Zadzooks: ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Build-A-Figure Professor Hulk review

Thanks to the proliferation of film, comic book and cartoon characters, companies are bombarding consumers with an incredible selection of action figures. With tongue-in-cheek, let’s take a peek at some of the specimens worthy of a place in Zad’s Toy Vault.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ Professor Hulk

Hasbro continues to celebrate Earth’s Mightiest Heroes with its latest collection of Marvel Legends action figures. This second wave of Avengers offers hyper-articulated versions of heroes and a few villains from the Marvel cinematic and sequential art universes.

The latest lineup includes War Machine, Rescue, Shuri, Beta Ray Bill, Loki, Union Jack, Rock Python and a “Build-A-Figure” paying tribute to the brainer version of the Hulk seen in “Avengers Endgame.”

Figure profile: Two opposing heroic forces meet in the same body, and the result is one of the smartest and most powerful hybrids ever unleashed in multiple galaxies. Finding a happy medium of existence between the ferocious savagery of the gamma-radiated Green Goliath and the intellectual acuity of Dr. Bruce Banner, the appropriately named Professor Hulk is now a mainstay of the Avengers.

Accessories: Hasbro continues to play a game of “pile on” as over the last fours years having released more than two dozen series of figures that allow collectors to assemble key characters from the Marvel universe.

In this case, six pieces of the professor are contained within six of the seven Avengers Legends action figures’ packaging.

Owners will find assembly a breeze as they snap together a towering 8.5-inch-tall version of the figure with no surprises other than a pair of head sculpts that near perfectly translate actor Mark Ruffalo’s (the actor who was digitally transformed into the Hulk in the movie) likeness.

With that familiar olive-green skin and a hint of chest hair that goes past his bellybutton, Hulk only wears a pair of purple pants shredded below the knees.

The lack of garb comes directly from the movie involving his time travel back to the Chitauri attack on New York City in 2012 and his attempt to mimic the look of the past Hulk, in clothing choices anyway.

As far as the head sculpts, both offer a Hulk with greying temples. One face is expressionless while the other offers a bit of an all-knowing grin with squinted eyes.

The figure also offers roughly 18 points of articulation and, although very impressive, I would have loved if Hasbro had included a pair of glasses for the big guy or a sweater, like the one seen in the diner scene in the “Endgame” movie.

However, to get this near masterpiece, collectors will need to purchase the figures. Here are some of the highlights of the collection, by order of favorite, each boasting more than a dozen points of articulation and an accompanying Professor Hulk piece.

Beta Ray Bill (heads): The famed Korbinite found worthy to wield the Mjolnir and wear the armor of Thor comes to life in this 7-inch-tall figure designed from comic book artist Oliver Copiel’s toned-down costuming from the 2014 miniseries “The Unworthy Thor.”

That translates into Bill wearing golden shoulder armor, bluish torso armor, blue wrist straps and black body garb and boots — all covering his orange skin.

A silver, skullcap-style helmet covers his lizard-like head, and his jaw opens and closes.

He comes with the golden Storm Breaker ax and a flowing plastic red cape that detaches from two circular silver buckles at the top of his shoulders.

This Bill is certainly well-designed, but I equally appreciated the more garish figure from Toy Biz for Marvel Collector Edition Silver Surfer series back in 1997 that mimicked creator Walt Simonson’s 1983 version in “The Mighty Thor” No. 337, complete with shiny metallic colored golden boots.

Rescue (torso): Practically plucked midflight from an appearance in “Avenger: Endgame,” Pepper Potts in her famed Rescue armor (a birthday gift from Tony Stark) comes to three-dimensional life in this movie accurate, 6-inch-tall action figure.

Metallic purple armor covers the entire body and features splashes of golden highlights especially around the helmet’s facial area.

The figure comes with removable opened and closed pack-style thrusters that each can attach to a hole on the back of Rescue. The open thruster is the most detailed with silver and grey inner colors and four deployed wing tips.

It’s a great addition to the Avengers collection, but it’s a crime that the packaging did not include a head sculpt of Gwyneth Paltrow who plays Pepper in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Shuri (left leg): The current Black Panther’s sister and the mastermind of Wakanda technologies finally gets an action figure nearly perfectly sculpted from her appearance in the last Avengers’ film.

She wears black-and-brown costuming with an ornate neck chest piece and a loose-fitting beige plastic sash at the waist. However, I found the color scheme way too muted compared to her movie garb that has much more purple and blue and gold highlights.

The facial sculpt captures actress Letitia Wright, who plays Shuri, with a playful expression with her hair in a tight bun, and designers even paint on some of her intricate tattoos on her forehead and chin.

She wields two detachable Vibranium gauntlets that fit tightly on each arm. A nice addition is each has a small tentacle of a translucent blue energy stream.

Also, I mentioned nearly perfect as the only thing missing is her long hair braid that should have easily been added.

Union Jack (left arm): This almost 6.5-inch-tall figure offers a comic book-style version of famed British operative and an occasional member of the Invaders, Lord James Falsworth.

Capturing artist Frank Robbins’ 1970s interpretation, owners get a figure in a skin-tight blue costume highlighted by red loose wrist and ankle bands, a head mask with only his eyes visible and a red-and-white British flag painted over his torso.

He comes with a loose-fitting, silver-buckled weapons belt that holds the included knife and pistol. A nice touch on the holster is it can close with a clasp and the keep the gun in place, although it is a very tight fit.

Collector chatter is this is a much better design of Union Jack than its appearance in the Legends’ Red Hulk series back in 2007 and offers better articulation and costuming detail.

Loki (right leg): Collectors will need to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate this pure comic book version of Thor’s mischievous brother standing 7 inches tall to the tip of his horned helmet

A great figure for younger role players, its design takes its cue from the immortal artist Jack Kirby offering green-and-yellow costuming spotlighted with a loose yellow belt and neck piece and meshed gold-and-green torso pattern that extended to the groin.

The menacing facial sculpt offers green eyes and bared white teeth and features his classic yellow-horned helmet and a yellow pony tail with a hint of black highlights. Loki also comes with a large 4-inch-long sword.

The big problem is the figure does not stand a chance against the 2017 Marvel Legends’ Gladiator Hulk Build-A-Figure series that featured an incredible version of the “Thor Ragnarok” movie Loki, complete with a perfect facial sculpt of actor Tom Hiddleston.

I highly doubt most collectors even know what Loki looked like in a 1960s comic book.

Rock Python (right arm): The clear odd man out or rare gem for the collector of this series is a hyper comic book style, verging on cartoon look, 6.5-inch-tall version of an African mutant mercenary and member of the Serpent Society named M’Gula.

The costume is accurate despite looking like it was pulled from a Hanna-Barbera show and features a mix of light-blue and dark-blue, skin-tight garb really showing off leg muscles, dark-blue boots, a loose silver belt and a snake design painted on the chest.

His head sculpt features a light-blue helmet that covers his noggin from the nose up and shows a mouth with teeth clenched in an angry expression.

The unfortunate design made me think of Marvel Comic’s Forbush Man or the Junkyard Gang’s Dumb Donald rather than a fearsome foe. No disrespect to writer Mark Gruenwald and artist Kieron Dwyer who created this dude back in 1988.

Note: The figure in the series without a Hulk piece is the formidable War Machine as inspired by the massive Mark 6-armor design in “Avengers: Endgame.” Standing almost 7 inches tall, this heavy-duty figure boasts silver, gray and black armor with a hint of red paint detail and comes with a mountable shoulder cannon and two attachable forearm guns. I’ll call this guy required for movie action figure fans.

Price: $119.94 (requires purchase of six figures at $19.99 each).

Read all about it: Professor Hulk (aka Smart Hulk) first appeared in issue No. 377 of “The Incredible Hulk” monthly comic book series back in 1991. Buy the “Marvel Visionaries: Incredible Hulk” trade paperbacks Volumes 6 and 7 ($29.99 each) that compiles part of the legendary run of writer Peter David (issue Nos. 373 to 389 and Hulk Annual No. 17) and also features some amazing artwork from Dale Keown.

What’s it worth: Major kudos to producer maestro Kevin Feige and directors Anthony and Joe Russo for having Professor Hulk show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was really a pleasant surprise for this comic book fan.

Now having the Green Goliath in this format, I would find it hard to believe that any collector or younger action figure loving fan would not find the cash and scour the toy galaxy for pieces to build one of the most creative versions of this character ever introduced in Marvel Comics.

It’s worth noting that “Avengers: Endgame” comes out next week on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD for home theater owners to re-appreciate an epic film.