Minimate Mini-Review #350 - Gladiator Hulk & Valkyrie

#350 - Gladiator Hulk/Valkyrie

Disney may not be able to make a standalone Hulk film, but that doesn't prevent them from taking the plot from "Planet Hulk" and dropping it into Thor 3. The closest thing we've gotten to a Planet Hulk Minimate before is World War Hulk, so this will be a fine stand-in. His add-on pieces are mostly new: the hands are molded with his gauntlets, his feet have his sandals, and the chest cap has raised armor on it; only the biceps are existing pieces. The paint on all those little details is crisp, as is all his white war paint. If you choose to remove his helmet, the set includes hair you can replace it with, but there's not much call for it since the rest of the armor is permanent. Hulk is armed with both his axe and his lumpy hammer.

One of the weakest parts of the movie was Valkyrie's costume. Both of them, in fact. The plain one, seen in this figure, is entirely unremarkable, and her "official" outfit isn't much better. It's a shame the movie didn't combine the two, like this fan art does. The Minimate does a very nice job of re-creating her clothes using mainly paint - her cape and skirt are new pieces, but the rest of the details - the boots, the breastplate, the bracers - are only done via tampograph, probably because adding 3D armor to a 2¼" figure would make her look too bulky. The hair is unique to Valk, and you get your choice of weapons for her: either two daggers, or the blue-bladed sword we now know is Dragonfang. Unfortunately, she doesn't have any way to store her unused weapons, so something will always have to lay on the ground. Or maybe you could loan the knives to Loki.

The Ragnarok Minimates are being distributed in a rather interesting way: there's a four-pack of Thor, Hela, Loki and Bruce Banner, which is only available at specialty stores; the Thor and Hela from that pack are also available in a two-pack at both Toys Я Us and Walgreens. This set, of Gladiator Hulk and Valkyrie, is also available at both TRU and Walgreens. Then TRU has one exclusive set, and Walgreens has two. So in total, there are 10 Ragnarok figures, with only two of them being available everywhere. It adds a bit of a "scavenger hunt" feel to the line, and thankfully, none of them have been too hard to find. Plus, you can look forward to Black Panther getting the same treatment next year.

Share
This entry was posted in Art Asylum, Marvel, MMMR, TRU, Walgreens and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *