When I wrote the story, “The New Guys,” I knew I wanted Hulk to be in it. I also knew I wanted him to be as child like as possible. I have been eyeing this particular Select figure for quite a while at my local comic shop, Capital City Comics, but never got around to purchasing it. Now I had a reason, so I grabbed him.
Why did this one speak to me? It really shouldn’t have, because my favorite Hulk run, by any stretch of the imagination, was Peter David’s Hulk (start here and thank me later).
Yet I cannot discount what was the status quo for the Hulk for decades, that of “Hulk smash!”
In that regard, this figure really nails that vibe. I think the name “Savage” is a bit of a misnomer. The Hulk was never savage. He was child like (and we find out later that this was just one personality of Bruce Banner emerging amid a host of other personalities) and a way for Bruce to deal with the murder of his mother via his father.
Yeah, it’s pretty dark stuff.
The paint and sculpt of this Select figure make him a beauty to look at and put on the shelf. However, for my purposes, I am not sure I’ll be able to use him again. He has very little points of articulation, which severely limits the expressions I can get from the figure. The limited articulation, coupled with the bulk of the figure interfering with what little POA (Points of Articulation) it has makes him really hard to photograph in anything other than a typical heroic pose. Very vanilla stuff.
Regardless of any of that, I REALLY think this figure looks great, and I know many of you aren’t trying to write stories that require inanimate objects to have some degree of expression. I think you need this guy on your shelf and fortunately, you can still get him at the following locations for a good price:
As for the other half of this shoot, I went with Spider-Man. Not just ANY Spider-Man, but the now infamous “Pizza” Spidey.
Why pair the two together? Two reasons: The Hulk was as often times in direct conflict with Spider-Man as much as he was seen helping him when I was a kid picking up comics at the drug store off the spinner rack down home (“down home” being Triadelphia, WVa.).
Secondly, because Spider-Man, more than almost any other character, touched my heart in many different ways. Tales for another blog, but suffice it to say, I saw a lot of myself in Peter Parker when I was a kid, and wished that one day I’d have his courage to do the right thing.
There isn’t much I can say about this particular Spider-Man figure that hasn’t been said. Thanks to the alternate head, the extra hands and pizza slice, he has become the darling of the collector set. He often times reaches RIDICULOUS prices in the aftermarket.
I was fortunate that I purchased him for retail, but I’ll be honest with you, he debuted in stores at a time that I was on a self imposed “no figure collecting” hiatus and he alone almost drug me back into the hobby. I picked him up in stores so many times, only to put him back. I knew it would be opening a door that is better left closed (but was opened eventually anyway). Yet the single strongest reason I had to put him back, what stopped him from being the perfect Spider-Man figure for me, was the elbow pegs that were red, even on the blue side of his arm. It STILL bothers me and Hasbro STILL does it to their other Spider-man figures. Once I got my hands on him, I quickly discovered the OTHER reason why he doesn’t win “Best Spider-Man EVER” for me: His hip/leg articulation is horrible.
If there’s one thing Spider-Man is known for (besides sticking to walls, and spinning webs, and the proportionate strength of a spider… well.. you get it) was his agility. Yet in my hand was a Spider-Man figure that I could get a better range of motion out of my own atrophied legs than the figure.
I have the Revoltech Spider-man on “pre-order” who could become my go-to Spidey one day.
“Why is it on pre-order when it came out months ago, Darian?”
Easy answer, I’m dumb and I pre-ordered him with figures that don’t come out until possibly August at the earliest and he is shipping with them. Wow, I really switched tense mid-sentence on that one.
You’re right, Annie, it IS a hard-knock life.
Think I’m kidding about the aftermarket price? Check out what this $22 figure goes for now.
Fortunately, you can get him a little cheaper on eBay. Also, Hasbro introduced a new “classic” line at SDCC this year and Pizza Spidey was among the line. Based on the pics I saw, you don’t get as many hands and the alternate head, but you get the pizza slice and the exact same figure. Take THAT, scalpers!
So there you go, my thoughts on these two yahoos. Let me know what your thoughts are below and in the mean time, enjoy these pics.
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