Hey, Hasbro - It’s in the Paint!
I was playing around with my The Incredible Hulk movie figures this evening and I started to feel a little bad for little Hulky and all the flak he’s been catching for looking like “a happy meal toy”. So, I tried to really figure out what it is with Hasbro’s figures that makes them look so darn crappy. In short, the answer is paint. Expand the post for elaboration.
Hasbro’s figures have pretty good sculpts. And they are getting better with articulation. So why do they still look so “cheap”? Well, it’s because they fall short on paint. Hasbro does some paint applications on their figures, but they seem to only do air brushing for detail work. That helps a little, but it usually just ends up looking like their figures have spray-on tans. There are two big paint applications that Hasbro does not do that Marvel Toys (ToyBiz) lived off of - the wash and the dry brush.
A wash is just a thinned down coat of paint that seeps into the grooves and texture of the sculpt and dries there and darkens the recesses to really pull out the detail. It’s usually done with a color a shade darker than the main color of the fig. A dry brush is the opposite. It’s a light coat of lighter color paint that is sort of “dusted” over the figure so that it only picks up on the raised edges of the sculpt, also bringing out the detail.
I took movie Hulk and threw a quick and dirty wash on his flesh parts, letting a dark green seep down into the striations and trenches of his musculature. Then I threw a very light dusting of gray paint over the blue of his pants to dry brush on a little contrast there.
The result is a figure that looks (kind of) like what we all loved from Marvel Legends of yore. The whole process took about 20 minutes and I tried to be really “messy” with it to replicate what might be doable in a factory setting.
If Hasbro would just invest in working these two simple paint techniques into their manufacturing process (like most other toy companies do…) then they could easily bring Marvel Legends back to its former glory. C’mon Hasbro! Do it!
Tags: hasbro, the incredible hulk
i dedicate this post to Chris and Megatherium!
While I do agree with u that paint could do wonders for Hasbro’s figures, I just flat out don’t like their sculpts, I know I’ve beaten this to death but I love the consitency of DCUC’s sculpts they all share the same look and I love that.
Wow, SAG — that does look pretty excellent! Question: did you wipe the wash off of the surface areas after you applied it, or did you just let it sit? I’m thinking of giving my 2002 MOTU Skeletor a wash, but I’m afraid to risk screwing him up.
Also, I’m absolutely terrible with drybrushing — any extra tips for getting that right?
So now it looks like a Mickey D’s Toy with a great paint job. I think its the plastic. BY the way I never liked DC directs “action figures” but I was really upset at this one.
link here
I was just posing him. I dont understand how people keeping on saying that DC Direct are more detailed. And he isnt the only one….Commisioner Gordons Knee feel off…Ra’s Sword broke….Riddlers cain. (all from Batman Hush Series) Thats Why I love DCUC!
Well it didnt Post but it was a picture of my flash. (from identity crisis)
img link
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Not too handy with this Web Stuff.
SUPERB STUFF figure looks great-will you do mine for me?
I agree that Hasbro paint jobs are inferior to Toybiz’s. But the main reason why I won’t pick up these Hulk figures… SCALE!!! These ones are way too small to be displayed with my other ML scale figs. Hasbro’s Hulk is only slightly taller than Stark!
Yeah, george, it won’t accept embedded images in the comment fields. i’d need to write a script or something that automatically resizes images when they’re displayed, otherwise pics that are wider than the little box here just break the layout. heh. i might work on that one day… maybe…
and LMZ, don’t forget that these are 3 3/4″ inch scale figures. hulk is meant to be standing up next to your gi joes (as far as scale is concerned) not next to your marvel legends. not that i’m really defending them, it’s just that scale is one place where they shouldn’t be criticized. unless you were to say, “jeez hasbro, why didn’t you make the movie figs in 6″ scale like everything else?” in which case the argument would be valid!
and Wes, i pretty much just let the wash sit there. i did wipe it off a bit on his face and across the smooth parts of his chest and abs. but i wanted to give him a “grungy” overall look so i didn’t mind if covered him too much. if you want to try it out i’d say just do a little spot on the back of the figure or test it out with something from the “fodder box”. everyone has one of those, right? no? just me? oh…
oh, and if you guys want to put links in your comments, just do them old-school html. as in < a href="linkurl" >some text that you want to link< / a >
ya know, with the extra spaces taken out.
