think of American figures, I think of poor QC, lousy articulation, lack of durability. But reading some reviews about this guy online, it would seem that Diamond Select’s toys are catered towards collectors. So I took the plunge.
I have to say, I am pretty impressed by the amount of details to the sculpt for this figure. It’s a pity I don’t have a macro lens to take close-up shots of the face. But the face sculpt is very detailed, with even the teeth painted in. There’s the messiness in the hair that’s so nicely sculpted, and all the muscle and veins popping out all over the figure. There’s even colour shading all over the figure. Let’s not forget the painted toenails too. The pants are in a purple-khaki mixed colour; I’m not too sure if it’s a design aesthetic thing, but it looks as though the paint job for the pants wasn’t that well done.
QC-wise, I guess my copy was decent enough. (I’m not about to nitpick on everything.) But I have seen some copies in the store where the face wasn’t well painted, or the paint on the legs/hands were chipping off.
In terms of articulation, there are 18 points of articulation on this figure. It does an okay job, but don’t expect Figuarts-styled articulation on this guy. There’s a ball-joint for the head, which allows the figure to look up, left and right pretty well. Sadly, the Hulk can’t quite look down much, which is what the Hulk mostly does. So bummer there. There’re wrist, bicep and thigh swivels; single-jointed elbows and knees, cut-swivel joints for the hips, shoulders and feet. There’s a single (ball?) joint in the torso area, which allows the Hulk to bend backwards quite a bit, but not forwards. Again, bummer, considering how much the Hulk hunches in The Avengers movie. The Hulk was pretty ape-like in the movie. Which brings me to my next point – the arms feel a little too short.
Hearing all the great reviews about this guy online made me buy him, but I was a little disappointed. Nonetheless, the Hulk still makes a decent (and menacing) display figure. I wish they gave him swappable heads with different facial expressions though.
How the Hulk measures up to a Figuarts.
HULK SMASH PUNY MAN!
Because of the articulation, the Hulk’s poses are rather limited, hence the limited number of photos. But despite all the negative comments I made about the figure, I still find it a pretty decent figure considering the details and the mass of this figure. It’s a pretty heavy figure, and feels really solid. Which is great, cause that’s what the Hulk is supposed to be. As much as I like my figures to be more posable, the Hulk is posable enough to be added to my collection.
All that said… I ordered two more Marvel Select figures. The first is Venom. As you can see in the image link, Venom seems to come with swappable face and back pieces. It’ll probably have the same amount of articulation as the Hulk, judging from the looks of it. But hey, it’s supposedly going to be as huge as the Hulk. A huge looking venom with swappable parts, why not? Then there’s Rhino. The sculpt looks so detailed, so I figured ‘ah what the heck, I’m getting this too’. I guess it would be a good match to my Revoltech Spider-Man too.
Well then, till the next review!
highm0bility EX 
Thing is, American toys are made as it says on the tin: toys. And thus are produced using the “quantity over quality” mindset for a wider audience (young children) who doesn’t seem to care a bit about QUALITY but rather the fun factor. Although I do think that western toys are more likely to survive frequent abuse than Japanese toys would.
Well, to be fair, Japanese (Bandai) QC has been kinda slipshod lately… And as for ‘durability’, I guess that’s why Tamashii’s stuff are listed as ‘collectors’ item’ and ‘For ages 15+’. It’s not meant to be played around. It’s meant to be displayed. =/
Same goes with other manufacturers, my MP Hot Rod literally disintegrated out of the box by the time I just opened it.
Ouch. Considering the price points of MPs, one would expect better QC/materials… =/
Time to get the (most people say) better Hasbro version then.
Nah, no money. And, I’m too lazy to hunt for one. But I can see why some may say that it’s better. It uses the Marvel Legends style joints, which has more joints than a Select figure… More joints = more articulation I guess?
But the actual figure’s mould seems more broken than the Select one. Select’s more of a display piece, while the Legends Movie one is more for kids I guess.