Review:76031 The Hulk Buster Smash/Latenightguy
Latenightguy
Country: United States of America Gender: Male
Joined: February 2010 
№ of Reviews: 6 
№ of Featured reviews: 0
Building Experience: 7 years
Hello, welcome to my review of the new Marvel set: 76031 The Hulk Buster Smash. This is one of six new sets, based on the film Avengers: Age of Ultron, that comprises this Marvel wave. Both films have produced similarly appearing waves, including a Quinjet and an army builder. Alas, this set seemingly has no comparison. Soon after seeing images of it and the film, I knew that this set could be one of my favorite. So, let us see if this lives up to, or even exceeds, my expectations! NOTE: Spoilers may be mentioned throughout the review!
- Theme: Marvel
- Pieces: 248
- Minifigures: 4
- Price: $29.99 USD
- Brickipedia / Brickset
Box/Contents[edit | edit source]
The box is not very unique, besides its seemingly incomparable dimensions. The box art, alike every other Age of Ultron set, displays the set upon a realistic background and bordered by a red outline. On the packaging's back, the various play features are demonstrated. But, they are predominantly occupied with instructions for the ever popular Super Jumper piece. Inside the box, there are 3 bags, an instruction manual, and a small comic book that is present within every Super Heroes set. Along with these, a surprisingly small sticker sheet (not pictured).
The Building Process[edit | edit source]
Beginning with the exciting minfigures, I was soon let down by the frustrating manner of the Hulk cage, which includes a few bricks, stickers, and a transparent piece that constantly falls down with the model's movement. Thankfully, the next two bags within the box provided for an overall positive, unique experience. Throughout the hour or so that I spent building this set, I often enjoyed the techniques used to build the Hulkbuster armor itself. The legs were an especially well-done section, in my opinion. While building the head and the chest, I occasionally utilized the feature of revealing the chest's interior, which allowed for a process of assembly that is shown in the film.
Minifigures[edit | edit source]
Found within a few Marvel sets, an exceptional lineup of minifigures are found. The Hulk Buster Smash is no exception to this feat. Printing and execution are amazing upon these three figures, including the Hulk big-figure that gains dominance over the inaccurate form released in 2012.
Iron Man: Critiquing an Iron Man suit is similar to nitpicking things for 100% accuracy. Within the entire Iron Legion, only a few stray greatly from the content they are based upon. The Mark 43 suit is not one of these for many reasons. The printing is a perfect balance of being intricate, yet accurate. But, like many of the suits, the arms are disregarded and kept the same shade as the majority of the armor. In reality, I have learned to accept that arm printing may come for more robotic minifigures, such as the Mark 33, though the overall design compensates.
Ultron Prime: Similar to the printing displayed on the Mk. 43, the detail used to portray the mechanical villain is very impressive and greater than many figures that I have seen. But, the extra piece used to portray Ultron's facial outcroppings is somewhat off. Instead of including a dark grey helm, a piece used for the Ultimate Ultron figure, to create a seemingly complete Ultron, the evolution aspect takes the helmet as a whole other step in the character's progression. Personally, I realize what the designers were attempting to do, but this figure really is not different from the Ultron Drones and considering this model appears throughout a majority of the film, I believe that the already produced piece could have been included.
Scarlet Witch: This particular figure has distinct pros and cons about it. On a good note, the figure's torso is detailed and nice, being a substitute for a civilian in one's city. Despite this, the figure utilizes many pieces that do not seem entirely wise for the character, becoming a near clone of Supergirl. The old hairpiece could have been replaced with something longer, as Scarlet Witch has in the film, like this and the face could have been a little more solemn, but I am perfectly fine with the face as it is. The legs that are seemingly printed so well face the problem of skin tones on black, resulting in an orange tan that is unlike the face in anyway. Another issue is that blue 'magic' things are included for the figure, yet the character's magic has been designated as red, though this could be forgotten. I am perfectly fine with these errors, as they may be resolved soon enough with Civil War, but they could be improved.
The Hulk: I was first reluctant to accept this third incarnation of The Hulk, following two rather similar forms. I enjoyed the new olive-green, but wasn't sure of the new hair and printing. In person, these worries were easily shunted as useless thoughts. Considering this big-fig was constructed from the new mold used for Darkseid and Gorilla Grodd, losing molded shorts and toes, these changes do not ruin the figure. The new addition of spiked hair and color work very well in portraying an even more desirable Hulk to the comic-esque ones of years past.
The Model[edit | edit source]
The two parts included within this set contrast each other quite drastically. In my honest opinion, one is an amazingly designed piece, while the other falls flat with no exceptions.
Bag 1: Hulk Containment Unit[edit | edit source]
This structure (contraption perhaps?) has appeal through its unique piece set. Otherwise, the use of stickers and the simplistic manner of the thing is unnecessary to the overall build. It is likely that such a worthless component was included for the positive reinforcement of the Super Jumper piece! Considering the unit appears as a fully enclosed structure for a minute in the film, it seems useless to include an open, destructible platform for The Hulk to angrily stand upon. Discarding the pieces into the titular build or at least designing a full cage would have been much more desirable.
Bag 2 & 3: Hulkbuster Armor[edit | edit source]
As far as mechs go within LEGO's products, this particular one is better than most. Yes, it may suffer from accuracy and scale deficiency, but it is built using various techniques that add to overall ingenuity of the model. The torso is easily my favorite section, giving off the compact bulkiness seen in the film. Along with the size, the process of opening the head and unlocking the chest provides what most mech builds cannot offer: interaction. For example, many mechs simply allow for a standing position and launchers, which are provided as well, but they are in turn made the greater selling point. The interaction in this mech is much better than most, but it also lacks in some components. The arms and legs are rather large or simply too long for the torso, becoming stringy constraction arms, as opposed to big-fig arms that it should be modeling. But, beyond this, details are stunning within this particular build and make it a welcome addition to the many official LEGO mechs.
Final Verdict[edit | edit source]
Overall, this set recreates the scene to an accurate degree and thus will appeal to fans, such as myself. The price-per-piece ratio is also quite exceptional, considering the various molds introduced. The detailed minifigures are quite welcome to the build, a further incentive for purchasing this set. But, I believe that the Hulkbuster suit could have been condensed to be to scale with The Hulk and fitted with bulkier arms to match the torso, retrieving pieces from the lacking containment unit. Besides the small issues, I would highly recommend this set to Marvel fans, those who buy the better valued sets, as well as those who have preferred the finer mech sets of the past.
| Price/Value |   4½ / 5 |
| Playability |  4 / 5 |
| Minifigures/Pieces | 5 / 5 |
| Model | 4 / 5 |
| Overall | 4½ / 5 |
P.S. This is my first posted review, so I would enjoy any constructive criticism. Thank you!
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