should I start a forum? I could stick one of those free bulletin board deelios up in here. i think i have the bandwith. maybe…
Kudos for addressing this issue. I just finished a diorama of Toybix Hulks (FaceOff Hulk & Leader, ML Abomination, House of M Hulk, etc.) and as much as I like having Hasbro’s ML SheHulk in there she definitely looks more toyish with her shiny paint apps. I dunno. Hasbro put out 6″ movie Ghost Rider figures last year that were up the wazoo in paint apps and look just as nice as anything Toybiz painted. Alot of times Toybiz overdid the wash and many figures look like they’re running around with dirty clothes on (Icons Wolverine was the worst example of that). And the Hasbro BAFs Annihilus and Blob both had decent paint apps. Annihilus is my 3rd favorite Marvel BAF right behind Galactus (of course!) and Sentinel. I skipped all of these movie Hulks and picked up the Target exclusive movie Hulk with an old Toybiz ML body and new movie head. He’s alright but suffers the same flaw as alot of Toybiz hulks: he can’t form an awesome fist. Hulk is supposed to be able to SMASH, not B#$CH SLAP.
great wash. i love this figure, but yes the scale and paint bite. if you go and remove the painted eyes, you will be suprised at what’s underneath; decent eye sculpt. the unpainted product looks awesome. a little repaint of the eyes, and you got an awesome set of peepers to match the awesome wash.
SAG and other customizers. I wanted to ask about WWE Buildn’ Brawlers particularly but they(WWE) have other superarticulated figures as well. Is it the Deluxe Aggression series and others now including a 12 inch line. I like the little guys esp. because I use them and Marvel Icons or BAFs and other bigger figures as Monsters or giants for the little guys to fight with. What I want to do is learn how to repaint etc these figures to make them not-wrestlers. I want to make them like Barabrians and superheroes etc. but still play with them without the paint coming off a lot etc. (remember I play with toys)
No offense I just don’t really like wrestling that much. My brother loves it and I watch with him from time to time. I like Kane although he was cooler when he was a monster with a mask. Triple H or HHH is cool and should play Thor and Conan but I am getting off point.
Does anyone out there customize these guys or care? Also does anyone know when Mattel is getting WWE rights because I don’t know how many series Jakks Pacific will put out of the B&B and 12 inch figures before they lose the rights.
I know that I am mostly alone when it comes to the little guys and I agree 7 inches is still best for action figures but I like these little wrestlers for fun and fighting monsters. These seemd like a good place to post this since it is about paint etc. I hope that’s cool.
Thanks and good job making a crappy figure look a little better SAG. I didn’t mean that to be rude. I just do not like these figures Hasbro!
I only have a couple of Jakks wrestling figures in my collection but recently couldn’t resist the Jerry “the King” Lawler and Andy Kaufman 2pack. Great tribute to two great performers, er, wrestlers. They’re brawl was filmed for the documentary “I’m from Hollywood” and its hiliarious good fun for wrestling fans and fans of gonzo performance artist extraordinaire, Andy Kaufman. ANYWAY, I would recommend taking some of your figures to a Hobby/Model Shop and getting their recommendation on which paint would work best on plastic action figures. I’m guessing a Hobby Shop would have the paint and brushes you would need to customize these up properly. I would like to add some purple to my BAF Annihilus to make him a little less fruity.
dear uncle sag
i hope i see you soon
dont forget to bring
your hulk and abomenation figs
your best nephew grayson
Whoa, I didn’t know that Mattel had won the WWE license! But apparently, according to this article, that’s not going into effect until 2010. We’ve still got another year of JAKKS Pacific to go.
Anyway, I just grabbed one of the WWE Deluxe Aggression figures last week — I have to admit that they seem pretty cool. They’re definitely toylike due to the large unpainted areas (here’s where a wash would come in handy!), and $11+ per figure is pretty steep (for some reason Gregory Helms was $2 at TRU, hence my decision to take him home), but they’ve got impressive articulation and I imagine they’d work well for customs. Paint rub could be a problem, though, as could the abundance of soft plastic on the toys (if you’re using acrylics, sometimes those areas don’t take paint too well).
Once I can find the appropriate base (so far I’ve seen some with good heads, but never on the bodies I prefer — and at this point I’m not up to pay $22+ to take on the project), I’d like to try my hand at a Wolfgang Krauser custom.
Andrew - I haven’t picked up any of the little “build and brawl” guys but i used a deluxe aggression (batista?) figure as a base for a Leonidas from 300 custom a while ago. It didn’t really have any issue with paint rub except a bit in the shoulders. I usually sand/dremel all the joints on my base figs to ’score’ them and rough up the surface texture to give the paint something better to adhere to.
