Hulkbuster Squad Emil Blonsky (2008)
Hasbro has had quite the history of repurposing molds from its various toy lines, particularly with GI Joe. From the 90s days of Kenner borrowing Hasbro molds, to the more current appearances of GI Joe parts in the Marvel Universe toys, the reuse of molds surely makes economical sense. Though the appearance of the iconic AWE Striker in the Stargate line stuck out like a sore thumb to Joe fans in the 90s, the Hulkbuster figures based on lesser known new sculpt era Joes seemed to merge well with the large scale Hulk toys.
If there’s one character actor that I’d never pictured seeing in the GI Joe format, it’s Tim Roth. The man seems able to deliver a quality performance no matter the genre or budget of a film. From his performance as a bleeding, gut wounded thug throughout most of the running time of Reservoir Dogs to getting cut in half at the end of Rob Roy, he’s been one heck of an intense actor. Judging from those two performances, he also certainly knows how to go out with a bang in a film.
In the Hulk movie, he portrayed the intense Emil Blonsky, who becomes the fearsome Abomination, one of the comic Hulk’s most impressive enemies. The figure here is not named at all, and the two pack is simply called the Hulkbuster Squad.
The body is basically the new sculpt Rollbar, which is nicely detailed, and one of the better proportioned molds of the time. The head sculpt is a very good likeness of Tim Roth, and because he’s not depicted with the flattop pictured on the back of the package, the head could even be used for a number of other customs based on the actor. I could go for the idea of Mr. Orange joining up with Cobra.
The pack came with a number of GI Joe weapons, and though none seem specific to one figure or the other, Blonsky is shown on the package back wielding a missile launcher. Okay, that cinches it; even though the figure isn’t officially GI Joe, I have to think of it as a very close relative considering the presence of a Battle Corps sized missile launcher. Yo Hulk!
I remember being so stoked when I found Hulkbuster Squad at my local Target. I’ve always loved Tim Roth and being able to find an action figure of him made me happy. The fact that he was in the same scale as my Joes only added to my excitement. They did a really good job of making Roth’s face at that scale, though I do wish they could have gotten a little more anger behind those tiny eyes. Honestly, the only drawback is that they tweaked the articulation on the figure a bit. The waist is just a standard swivel rather than the expanded swivel, for lack of a better term, that you can get from the original Joe-style construction. I know Blonsky spent a lot of time on my display shelf even though he wasn’t a Joe and looks a bit shrimpy next to modern style figures because the likeness was so good.
Tim Roth is the man. Having Mr. Orange infiltrate Cobra sounds a lot cooler than getting Agent Faces to do it.
That head sculpt also reminds me of Sean Bean’s Alec Trevelyan/Agent 006 from “GoldenEye.” I could see him joining Cobra for similar reasons, except he’d probably wind up double-crossing the Joes.
I kept an eye out for this guy but the first wave of Hulk figures bombed…badly over here. The toystore in the town my Dad lives in still has them on clearance for $2.00 and that shop still cant get rid of them.
@Clutch. I attempted to make some custom Bond figures but i had trouble finding suitable likeness’s for parts. You know how hard it is to find action figures in dinner jackets?
Anyway. Sean Bean did audition for the role of Bond back in the early 90’s, inbetween filming episodes of Sharpes Rifles but MGM didnt like the idea of a blonde bond at the time.
And on the subject of Goldeneye. Has anyone managed to make it past the “control room” level? I’ve had that game for 14 years and i still cant beat it.
I’m surprised no one’s attempted a custom of Roth’s character from “Lie to Me”.
I’ve pretty much used two of these figures for customs (though I haven’t used the head for anything yet). For one of them, the body (minus the lower legs, which were taken from the Hulkbuster that used the DTC Grand Slam mold) was used for an “urban strike” Snake Eyes.
Great Rollbar mold!
A great addition to my Night Force team…
What’s the earliest use of a Joe mold in another line?
TF Generation 2’s Sideswipe & Jazz (and later Onslaught) borrowing the Snow Serpent v2 cannon in 1993? http://www.tfu.info/1993/Autobot/Sideswipe/sideswipe.htm
Ebay Sellers in China had gobs of this guy, they still might, actually.
Speaking of G.I. Joe and the Hulkbusters, in the previous Avengers cartoon, a Hulkbuster squad includes a helicopter pilot that just has to be based on Wild Bill:
Does anyone know if Hasbro made o-ring figures for movie-lines other than Street Fighter? I dimly recall seeing something like that on ebay.
Whoops! I didn’t realize that was going to embed the video. Sorry about that!
@JMM
Holy crap. How did they get away with that? Not to mention those two army guys in berets could be passed off as Flint/Falcon and Blackwidow [is that her or some other Avenger?] does a Baroness impersonasion.
On the subject of “homages”, I’m a big Venture Bros fan. In on episode they had a intro for the OSI which is a twisted interpertation of the ARAH cartoon “Watch the bombs fly and shoot some other guy, YO-SI” You’ll never guess who they based Shoreleave on. And Venture bros also did an episode in which the leader of the OSI thinks he transforms into the Hulk.
Also, Venture bro’s is full of nods to GIJOE. Here’s one of my favorites.
“List of toys Colonel Gentlemen wishes he had when he was a lad…Micronaughts, Cludo: the detective game…AT-AT Imperial walker….That huge, gigantic G.I.JOE aircraft carrier.
@troublemagnet – well there was Mortal Kombat – look them up on yojoe.com in the not-joes section.
Check out the third segment of Futurama’s “Saturday Morning Fun Pit” for another GI JOE parody, “G.I. ZAPP”
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