I said we were going back to Avengers set reviews, and I am true to my word. Today DeeVee looks at another of the Marvel constraction sets, 4530 Hulk. Is this monster of a set worth your hard-earned cash despite his lack of purple pants? You'll have to read on to find out!

Presentation
From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

I was tempted to write this whole review in Hulk speak. But I thought you guys would get tired of it. Okay, I lied. I didn't do it because I know that I'm not anywhere near as good at it as Nukaya is, and I didn't want to put that kind of effort into this.

Hulk comes in the same size box as the other Superheroes. Except this one has Hulk on the front! The odds, what are they, am I right?

The back of the box has a slightly different Hulk build (and to be honest, I think this one looks better than the official Hulk build). Plus the combo build which is awful. Ignore it.

There are legal disclaimers too! Man, they are just so fantastic and pretty and I like them.

Building
Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

The Hulk is a very different build. He uses the long torso plus the normal sized torso in tandem. Much like Captain America's shoulders, he uses the new HF limb parts to make a frame that cladding then builds off of. Except on Captain America, it looked good.

However, it makes for a very interesting build. The lime chest part attaches to the ball joints on the front torso, and the back torso is how the arms get mounted.

Set Design
Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

Hulk doesn't exactly come with a lot of neat parts. He comes with the Hulk head mold, which looks sufficiently Hulk-y. He is stuck in a perma-scowl-frown. The giant lime chest piece is neat, and it has two ball sockets on the back as the only real connection points. The lime cladding is always welcome in this size, and the lime "paw" piece makes a great fist. Then there are the two small length lime HF limb pieces, which, while not new, have not appeared outside of Ninjago sets before this. So the first appearance in a constraction figure set makes them notable!

Yes, you did just see those pictures in the building process section! But they are the perfect images to show off Hulk's front and back.

The giant lime torso looks great on the front. It makes a great Hulk chest. But the frame on the back that makes the torso bigger and bulkier looks... bad. It leaves a lot of gaps, and from behind? No thanks. I understand the purpose, to make the torso bulkier and larger and to make Hulk look more muscular and strong. Like the Hulk should.

But there are so many things about this set I don't understand. I know the shoulders and arm parts in gunmetal are supposed to be "power armour". And they work for that, I guess. But the lower arms being black when the EXACT SAME part is used in lime for the lower legs? Yeah, that doesn't make sense. The gunmetal HF torso part also doesn't make much sense, even as power armour. It's not connected at all to the rest of the armour, and it looks out of place. It would look way better in lime or in blue to be more pants.

Also, let's be honest. If the blue cladding on the upper legs was purple we'd all be a little happier.

A lot of people have said that they wish the hand pieces had fingers. But I think the Exo-Force robot arms would have looked out of place. These "paw" pieces look like clenched fists, and I think the fingers would have ruined that.

Playability
The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?

Hulk smashes. His small legs make his upper body look strong and imposing. The big fists and big upper body do make him look bulky and muscular. He can get into lots of cool and rage-y poses. He looks like he's ready to attack some Chituari. Or Loki. Or maybe sucker punch Thor.

God I want a Thor set.

Anyway.

Final Thoughts
Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?

Pros What's to like? Lime is always good That lime chest looks great Strong and intense appearance HULK SMASH Cons What's not to like? The bulky frame looks bad Black lower arms? Pants aren't purple Weird colour choices all around, really

I like that the set designers took a big risk and tried to do something different than the usual HF build. Unlike with Captain America's shoulders, I don't think this one pays off. I'd rank this as the worst of the three Marvel sets. I'd buy Captain America, Iron Man, and then, if you need lime or want to have a raging Hulk in a pose that hides all the bad frame stuff in the back, the Hulk.

With any luck you found this review enjoyable - if you did, thank DeeVee in the Talkback. You can also leave any other questions and comments you may have there. We're not quite done with our recent wave of reviews, so keep checking back for those as well as the lastest LEGO news, right here on BZPower.

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