Lego take a lot of heat for producing so many sets with instructions of what to build, and pieces that are designed for only one use, and for “not being what it used to be”. These claims are largely unfounded, Lego still sell big buckets of bricks and have also been producing sets with build instructions since 1964. But if there’s a set which could be used as ammunition in that fight, then this it.
The Hulk Buster Smash is one of many Lego produced Marvel Super Heroes sets, and this one is based on the Avengers: Age of Ultron. It has 248 pieces and retails for £29.99 (although we were lucky enough to pick it up for half that). I said on the video that 12.1p per piece was shocking, but for a branded set isn’t too bad. I just meant it was high compared to those 6p per piece Creator sets that will be on the shelf next to this.
There are various parts but let’s start with The Hulk Buster suit itself, which as you can see in the photo above, looks great. Not only is it an accurate representation of the suit from the film, but it was also an interesting build, and is a great toy when finished. As well as posable arms and legs, thanks to ball joints similar to the Star Wars figures we were reviewing last month, the front of it also opens to allow Iron Man to sit inside…
Kids who love Iron Man are just going to go crazy for that, especially if they’re like Noah and also love putting toys inside other toys. One of the arms also has two stud shooters, those things that are really difficult for small kids like Noah to load, and which fire studs so far they’re likely to lose them within 5 minutes even if they can.
But the Hulk Buster is also the reason why I say this set could be used as ammunition in the “Lego isn’t generic anymore” fight. That head is a single, printed piece specifically for this set. It can’t be anything else, it’s The Hulk Buster head. There’s no pretending otherwise, and no skill in building it, it just clicks right on. I think the fight is stupid, and it’s just one piece out of almost 250 others, but there you go.
As well as The Hulk Buster, you also get three minifigs and a Hulk bigfig, starting with Iron Man…
There’s been so many variations on the design of the Iron Man minifigs, every set they tweak him a little more. As you can see, the mask opens so you can see Tony Stark underneath, and while the print is filled with detail it’s perhaps a little difficult to understand what it all is. Next we have Scarlet Witch…
It does a reasonable job of capturing her outfit from the film, although the coat should be longer and could perhaps be printed on the legs too. The lightning bolts are meant to signify her powers, but I’m not 100% satisfied with how they look. Next is Ultron…
He’s a good looking robot enemy minifig, with very precise patterning all over, but not very interesting. Finally, the Hulk bigfig…
This is my favourite figure from the set. He looks brilliant, with two chunky hands for holding things, but only the arms and head move, which means he’s always fixed in essentially the position you see above. And this is the other place that you could criticise this set, because those are pieces that again could never be used for anything else. While the rest of the minifig pieces can be mixed and matched, there’s no getting away from the fact that the mould there is the Hulk.
The other part of this set is what Lego calls the Hulk Prison, which also has a piece that makes it look like Scarlet Witch is levitating above it…
Noah loves jails, and bad guy characters in them, but he finds this a pretty disappointing prison. Not only does it have no roof, but it doesn’t surround him either. I’ve tried to look online to find out if there was something similar in the movie and what it looked like, but have been unable to. This just looks like filler to me.
Finally, as you can see in the video, there’s a Super Jumper piece. This allows a minifig to sit on top, and then you can put it on a table and push it down to launch the thing across the room. This is no different from the other sets that include it, kids love it, you can jump them pretty far (grab one in another set for the challenge of who can get the furthest), but they’re quite difficult to unstick once they’re attached.
Despite all the negativity, the picture at the very top of this review shows why this set is still a winner. Forget the one-use pieces, the poor prison and the pretty uninspiring minifigs, this is a set that kids are just going to love playing with. The Hulk Buster model is so flexible and sturdy, they’re going to be setting up scenes like these and just having a ball. Even a grumpy AFOL would admit the Hulk Buster is a pretty good display model too. And if you can pick this up for around £15-£20 like we did, then that’s a bit of a bargain.
Just don’t leave Hulk near Big Ben…
