Six figures and a whole lot of Marvel Mondays later and I’m finally ready to build my Hulkbuster. I always find the Build-A-Figures to be a nice slice of pie for desert after a hearty meal of regular Legends figures, but this time it’s different. I don’t think I’ve anticipated a BAF as much as this since way back to Terrax. Maybe Groot. Either way, I’m excited… so let’s see what we’ve got…

Obviously there’s no packaged shot because this guy’s parts were spread out over seven releases, but there he is all laid out and ready for assembly. Most BAFs consist of six parts (four limbs, torso and head), but Hulkbuster is made up of two extra pieces. Instead of one torso you get a pelvis and front and back halves of the torso. Assembly may be a little more complex, but everything still goes together easy peasy.

And what a beast he is! Now this is a BAF! It brings me back to the days of the truly giant DCUC Collect & Connect figures like Stel or STRIPE. The scaling on this guy feels really good, especially when standing next to the Age of Ultron armor, which was worn by Tony while wearing this armor. The proportions are appropriately chunky and he just looks like a powerhouse. A couple of my favorite points of interest include the contours of the lower leg armor, the giant slabs of armor on the forearms, and the curved plates that make up his shoulder armor. There isn’t an over abundance of panel lines, so it doesn’t quite give off that hyper-detailed movie look, but it works just fine for me.

The bulk of the figure is cast in luscious red plastic, which sports a nice sheen, with minimal amounts of those swirly patterns that rear their ugly heads in Hasbro’s plastic sometimes. I hate those. Some of the gold, like the forearm pieces, are bare plastic, while other gold parts are painted. There’s a slight difference between these parts and overall I would have liked a more consistent metallic finish throughout, but then I feel guilty about complaining because so much about this guy is just magnificent. The deco is rounded out by some nice touches of gray.

Articulation is pretty close to what we’re used to seeing in regular Legends figures. Obviously, the chunky sculpt of the armor is at odds with some of the articulation. Let’s face it, the Hulkbuster suit isn’t supposed to be an acrobat, so I’m pretty happy with the level of posability here. If there’s anything that nags at me, it’s the way the pelvis hooks to the upper torso. There’s a ball jointed post to make the connection, but the ball joint doesn’t swivel. The socket grabs it too tight and if you try to do the swivel it just twists the post. With that having been said, he is an amazingly fun figure to play with.

Despite a few really minor and picky little issues, I think this figure is a total home-run. It’s exactly the kind of release that the BAF concept was created for. Take a figure that is too big or too complex for a regular release and get him to the collectors by parting him out. Hasbro has given us some real treats since the Legends line returned back in 2012, but it’s hard to think of too many that impressed me as much as having this beast on my shelf. He was worth the wait, and he’s probably going to spend a long time on my desk getting played around with before he finally migrates to my Legends display shelf.

And that’s finally a wrap for this wave. I’m going to spend the next handful of Marvel Mondays going through the Age of Ultron Avengers boxed set and then we’ll start digging into the Rhino Wave!