Long LONG review of the Red Hulk Wave!

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I've been wanting this wave since I heard about it. Mostly because of the Build-A-Figure was a Hulk figure, but also because the line up has some really great characters that haven't had any plastic love from previous Marvel Legends waves. The main problem with trying to secure one though is that it's an "exclusive". Hasbro decided to make this set of figures exclusively available to Target stores. Whenever a toy company decides to do this, it's notoriously hard to secure a set unless you do so online. When I got mine, prices were already skyrocketing... left orbit even. People on PinoyToyKolekotors were already selling it for P10,500, which is actually a fair price considering the rarity of the set now.

Luckily, I scored mine at P8,700 at V Toys in Greenhills. If you're looking, I also saw one set of 6 at Great Toys Greenhills for P8,500, but it only has one Wolverine. The set I bought came with both and the variant Spiral (initially I preferred the normal silver Spiral, but the gold is growing on me). P8,700 works out to P1,243 per, which is less than what you'd see singles being offered for. The line up is as follows.

Adam Warlock



Black Costume Spiderman



Black Costume Wolverine



Yellow Costume Wolverine



Union Jack



Silver Savage



and Spiral (gold variant)



Unlike the Fin Fang Foom wave, the Red Hulk wave doesn't have alot of related characters. Though Silver Savage and the Red Hulk come from the same comic title, the characters aren't in the same arc and never interact. None of the others have anything in common. I'm barely familiar with some of them, but others fill holes in my collection. All in all it's a nice rounded line up with some good figures.

Silver Savage is easily my favorite. I loved the Ronan Wave's Silver Surfer, so this retool is just as great. He gets a new board, this time with a strap in the middle so he can use it as a shield, some new greaves and gauntlets with some shoulder armor, a sword and mace, and a brand spanking new loincloth.

(I don't know why he needs a loincloth, seeing as how the Surfer's always been about as anatomically correct as a Ken doll)




The Silver Savage is part of the "Planet Hulk" storyline where Hulk is shot into space and ends up a gladiator on an alien world. Beach boy here crash lands and is captured on said alien world and is forced into the games just like Hulk, hence the midevil goodies.










Since he is from the same arc as the King Hulk from the Marvel Legends Fin Fang Foom wave and the Planet Hulk from the Annihilus wave, you'd expect him to look great next to them. And what do you know, he does!













Next on the list is Union Jack.

Again, I'm not really familiar with this character and what I know is basically what's on the back of his card. He's a crimefighter from the United Kingdom (like duh!) who sometimes works with MI6. He apparently doesn't have any powers, but excels in unarmed combat.







Here he is next to my other Super Soldier/Psuedo-Military figures:




Jack comes with two accesories (not counting his BAF part); a revolver and a blade. Their smaller than is normal for comic book figures (anyone who grew up on 90's comic books will know what I'm talking about), but fit right in with this guy. He's even got a belt with a holster and sheath that work!

Problem is, the weapons don't fit in his hands well though. In the package, their kept in place with the clear rubber bands that the Legends line is packed with. Once you remove the bands, you're pretty much going to lose the tiny pieces. My advice is to store him with his gun and knife in the holster. They're pretty snug and won't fall out by themselves. If you're going to display him, for the love of Pete, be careful. I wrapped those ML bands that came with him around his hands for a better grip.
















Wolverine is one of those characters that is still getting a new figure every other wave in the Marvel Legends line. He was already in a two-pack with Forge earlier this year, and the Red Hulk wave has got TWO. And it's not like we haven't seen him in a while. He was in the Blob wave. It's a bit ridiculous actually.

The two that came in this set are his classic yellow tiger striped costume, and a new black get-up. I read that it was done as a variant cover to hype the X-men movie when it first came out. It's not really all that, basically just a color switch with black instead of yellow, yellow instead of blue. Still since I already have a great Yellow Costue Wolverine from the Apocalypse line, I decided to open the Black one. I'm still not sure what to do with my Yellow one.




The figure is a repaint of the Brown Wolverine from the early Toybiz lines and if you have that one, there's nothing new here. Articulation is as good as any of the old Toybiz stuff, though paint is sloppier. I do wonder why they bothered to paste on the shoulder pads that the Yellow Costume Wolverine has. Most likely explanation is that they went and produced the yellow ones, then actually just painted half of them black. The packaging (which is the same for both) seems to support that.

I'm not really sure what to do with my 2nd Wolverine. Since I have the nicer Apocalypse one, and the BAF part is the same as the black version, it's no use opening it. I'll probably wait a year until it's rare enough for me to turn a nice profit on it by selling it to some sucker who wasn't able to complete his set. *twiddles thumbs* BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!













Anyway, Wolvie was my least favorite in the bunch... until I got a closer look at the Black Spiderman (that sounds so politically incorrect)...




On first glance, Spidey looks pretty good. He's definitely got a better sculpt than some of the other renditions that Toybiz/ Hasbro has come out with. He's not burdened with an idiotic "action feature" like the one from the recent Spidey re-issue line. He's bulkier than the McFarlane Spidey, and less massive than the Spidey Hulk.







