I recently had a bit of a clear out in my home office, rearranging some shelves and generally having a tidy up. As a result I’ve managed to clear some shelf space, which can mean only one thing: I now have space for some more comic book statues! The first new addition to my collection is this rather impressive statue featuring Marvel Comics green behemoth, The Incredible Hulk.
This Incredible Hulk statue is part of Diamond Select Toys ‘Gallery’ range of PVC dioramas. This is the third Diamond statue I’ve purchased over the last few months — I’ve already looked at the other two: Doctor Strange and Iron Man, both of which I was very impressed with. Which begs the question: is this Hulk statue a worthy addition to my PVC collection? Well, the answer is yes… but with a couple of reservations.
The statue features a rather dramatic rendition of The Hulk — arms out, teeth bared while standing on an outcrop of rocky granite. The statue measures an imposing 12½ inches in height, and at first glance looks very impressive indeed.
The statue ships in a cardboard display box with clear plastic windows on the front and sides, so you can inspect the piece when buying it in a shop. The first thing I noticed when unpacking this statue was its weight: in its packaging it weighs just under 2kg, which is impressive bearing in mind that PVC is, by its very nature, quite light; the statue weighs almost as much as some of the cold-cast porcelain pieces in my collection.
The packaging is printed in full colour, the back of which features a short biography of character. The Hulk statue comes in one piece, and ships between two pieces of clear plastic blister packaging, which protected the piece perfectly.
The statue is based on a sculpt by Sam Greenwell, who did a good job depicting The Hulk in all his menacing glory. The level of definition on the statue is very high with Hulk’s muscles, particularly those on his back, rendered in great detail. Hulk‘s facial expression and hair are also finely detailed.
However, as impressive as the statue is at first glance, I do have a few reservations with the piece. First off Hulk‘s head is just a little bit too small. It’s not a massive problem but it is immediately noticeable, especially when you realise that his fists are actually bigger than his head. Another quibble is that, unlike the other statues from Diamond that I own, I can clearly see where Hulk‘s body parts have been glued together. It’s particularly noticeable where his right arm attaches to his shoulder. And on his calves you can see a gap between the back of his leg and his trousers. Also noticeable are some smears of the shiny glue used to attach the bits together.
Another concern (albeit a lesser one) is the statue’s paint job. Although the paint has been applied accurately — most noticeably on Hulk‘s face and teeth — the colour work on the statue is a little too subtle and lacking in contrast for my taste. Hulk‘s body is almost uniformly a flat green, and there is no colour shading on his trousers at all (I had to work quite hard when photographing the piece in order to add some contrast to Hulk‘s skin). There is some graduation of colour on the granite stones at his feet, but not really anywhere on the piece. Overall, a little bit more contrast would’ve been nice. These are all minor quibbles though, and totally forgivable when considering the statue’s price.
And speaking of price, The Incredible Hulk statue RRPs for $45, and I picked up mine for £45 from Amazon (including delivery), which for a statue of this size and quality is a bargain. This is actually the second Hulk statue that I own, the first being a limited edition Bowen Studios version that I purchased over a decade ago for £250. Although the Bowen statue is undoubtedly superior, this Diamond Select version can easily hold its own when on display, and for less than £50 it’s a monster bargain.
Diamond have released two Hulk statues in their PVC range, this green version and a grey variant. I much prefer this dramatic green version, although I haven’t discounted picking up the grey version as some point in the future (mainly because I’m a sad comic book completist).
So far I’ve been very impressed with Diamond Select’s PVC range of statues — the level of detail is incredibly high and the prices are a steal. Although this Hulk version may not be quite on par with the Doctor Strange and Iron Man editions, it’s still well worth a go. For anyone thinking of starting a statue collection of their own, or for fans of Ol’ Green Skin in general, this statue may well prove difficult to resist.
As well as The Incredible Hulk statue I also picked up the Spider-Man statue from Diamond Select range of PVC statues, and I’ll be taking a closer look at that in the next week or so.
'TAIN'T THE MEAT... IT'S THE HUMANITY! 