Hulkbuster

Review by Ender10000

So, how much Hulkbuster does roughly $350 after shipping buy you? Well, a lot actually. But before we get into that lets cover some basics first. This version of the Hulkbuster armor is based on the comic book design and is produced by Sentinel and sculpted by T-Rex toys. It stands 9.8 inches tall and is constructed of ABS plastic and a fair amount of die-cast. Accessories include a hall of armor display along with a larger, secondary display base with articulated arm. All of this comes packed in a lightweight window box.

This is scaled with Sentinels other 7 inch Re;edit releases, but being that the Hulkbuster has such cartoonish proportions, I don't think you will have any issues sneaking it into displays with other scales.

Alright now that we have that out of the way, lets get into the fun stuff. This Hulkbuster is absolutely AMAZING. I wont lie, I was hesitant to drop $300+ on a single figure, but Sentinel really came through with a quality product that really FEELS high end.

The paint is best I've ever seen on any toy / collectible. Hulkbuster has a combination of high gloss candy apple red, mixed with matte red, and 3 shades of matte metallic. All of which does an excellent job of highlighting the incredible amount of detail the figure has, and kind of gives the impression of a freight train with a sports car paint job. My Hulkbuster has one or two teeny tiny imperfections in the high gloss areas, but they are so small (about the size of a pen head) that I don't notice them unless I'm looking at it from a few inches away.

The articulation is extremely well engineered in this figure. Despite being a gigantic bruiser, it has the level of articulation you would expect from a Figuarts or similar high end action figure. The shoulders are on butterfly joints, and the shoulder armor is on an articulated arm that allows it to float.

The arms have a swivel above the elbow, which is double jointed. The wrist are the only place that I really found to be limited, they can swivel 360, and can move back and forth, but not quite as much as I would like. All of the fingers, to include the thumb are completely articulated.

The torso in articulated in two areas, the hips are on universal joints, and the hip armor has enough movement that allows it to not hinder the hips range of motion. The knees are single jointed, but can go well past 90 degrees thanks to collapsing armor panels in the lower legs. The ankles have a wide range of motion and have an articulated toe.All of that comes together to make a figure that is built like a dump truck, but can move like a ballerina.

One of the coolest gimmick on the figure is the torso which collapses and opens to reveal a Mk38 bust inside. The bust is complete with light up arc reactor and eyes and has an articulated head. To reveal the Mk38 bust, the Hulkbuster "helmet" slides back, and then is pushed down, which somehow (Starktech I assume) causes the armor panels on the shoulders to slide up and armor panels on the chest to slide down. Its a gimmick I never get tired of.

Hulkbuster has a whopping 9 LED's. Two in each leg, one in each hand, one in the back, and two in the Mk38 bust inside. Hulkbuster looks incredible with everything lit up, but all of those electronics come with a few draw backs. The 9 LED's are powered by 10 button cell batteries. Not a big deal, but each limb is powered separately, meaning each leg has two batteries, each arm has two batteries, with the remaining two being in the torso. The upside of that is that each limb can be illuminated separately, so if you just wanted to turn the torso light on, but not the legs, you can. Additionally, Hulkbusters chest reactor and eyes are actually illuminated by the MK38 bust inside, which is a cool idea, expect that the MK38 head in side the chest has to perfectly positioned to illuminated Hulkbusters eyes. If Hulkbusters head is moved, the MK38's head has to be moved as well to keep the light up gimmick. The real down side to that is the Mk38 head's side to side range is less than the Hulkbuster head, so the light up gimmick doesn't always come through depending on the pose you chose. Fortunately, those two small gripes with LED's are my only real complaints with this figure.

The figure comes with two display options. The hall of armor display which links up with other RE;edit figures, and a larger display with articulated support arm.

The larger display is nice and heavy, and the articulated arm is stiff enough to support Hulkbusters substantial weight for aerial poses. The articulated arm attaches to Hulkbusters hips via a clip on mount.

I'm really glad they included the extra display base with articulated arm because lets be real, you can look at this figure and tell its going to have balance issues. The figure stays very close to the comic design which is great, however, the design is top heavy by nature. The display base and support arm do a good job of keeping Hulkbuster grounded.

So, is this Hulkbuster worth the price tag? Well, that depends on you. If you're only marginally interested in the comic design, and just want to round out your collection, the select Hulkbuster is probably what you're looking for. However, if you really like the comic design, and are a fan of sentinel products in general, this release will not disappoint.