The best Hulk toy ever made came out in 2018. That made my figure of the year a fairly easy choice.
I may have lied in that first sentence. The best Hulk toy ever made has its own Wikipedia page, and, according to Wikipedia, resembles “green oversized boxing gloves that can be used to strike people or objects.” But the best Hulk action figure ever made? Yeah, it’s this guy.
I became aware of the S.H. Figuarts Avengers: Infinity War Hulk around November 15, 2018. I decided to purchase it about 20 seconds after watching Robo’s review on November 19. This beast (or hulk, if you will) didn’t show up on my radar before that because I don’t buy movie figures. But this one was different. This movie Hulk is now my default comic Hulk, and probably will be for quite some time (at least until Bandai releases the original Avengers Hulk).
This is the first time in two years that a Mezco figure wasn’t my figure of the year (2016, 2017). This is also the fourth time in four years that my figure of the year was a Marvel character (add 2015). Damn you, Marvel, for owning my heart. And, apparently, all the good licensed figures. The first import figure to earn the title from me was a good one.
Hulk comes with two sets of hands—one set of grabbing hands for grabbing and one set of punching hands for smashing. A set of thunderclap hands would’ve been appreciated for the $80 price point, but this figure is based on Hulk’s 20-second appearance in Infinity War, not 50 years of comic history. Hulk also includes three heads—a neutral angry portrait (like when you’re mad at yourself because you forgot to grab the mail on the way in), an angrier teeth-gritted portrait (like when you’re mad at yourself because you burned dinner), and an even angrier, screaming portrait (like when you’re mad at yourself because you forgot to record the Pretty Little Liars series finale).
The accessories are nice (err, uh, angry), but the two standout aspects of this figure are the paint and articulation. As we saw with Bandai’s last Hulk figure, you can make or break a Hulk figure depending on the shade of green you use. Bandai picked a Russian or fern green (yes, I had to Google a color chart) for this figure, and it works perfectly. The pants are also fairly close to the classic purple, and the muscle shading draws out the detailed sculpt. The articulation is where Hulk really shines, though. I recently picked up Marvel’s new Hulk horror title, Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett. In the book, Hulk is less chiseled and towering and more brutish and lumbering. Ewing and Bennett’s Hulk is still imposing, but it’s less controlled than usual. Infinity War Hulk is dynamic enough to hit those staggering monster poses and the heroic ones.
Pick it up if you have the funds:
