Marvel Legends 20th Anniversary Hulk Figure In-Hand Images

This Hulk figure just arrived today and it looks (pun intended) incredible. As I have said before, to me it is a great 70's version of the character, and it looks so much better in person.

On 3/17/2022 at 11:20 AM, Brent said:

My guess is, the head sculpts are based on Sal Buscemas work from the late 70s to early 80s. The sculpts are decent IMO, and the paint apps overall look better when the figure is taken as a whole. Not crazy about the apparent randomness of the paint apps in some places, especially on the jeans. Ah well.

Its too bad; I just came across this:

That does look amazing, while new uglier head sculpt slowly grew on me I would rather prefer end figure to look like this "handsome" render.

On 3/17/2022 at 3:20 AM, Brent said:

Its too bad; I just came across this:

Yeah thats the sculptor, Paul Harding's original art. I feel like he just repurposed the head of that to be placed on the 80th hulk body.

My guess is, the head sculpts are based on Sal Buscemas work from the late 70s to early 80s. The sculpts are decent IMO, and the paint apps overall look better when the figure is taken as a whole. Not crazy about the apparent randomness of the paint apps in some places, especially on the jeans. Ah well.

Its too bad; I just came across this:

On 3/2/2022 at 9:05 AM, The Mad Bubbler said:

That explains a lot. They should never let Harding sculpt for Marvel Legends again. Maybe he can sculpt statues, bobbleheads, etc. that are his takes on Marvel characters, but Legends is not the place for his inaccurate, exaggerated sculpting. Marvel Legends should be the place for two kinds of sculpts:-More realistic versions of characters, in a fairly unified style, that all look like they belong in the same "universe,"

and

-Figures based on specific Marvel media that are exacting representations of the style of that media (Like the "What If?" and "In to The Spiderverse" figures.).That's it. If it doesn't fit in to one of those two categories, it doesn't belong in Marvel Legends, unless they do some kind of a "side series" of specific artist's interpretations of characters. That being the case, that should be reserved for legendary artists like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Jim Lee.Again, Harding has some talent, Marvel Legends just isn't the place for it. The Hulk is an easy pass, unless I find it cheap (mainly for the Mandroid head), bit it's unfortunate that a figure like Sabertooth, in an outfit that a lot of collectors want, is saddled with a fugly, cartoonish head sculpt. I don't have a better option for Sabertooth in that outfit, unlike Hulk.

I mean he does some real bangers in legends. Newest Dr Strange Walmart exclusive, 20th Cap to name some. I dont think hes done alot of legends but hes done quite a few figures. They arent all going to be amazing and we dont know if it might have been lead by Hasbro to do the designs that are used. The artist never has full control when working with a client so who knows. If you check out his work on instagram hardingstudios, you can see hes capable of doing some really nice depictions of characters, specifically marvel characters. Also remember someone had to approve those sculpts before moving forward, be it marvel or hasbro or both.

On 3/1/2022 at 11:29 PM, EvilHayato said:

That explains a lot. They should never let Harding sculpt for Marvel Legends again. Maybe he can sculpt statues, bobbleheads, etc. that are his takes on Marvel characters, but Legends is not the place for his inaccurate, exaggerated sculpting. Marvel Legends should be the place for two kinds of sculpts:-More realistic versions of characters, in a fairly unified style, that all look like they belong in the same "universe,"

and

-Figures based on specific Marvel media that are exacting representations of the style of that media (Like the "What If?" and "In to The Spiderverse" figures.).That's it. If it doesn't fit in to one of those two categories, it doesn't belong in Marvel Legends, unless they do some kind of a "side series" of specific artist's interpretations of characters. That being the case, that should be reserved for legendary artists like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Jim Lee.Again, Harding has some talent, Marvel Legends just isn't the place for it. The Hulk is an easy pass, unless I find it cheap (mainly for the Mandroid head), bit it's unfortunate that a figure like Sabertooth, in an outfit that a lot of collectors want, is saddled with a fugly, cartoonish head sculpt. I don't have a better option for Sabertooth in that outfit, unlike Hulk.

After seeing this, the lighting and paint is better than what we originally saw imo. HOWEVER, theres alot still very wrong imo. The color of the heads to the body tone does not match which makes the overall thing not look great. I agree they should not have added those highlights or that drastic of color difference since it doesnt match with the head at all. I think the somber dumb face looks alot better than the screaming curled lip look version. As a 3d digital sculptor myself, he did a wonderful job of what he created. Is it the ideal look of hulk to me? No. Does it resemble the toybiz legends figure that I assumed would be what they were aiming for? Nope. Can anyone really find any kind of image that Harding used to reference this look? I havent seen any so far so possibly nope. I feel he spun alittle too much of his own style onto this sculpt and not everyone wants that. Hes an amazing and very talented artist but I feel most here wanted a true representation of the character instead of a Harding original.I am very happy that I bought the 80th hulk as that is one of my most ideal looks for the character aside from those lovely baby feet on that mold.

On 2/28/2022 at 5:40 PM, The Mad Bubbler said:

Same goes for the upcoming Sabertooth figure- it looks like a caricature of Sabertooth. Did Harding sculpt that one?

That is indeed another of Hardings work.

I like the Hulk heads (I think I like the open mouth more than the other). Ugly, but no problem with that here. I don't like the colour application on the body at all, though. The highlights (really bluntly applied and without a sense of a realistic light source, just like with retro Thing) is a bizarrely off contrast. Not even remotely close in tone. There's a subdued, natural green base, then an afterthought of sloppy neon that clashes. Looks like a child's customised it. No paint apps are better than bad paint apps.

On 3/1/2022 at 10:50 AM, tarot said:

No. I meant that fact that he said Paul Hardy shouldn't be proud of his work. He should be very proud. It's not often an artist gets his work released like this and is given praise for it.

Buy yeah you're right. Critizing figure is what we do best.

He should definitely be proud that his work got mass-produced, I'll give you that. To me, though, it's like a surgeon who does a great job amputating someone's right leg, and is proud of the job he did... but he was supposed to amputate the left leg. If he was just supposed to be sculpting an original character of some kind- great job! There's obviously time and detail work here. As a semi-realistic representation of The Incredible Hulk, though, it's bad. In school, if I was supposed to write an essay about World War 1, and wrote an AMAZING essay about World War 2, I'd still fail the assignment. He has some skill, but he failed the assignment,

On 3/1/2022 at 3:53 AM, Atlantis said:

I see where one could look at it that way, but the reverse is true too. If the criteria is that one can't criticize unless one's done it, then that would apply to 99.9% of the posters on the forum. And it would also apply to artist's work, writers, TV shows, movies, food, entertainment, you name it. Most of us never made a figure before, true, but I can say without reservation that the toybiz Scarlet Witch and 2007 Hasbro Emma Frost were both horrible. Frightening, even. Thankfully the newer versions are so much better!

At any rate, the head sculpts for the Hulk and Sabertooth are not going to be liked by everyone. I just hope the rest of 2022-2023 figures are going to be better.

No. I meant that fact that he said Paul Hardy shouldn't be proud of his work. He should be very proud. It's not often an artist gets his work released like this and is given praise for it.

Buy yeah you're right. Critizing figure is what we do best.