Superhero Times: a service of Action Online
FULL REVIEW: Hasbro’s Marvel Legends, series one: Planet Hulk
The makers of the Marvel Legends line, whether Toybiz or Hasbro, have always put out a very commendable number of secondary characters from the Marvel universe. If you can have your Sasquatch figure fight your Baron Strucker figure, you know that few stones are being left unturned. (But whither Flag-Smasher?) And yet, they who head the line are never been fools; most waves of Legends have included at least one major character, in some version or other. This is insurance, one supposes, insurance that at least one figure of the line will sell. There have been a number of versions of Wolverine, for example, and a handful of Spider-Man. And the number of Iron Man versions has been too large to be expressed by conventional mathematics. There’s yet another one in this series. But we’re not talking about that one today.
No, today we’re talking about a different household name, a different series-anchoring character: the Hulk. Or, more specifically, “Planet Hulk.” Now, according to the usual conventions of action figure naming, a figure called “Planet Hulk” would depict the Hulk in, um, in his association with a planet? Or planets in general? Or with a storyline called simply “Planet”? Er? But that’s not what’s going on. This figure is named after the current “Planet Hulk” storyline, wherein the ill-tempered green giant is stuck on some planet as a gladiator, for awhile. And calling this figure “Planet Hulk Hulk” would probably be a stupid idea.
PACKAGING
The card is basically white, with a painting of our man Planet Hulk in which he looks so much like a Planet of the Apes character that it’s truly stupefying. The sculpted and multi-tiered plastic bubble is decorated with a foursome of images of the Hulk, all presumably from the relevant storyline. This is helpful, now that Hasbro has discontinued the inclusion of representative comic books with the figures. Your humble reviewer should probably cop to the fact that he has never so much as cracked an issue of “Planet Hulk.”
As with the other packages in this series, there is a hole in the cardboard inserts at the bottom of the bubble. This allows you to look at the figure from below, if that sounds like something you’d care to do. However, in this case, look in the hole, and there’s the face of Annihilus (Planet Hulk’s contribution to the build-a-figure for this wave), leering down at you! Gaaaah!
SCULPTING
Okay, now, the right arm, torso, and feet, they’re all great, sculpt-wise. Really great, in fact; there is a level of detail here, of rough skin-texture, which is well above and beyond the call of duty. However:
The left arm looks much like the right arm, only it’s painted silver. Which of course implies that it’s armored. The pictures on the package bear this out, showing a silvery banding on this arm. But there is no sign whatsoever of this banding on the figure. And it really ought to be there. Not only would it be more comic-accurate, but it would simply make the figure look better. The plain, silver arm’s a hard sell.
There is a similar problem with the pants. There is no texturing here, no wrinkles or anything to make them seem like cloth. Maybe they’re supposed to be spandex pants or some such, maybe millimeter-thick, skin-tight Kevlar like the Punisher seems to have, but the effect just looks lazy nevertheless. Especially in contrast with the skin.
Finally, the face. The face looks like a ludicrous, rough, angular caricature of Frankenstein’s monster, like something Mezco Toyz might put out, meaning for it to look deformed. And there are plenty of very fine people who really like that sort of sculpt on an action figure. But Marvel Legends isn’t the place for it. Furthermore, the package art gives no evidence that this gruesome visage is inspired by the comic art; that might have been forgivable.
PAINT APPLICATION
Regrettably, this is a problem as well. The simplicity of the application of the silver of the arm and the brown of the pants does nothing to mitigate the problems with the sculpt at those places. There’s some entirely inappropriate green around the knees. And the skin – well, the skin is shaded nicely, but its base color is a garish, neon-bright green. A brighter green than any Legends figure of the Hulk has ever been. Or ever should be. It is, in a word, ugly. Plus you have to make sure your children don’t sit too close to it, for fear of eyestrain. Like parenting wasn’t hard enough already!
ARTICULATION
Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. Planet Hulk has as many points of articulation as any Marvel Legends Hulk ever has. Granted, this has always been fewer than the standard; the double-joints on the elbows and knees are usually lost, as are the rotating feet, all presumably due to the greatly increased bulk of the limbs. And these points are lost on this figure, too. But the feet are articulated on a forward axis – meaning the toy can do the splits with the soles still on the ground – and, much more importantly, there are joints in the middle of the feet and hands. It’s good to have you back, you joints. Your room is just the way you left it. Furthermore, the thumbs and pointer fingers are individually articulated, and that’s just awesome. One wishes that Hasbro had poured this kind of articulation into a better-looking figure.
The joints are all very tight, and tend to stick. This is common in this series, and the silver lining here is that the figures hold their poses better than they might otherwise. These could still be loosened up just a touch, though, to speed things up for the modern, on-the-go action figure poser.
ACCESSORIES
Planet Hulk comes with a curved, rectangular shield, with a spiked hemisphere in its center. It’s a uniform bronze color, and is very nicely sculpted. It looks marred and cracked as though it’s been through hundreds of gripping arena battles, or perhaps one very, very long one, which presumably got less gripping as time went on. There are two straps on the back, one for the forearm, and one for the hand. The superior articulation of the hand enables the figure to hold on to the shield securely, but not tightly. And you don’t want to grip your shield too tightly anyway. That shows fear, and gladiators on whatever planet this is thrive on fear, probably.
Hulk also has a roman-style helmet, and a spiked shoulder-guard, both removable. Normally, these sorts of things walk a line between “accessories” and “sculpting.” In the case of these items, however, by “removable” we here mean “flying off the figure at the slightest provocation, landing behind the couch never to be seen again.” So “accessories” it is! Other than this little flaw, though, they’re good pieces, bronze and weathered like the shield.
As mentioned earlier, this figure comes with the head of Annihilus, getting you that much closer to completion of said villain. It also comes with Annihilus’ collar, as a separate piece, complete with the giant tablet of prescription medication attached to its bottom.
COST & OVERALL IMPRESSION
The Marvel Legends line costs ten dollars apiece, now, though they’re selling fast, and go for around 150% of that online. Hulk and Ultimate Iron Man seem to be the best sellers of the line, which is most likely due to the fame of the characters, more than anything else.
When your humble reviewer first saw an advance promotional photo of the Planet Hulk figure, he thought, “Okay, that’s just a prototype, right? The final figure’s not going to look like that.” Wrong! That’s precisely how it was gonna look. Just when you thought all you cared about was articulation, a figure comes along that’s so ugly it proves you wrong. It’s the face and the color that really kill it, though the arm, pants, and patented “E-Z-Lose” technology of the accessories don’t help matters. Every series has to have its low point, and this is certainly it for Hasbro’s first Marvel Legends series. But just because a low point is inevitable doesn’t mean it has to be as low as this.
Images and Reviews by Matt Kessen