Minimate Mini-Review #258 - Hulkbuster Iron Man & Rampaging Hulk

#258 - Hulkbuster Iron Man/Rampaging Hulk

The Avengers 2: Guardians of Ga'Hoole Minimates have begun showing up at Toys Я Usses (the direct market versions shipped a few weeks ago).

Tony Stark always plans for the future, and he created the Hulk Buster [sic] Iron Man armor as a means of subduing an out-of-control Hulk.

Well, he didn't create it alone - this isn't like the comics, where he built it in secret and sprung it on Hulk as a surprise, this suit was built with Bruce Banner's help and input. To create the suit's massive size, he has lots of sculpted add-ons: new boots, big thighs, huge gloves, shoulder armor, and a chest cap that's almost as wide as it is tall. This is definitely a Minimate that looks bigger and meaner than the average.

In the film, the Hulkbuster armor is worn over Tony's normal armor, and the Minimate duplicates that. The head and upper shoulders hinge up, revealing the normal Minimate head painted with the details of the Mark 43 armor. Ditto to the torso block, if you choose to take the chest cap off. You can't turn this into a plain Iron Man, though, because the arms and legs are undetailed.

While the Hulk is normally a bright green color, a new grey version comes to the forefront during a battle with Ultron. Is it friend or foe?

Eh, foe probably. Of course, this is all hypothetical, since it never actually happened. The plan was originally to have him turn grey when Scarlet Witch gave him the whammy, but they decided to leave him green (though not the usual green seen in the films - the tint was a bit more red). This Minimate kind of splits the difference between true grey and the color used in the film, making him visually distinct from all the other Hulks, but still clearly the same guy. He's wearing his Avengers-logoed technopants, and his eyes are red and blurry. Has Hulk been crying?

The Hulkbuster armor isn't quite as large as it should be, because that's kind of unfeasible, but it is taller than the Hulk Minimate, and that's what matters.

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4 Responses to Minimate Mini-Review #258 - Hulkbuster Iron Man & Rampaging Hulk

  1. Wolf says:

    They did a POP of the "grey" Hulk too, complete with red eyes. Makes me wonder if there's a style guide thing for movie merch. Maybe we'll see a Wal-Mart exclusive Marvel Legends one soon too, haha!

    • yo go re says:

      Absolutely there is. That's why all the Vision stuff was purple-and-grey, even though the movie was closer to red and green. But the Hulk POP is really GREY grey, so clearly they didn't have time to do any color correction like Art Asylum did...

      • monkey boy says:

        I think these style guides would be an awesome piece of memorabilia to have. There's always little things I see on figures that don't quite make sense and I always wonder if it's a style guide thing.

        Example: All Commander Cody figures from Sideshow to Hasbro have a gray design on the middle of the "chin" on the helmet. In the movie this was very much black. Similarly, Commander Bly has darker yellow accents over the yellow parts of his armor (most obvious on the same chin area) but this has only made its way to a single Hasbro repaint. All other statues and figures just have one yellow color on his armor.

        I am a huge nerd.

        • Wolf says:

          Yeah, it would be interesting to know. Obviously a lot of merch is based on designs that are pre-final release, but I wonder if some of them get updated further down the line. The Commander Cody thing would be an interesting one to check -- you would think that in the last 10+ years they might have made alterations to style guides for licensors, but perhaps not.

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