I'm getting ready to move across the country, so stuff is going into boxes and getting sealed up for a safe journey across the heartland. Usually when I get something new, it will spend a few days or weeks on the side table in my back room to be fiddled with while watching TV before it gets filed away with its fellows. This Hulk figure has been sitting there since I got him at a toy show in early August. Well, actually he's been sitting there with the other Marvel Legends Retro figures I got for a song that day, because I don't have a place to store them yet. With crunch time approaching they'll probably just go in whatever box that isn't sealed yet. But the Hulk is the one I always pick up to play with. Something about this figure is very captivating. Is it his bright colors? His slightly rubbery limbs, the better to smash with? A general shortage of Hulk figures in my collection? I dunno, but he kind of rules. I might keep him on me.
Marvel Legends Retro was Hasbro's attempt to leverage their Marvel license to entice fans of the then-trendy 3.75" 5POA format. General consensus is that they didn't really understand the assignment, because these are thoroughly modern figures that don't look or feel anything like what Kenner might have come up with in the early 80s. The materials are wrong, the sculpts are too modern, the card graphics are too sharp and lean more in the faux-retro direction, like when companies try to sell the 80s as being all neon pastels and funky sunglasses and not lots of browns and McDonald's-branded ashtrays. The Star Wars team has mostly done a great job at nailing the Kenner style, and these are so far off from those it feels like it had to be on purpose. They're still good toys, but you can't drop them into a shelf of actual vintage figures and expect them to blend in like you can with Grand Moff Tarkin or Mon Mothma.
Hulk moves at the shoulders, neck, and hips. Most of the ML Retros have forearm swivels (you remember how common that was in the Reagan era) but not ol' Jade Jaws. He's molded mostly in color, including his pant legs and feet as separate pieces. Where did Banner get those bright purple britches, anyway? He looks great, and the molding is sharp. His limbs move freely, and his feet give him enough of a base that he can pick up a puny standard-sized figure in his open left hand and remain standing. His right hand is balled into a fist for smashing. The materials feel very kid-friendly, and I suspect Hasbro viewed these internally as the precursor to the Epic Hero Series/Epic World of Action that basically replaced them, with a little more collector appeal. Not enough to keep them going in some capacity, evidently.
What wasn't kid or collector friendly was the retail price. These guys were $11.99 new, which ironically sounds like a price I'd pay today, but seemed a little rich at the time for what you were getting. Perhaps if they'd been a little bit larger to fit in with Marvel Universe they could have hooked some of the holdouts who refused to go back to 6", but even then they were mostly characters that were already made in that line. Plus we were coming off the COVID crash. Maybe they just hit at a bad time. Anyway, I got Hulk and friends for five bucks on card, and that's a smokin' deal. They're still around retail price online, so head out to a local show or meetup if you're interested in picking some up for cheap. Hey Hasbro--next time, just ape Mattel Secret Wars. Maybe there's a movie or something you could tie it in with, I dunno.
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