Released late last year was another great release from Diamond Select, the Marvel Select Barbarian Hulk Figure. Who is the Barbarian Hulk though? The Barbarian Hulk is based on the appearance from a comic series last year written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Marc Silvestri. In the comic the Hulk and his alter ego, Bruce Banner, are split apart thanks to the help of Dr. Doom. Hulk was happy with the procedure and went to hang out with the Moloids in Subterranea, but Bruce Banner didn’t see the separation as a good thing. Bruce desperately tried to recreate the Hulk process, leading to a huge showdown of Hulk vs. Banner and his hulked-out-army.
Let’s take a closer look at this figure and see if this different take at the Hulk is going to be worth adding to your collection.
Click on the images for a full size view.
Packaging
The packaging that the Barbarian Hulk comes packaged in is just the standard oversized bookend style packaging that every other Marvel Select figure has come in before. The blister shows off the figure really well, allowing you to inspect it for any imperfections if you are in the store buying the figure. On the left side of the figure is the character’s name, and above that is the Marvel Select logo.
On the back of the packaging, there is the Marvel Select logo and the character’s name again on the left side. There is a bio for the Barbarian Hulk, giving you a nice background to where the character actually originated from if you aren’t familiar with the comic written by Jason Aaron. On the top right is an actual image of the figure and below that are a couple other Marvel Select figures (Rhino [review here] and Storm [review here]).
My favorite part of Marvel Select packaging is always the side panel. It features the character in some great artwork. In this case, it is some art by Marc Silvestri from the comic that the Barbarian Hulk character is from.
Sculpt
The sculpt for this figure is great, putting Hulk standing at about 9.5″ tall. It uses a lot of the same body from the Disney Store Exclusive Unleashed Hulk, but that is good because that sculpt was fantastic there too. There are veins popping out of Hulk’s skin all over the place, and they are accompanied by some great muscle tone as well. When Hulk is in action figure form he needs to have an angry facial expression. This sculpt has just that.
His necklace, bracelet, and loincloth are all made out of a very soft and flexible plastic. The necklace can actually be removed, but the bracelet and the loincloth can’t.
Paint
The paint really helps bring out the fantastic sculpt. There are various green washes on the skin that really bring out his hulking muscles. My figure did have a little bit of a QC issue with brown paint on his chest, but I’m sure I just got unlucky.
Articulation
Marvel Select figures now a days have some pretty good articulation. Obviously, since the Barbarian Hulk has a pretty bulking sculpt, his articulation is going to be a little bit more limited than a Spider-Man figure, but he does have:
- Ball joint neck
- Ball joint shoulders
- Swivel/hinge elbows
- Swivel wrists
- Swivel waist
- Ball hinge hips
- Swivel at the top of the thigh
- Swivel/hinge knees
- Hinge ankles
The neck joint allows for his head to look down, left and right. He can’t really look up at all. His arm joints function pretty much as you would expect and his elbow joints can only bend to about 45 degrees. He has some really great hip joints allowing for some good movement. Like his elbows, his knee joints can only bend about 45 degrees due to his bulky sculpt.
While this figure is missing an ab crunch and ankle rocker joints I don’t really think that the figure really NEEDS them. I do think an ab crunch would take away from the sculpt quite a bit.
Overall
If you enjoy the story that this figure is based on, then chances are that you will probably enjoy this figure. I enjoy just about anything Hulk, so I enjoyed this incarnation of him. If you don’ really collect Marvel Select, don’t worry because this guy will fit right in scale with Marvel Legends at the size he is. Diamond Select really did another great job on this Marvel Select release. I can’t want to see what’s next.
Ordering
UPDATE: If you are interested in ordering the Marvel Select Barbarian Hulk Figure, eBay is probably your best bet. Click this link to search eBay for this Marvel Select Barbarian Hulk action figure.
This figure was provided for review from the manufacturer.
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