Despite having just the right amount of Spidey-ness in him, the figure is a disappointment. When I try and think what could have gone on at Hasbro during the manufacturing of this figure, I imagine some guy telling big wigs about fanboys online complaining that "Hasbro figures have no paint washes!" and the big dogs listened to him. Lord alone knows why they gave a wash to this guy, since he alone among all the figures in this wave DOESN'T NEED THEM!

He's a BLACK Costume Spiderman. BLACK. All Hasbro needed to do was give us one BLACK figure with eyes and the spider logo.

Instead, Hasbro went and gave him a blue wash that ostensibly represent highlights. However, the "highlights" aren't really placed logically in areas that would receive light and instead of applying it to a completed figure, it looks like they painted it on each piece separately. The blue tends to start and stop rather abruptly in places. It's really very aggravating considering these 6" figures are getting more and more expensive.










You're also going to want to be careful with his joints. I tried adjusting his feet and one of them just flat out snapped off. Very very bad joss.

If you don't have a black costume Spidey, or if you just want to complete the BAF, go ahead and get him. If you're a fan of the costume though, I'd wait for something better to come along, especially at the price these figures are going for now.




Next up is Adam Warlock. If you were in high school or college during the time Infinity Gauntlet came out, then you're familiar with this guy. He's the one that got the Gauntlet after Thanos lost it. I always thought he was cool 'cause he got to hang out with Gamora, Moondragon, Pip and Drax. If they ever put out toys of those four I'm there!




The toy is the opposite of Spiderman in that it's the one I thought I was going to like least and end up selling. After fooling around with it though, I decided otherwise. It's got really simple paints, but then Warlock was never really know for his fancy costume. The body suit is fine and the solid color simply works. Yeah you might say that yellow black and orange make him look like a pumpkin, but he was created in the 60's so cut him some slack.










He comes with a very nicely done staff that I'm not sure he ever really used, and a nicely sculpted cape. the cape makes him hard to balance, but if you put your mind to it, you'll get it eventually. He also has the Infinity Gauntlet sculpted on his left hand. If I had a Marvel Select Thanos, the two would make quite a pair.

The biggest gripe I have about the figure is that there is an extra cut joint mid-leg. I love thigh cuts. Thigh cuts are just really really useful when posing figures. Despite often being unsightly, they add alot to balance, allowing a figure to place both feet flat on the ground. The new articulation from Hasbro has done away with thigh cuts in favor of a new ultra articulated knee. Let me tell you... IT DOES NOT WORK. Instead of a thigh cut we get a totally useless lower leg cut that not only mars the look of the scuplt, but is totally redundant considering that less than an inch lower there is a heel joint that gives the same motion. Headpalm Hasbro.




Last but not least among the regular figures is Spiral (yay!)




There is nothing to gripe about here. Seriously. I love this figure. Crazy Ricochet Rita is the shit. Six arms, three swords, a removable helmet and belt. Forget about it.

Hasbro did a great job designing the joint system for her three arms, not like the Legendary Comic Book Heroes Stryker figure. With that figure, the arms looked soldered onto the torso, the shoulder balls all getting in the way. It was really hard to balance the whole thing, especially since the leg joints were notoriously loose on all of them. With Spiral, it's relatively easy to get her standing on two feet with all six arms flailing.





Hasbro sacrificed a little articulation in the arms. There isn't a cut joint to give any lateral movement to them, but it's not really missed. I do wish they had sculpted the third sword with a removable sheath and given her 3 more, but it's easily remedied by going through my bits box. Again, there's a missing thigh cut, but she's less affected with her relatively featureless legs.










Her helmet is removable, but you're not going to want to do it too much since she's got hat hair. Still it's a nice touch.

The Build a Figure Mojo is great paired up with Spiral and him and Longshot are both cheap nowadays. They make a nice set together. If only they had done a line of X-babies to make it perfect.










Finally, we come to the big finish; the Red Hulk.




Don't ask me what the story behind this guy is. I never read it. I basically just wanted him to put next to my other hulks. He looks awesome dancing with Abomination (who I'm told he killed) and the Face Off Hulk.







The sculpt is based on Ed McGuiness' art, which looks cartoony so this is pretty comic accurate. More so at least than the Marvel Select version which looks like a
hulkified crack addict.

It's got a nice range of motion despite it's heft. The jonts are racheted, but the not like Abomination. Their soft and click freely which is certainly welcome. I never even pose my Abomination any more because I've gone through three of them and I don't want the arms to snap off again.

Rulk's solid ham fists are ok, since he's basically going to be punching the crap out of people anyway (thank zues Hasbro got over their aversion to closed fists), but the missing toe and swing joints on his feet tick me off. For a figure this size, those are necessary points of articulation.

You can't really care all that much though since it's looks so good. Really. I spent all day looking at this thing, going "ROWRRRR!" It's one of the best new toys in my collection.







All in all, I think this is a great set. I wouldn't recommend him to everyone, especially with the price tag it's running now, but if you can afford it a Marvel fan with a diverse line up in your collection, I say go ahead and get it.