Welcome to Flashback Friday: The MCU Edition. Each week I’ll be bringing you a brand new article on a related Pop or Dorbz that’s connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Anything film or television related is fair game. I’ll be doing a short review going over the design and costume and then moving on to my thoughts on the piece and series.
Today I’ll be looking at a Pop that was integral in Avengers: Age of Ultron. It’s big, it’s red and gold, and it’s very powerful, and can go one on one with an enraged Hulk. I’m talking about none other than the Hulkbuster Suit created by Tony Stark.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron film was a huge success at the worldwide box office grossing over $1 billion dollars. One of the big action set pieces that had fans in awe was the Hulk vs Hulkbuster fight sequence. In the film, Scarlet Witch messes with Bruce Banner’s mind which ends up transforming him into an enraged, red eyed Hulk. Tony Stark has no choice but to use the Hulkbuster armor which he and Bruce had been working on together for a situation where the Hulk loses control. After massive amounts of damage the Hulk is finally defeated by the Hulkbuster armor.
In the months leading up to the Avengers: Age of Ultron release, Funko was hard at work on putting together their very first box from the Marvel Collector Corps (MCC) subscription. The MCC was designed as a bi-monthly subscription box that would contain Marvel Funko products very similar to what Loot Crate does with their subscription boxes. Each box would have a unique theme. To the delight of most MCC subscribers the first box contained a 6” Hulkbuster Pop Figure. The Hulkbuster overshadowed everything else in the box and remains one of if not the best item in any MCC box to date.
The Hulkbuster Pop is numbered 73 and is part of the Avengers: Age of Ultron series. Hulkbuster was only available by subscribing to the Marvel Collector Corps box as an exclusive. A few months later the box could be purchased at San Diego Comic Con at the Marvel Collector Corps booth which was located directly across from the insanely packed Funko booth. The box could be purchased for the same online price plus tax. The Hulkbuster was a hot resell item during the convention nabbing at least double and sometimes close to triple the value of the entire box.
The design of the Pop is extremely close to what we see in the film. The red and gold colors resemble what’s been seen on the majority of the Iron Man Pops so far and it’s the exact colors used on the Iron Man Pops in the Avengers: Age of Ultron series. The large size of the Hulkbuster really works in the 6” form and make it look massive when compared to the normal sized Pops. Hulkbuster also has a lot of weight to it. Definitely the heaviest release so far.
The Age of Ultron Pop series contains a ton of figures. In addition to Hulkbuster we get Black Widow, Captain America, Captain America (Unmasked – SDCC), Hawkeye, Hulk, Hulk (Glow in the Dark – B&N), Hulk (Savage – Hot Topic), Iron Man, Iron Man Unmasked, Scarlet Witch, Thor, Ultron, Ultron (Grinning – SDCC), Vision, Vision (Faded – Target), and Vision (Metallic – FYE). That makes 17 Pops for this series. That’s got to up there with Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: Civil War for most Pops within a series. Sadly, no Quicksilver was produced.
If you’re interested in owning the Hulkbuster Pop it will run you in between $25 – $40. Anything around $30 and you’re doing pretty good. You’d be hard pressed to find this figure in stores so eBay and Amazon would probably be your best bet. Also, don’t forget to check out our Facebook Buy/Sell/Trade page here https://facebook.com/groups/funkopopvinyltrade for all of your collection needs. You can find anything Marvel and MCU related on that page. Definitely give it a try.
If you have any MCU Pops or Dorbz you’d like to see in a future Flashback Friday please leave your choice in a comment below.
I’ll see you next Friday for another MCU flashback.
Matt Norris