I use testors “model masters” acrylic paints. we have a chain of stores here called hobby lobby and they carry a pretty wide selection of colors. when i’m finished with my customs i spray them down with testors dull-coat spray paint to give them a matte finish and help seal in the paint.
as far as playing with customs and not having the paint come off goes, the general rule is ‘the more paint the more likely it is to scrape off’. if you use a really thin coat, or even just a wash, it’s a lot less likely to scrape off than if you have several thick coats on there.
but if you’re converting a wrestler into a barbarian or something that’s already pretty much shirtless and skin colored then you probably wouldn’t have any problems.
I’ve been meaning to do up a deluxe aggression style conan custom for a while. I may bust one out and snap some ‘work in progress’ pics for you. one day…
LOL LOL LOL….Thanks SAG!!!!!! I’m honored. I showed my gf that my favorite site had this little project dedicated to me and Megasomething! Thanks!
As for the paint job….I really like your paint job but if that figure sold for $10…..I’d buy it for your paint job not the figure. I’m sorry but the sculpt still doesn’t do it for me.
You’re paint job would probably just make me buy the figure, put it on my shelf and say….hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm the paintjob is great but the quality of paint doesn’t match the figure. Then I’d take it down my shelf. Then in a day or two I would say….Hmmmmm I’ll give it another try cuz the paint’s pretty damn cool. Then, I’ll put it down again cuz of the awkward sculpt. There would be 3 cycles of that on/off my self, then I would just return the dang thing. lol lol lol
Thanks again SAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and Hasbro…I’d like some fries and a burger with that toy please!!!
just so everyone knows the target exclusive is a far superior figure and is approriate scale to match all of the other good movie lines from the summer. He also isn’t cross-eyed, I only wish the they would put out a abomination on the same sclae with the same upgrades. good improvement on the hasbro figure.
yeah, i saw the target exclusive but passed. it’s just a re-release of Marvel Legends series 1 hulk. I couldn’t see spending 13 bucks on a figure that was sold six years for six bucks… way to be innovative, hasbro!
plus it’s artic is outdated! heh.
SAG….THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!! Now I understand!!!!!
BUT…Still doesn’t bother me much personally…but it would be nice if they started doing that again…I still display them all side by side….(I liked the Ghost Rider Movie Figures alot….Vengance is the best one by far in my opinion…where is the Peter Fonda Mephistopheles figure??????)
when i think about it…maybe instead of just not caring about detail…hasbor is going for a more Comic-bookie feel????? Kind of a weak argument…but it may make some sense…
I hate the hulk movie figures only because thayt should be in scale with ML and the Iron man Movie toys….They did that Last year with the Spiderman 3 Movie line and then relased some somewhat crappy ML figures (mary Jane is worthless Just like Kirsten Dunst) (I still bought most of them) (venom is okay)
Probably scaled them down to cut costs…jerks.
PS. the new ML product for this year i am happy about…except exclusive waves…grrrrr….i hate those…
The target exclusive was a lot better than the Hasbro hulk figures but in my opinion was hasbro’s pathetic attempt to cash in on old molds of Toybiz. When I saw photos for this at the NYCC…i was like….sheesh….talk about Desperation.
As if that wasn’t funny enough, the whole figure was acceptable (although outdated), but it had a happy meal hulk face.
In fact, he looks depressed. Like Betty Ross rejected Hulk and slapped him when he tried to give her a bouquet of flowers or something. lol lol lol
I remember when Dave Cortez used to be my fav sculptor at Toybiz Marvel Legends. He’s probably hitting his head against a wall now. I think no matter how great the sculpt is, when Hasbro produces it….the sculpt will not look the same.
I don’t mind the Marvel Select Ironman, Hulk, Thor and Cap America coming out. They’re a lot closer to ToyBiz’s Legends than Hasbro.
Unfortunately, they inherited hasbro joints…yuck.
I don’t know if anyone mentioned this (There were too many replies here to read through…and that’s a good thing!), but Target has the “exclusive” marvel legends hulk that is the right scale. I think it’s a ML repaint with a different head, but it’s to scale, so I’m not gonna complain. Paint’d decent too…my only beef is that his joints are REALLY loose. You can only tell so much from the unopened package in the store!
I posted this up there somewhere but it bears repeating: “He’s alright but suffers the same flaw as alot of Toybiz hulks: he can’t form an awesome fist. Hulk is supposed to be able to SMASH, not B#$CH SLAP.” So my Target exclusive Hulk is going back for a $13 credit. If you’re a newbie then I recommend him out of convenience; otherwise chase down that Toybiz Hulk/Leader Showdown boxset.
Ha. yeah. good point, Rich. This movie Hulk is the only Hulk I’ve ever owned that had an actual fist. Even the Face-Off Hulk has slap-hands. What’s up with that?