REVIEW: Marvel Legends RED HULK Build-A-Figure

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With the recent release of the Marvel Legends Fin Fang Foom assortment, dubbed "Hulk Legends" (read the review HERE), Hasbro put the spotlight on the green goliath and his friends and foes. The eight large-scaled figures and gigantic Build-A-Figure (BAF) Foom, provided the ultimate high for tons of collectors that have been clamoring for more Hulk characters.

This bold move by Hasbro has truly shown the Hulk property a lot of love, but who would have thought that the next BAF would be Red Hulk? In collaboration with Target, Hasbro has released another incredible assortment which includes an amalgam of first-run characters that include pieces to build the mysterious and unstoppable "RULK".

PAINT: There is not much of a paint job to judge on since the figure is primarily cast in red plastic. The only paint applications on this figure only apply to his hair and face. The hair is painted in dark grey with a black wash on top of it which exposes the individual hair strand details. The ripped pants are molded in a dark blue colored plastic and no evident factory paint applications.

Sadly this BAF figure did not receive the T.L.C. it deserved so the figure has more of a cartoony look to it as result of the plain solid colors. A little airbrushing and highlighting of the veins in a lighter shade of red would have done the trick.

SCULPT: RULK looks as if it came right out of a HULK comic book with its uncanny likeness to Ed McGuiness’ art style. The robust muscles and chest on the figure are sculpted with great precision and even the elbows feature the artists’ trademark squiggly lines.

I had some doubts about this figure when I first saw pictures of it online but it looks ten times better up-close! Assembling the figure is very easy and all the joints click into place perfectly.

ARTICULATION: There is plenty of poses you can pull off with this figure, but in my opinion, it could have had a little more. Since the Red Hulk is a Build-A-Figure, it should have had a lot more points of articulation, but instead Hasbro only gave it 18. This is less than the average amount of joints other regular scaled Marvel Legends feature.

The Red Hulk Build-A-Figure features the following 18 points of articulation:

• ball-socket head

• ball-socket shoulders

• ball-socket wrists

• ball-socket inner-thighs

• ball-socket ankles

• swivel jointed elbows

• swivel-jointed knees

• swivel-jointed mid-section

• swivel-jointed wrists

OVERALL IMPRESSION: It seems that Hasbro may be sticking to a retailer exclusive strategy with Marvel Legends for the time being, which a real shame. Since the Red Hulk line was exclusively sold at Target, these things were literally flying off the shelves, and in some cases, not even making out of the stockroom! Unfortunate collectors that lived too far from a Target had to pay inflated secondary-market prices to get their hands on RULK.

I personally could not find the figures on shelves although I visited my local Target every morning for over a month’s time! The retail price dilemma was another issue that severely affected this line because after the much larger “Fin Fang Foom” wave was released, Target kept the same $14.99 price and applied it to all Marvel Legends waves, including older items like the Brood Queen wave which originally scanned for $9.99.

Although this wave of Marvel Legends is one of my favorites so far, I hope that Hasbro will produce these retailer exclusives in higher volumes next time to give every collector a fair chance at purchasing them for a fair price. Was the Red Hulk Build-A-Figure worth all the aggravation and inflated prices? Yes, because my marvel collection could not be complete without this cool RULK figure.

CLICK HERE for more images of the Red Hulk!

Review and Photos by Jorge Pelaez