“Thanos is coming... He's coming.”
The first curated releases from the Marvel Cinematic Universe outside of the main Legends waves came in 2018. The ‘First Ten Years’ sets marked the 10th Anniversary of the MCU and went on to fill several gaps in our collections with figures like Red Skull, Yellow Jacket, Crossbones, and more. The series was then renamed the 80th Anniversary series in 2019 and here, alongside comic book releases, we saw more new releases including Skurge, Ghost, and Peggy Carter. 2020's releases saw a switch to the Fox movies and a set of releases celebrating both the original X-Men movies and Deadpool. And then finally in 2021, these annual releases evolved again into the Infinity Saga collection, a series of figures celebrating the first three phases of the MCU and including a mix of re-releases, and new characters such as Quicksilver, Odin, and Obadiah Stane.
The Infinity Saga would go on to skip 2022 but returned in 2023 with a set of 8 figures from the first full arc of the MCU. The packaging’s square box shape is consistent with all the movie releases dating back to 2018, while the design for the Infinity Saga established in 2021 is continued with a black window box, reflective side artwork - which is the same on every released - and the use of the movie logo on the box front, and the movie poster on the rear alongside a small piece of supporting text.
Having worked our way through seven repaints and tweaked figures in the 2023 Infinity Saga wave, we have reached what is essentially the only 'new' figure in the collection. Bruce Banner has only had one single MCU release previously outside of his alter-ego The Hulk. That single outing was in 2015 as part of the Age of Ultron series and packed Bruce into a four-pack alongside Thor, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. The set was then sold exclusively via Amazon making the Bruce Banner a relatively rare commodity for MCU Legends collectors. This second release of an MCU Bruce is therefore long overdue and welcomed bringing us a Mark Ruffalo figure as Banner but in keeping with the very modern and photo-real decor of other core Avengers.
This new Bruce Banner is themed around his Avengers: Infinity War appearance following his return to Earth and in particular the scenes where he arrives in Wakanda. While the figure is technically new, there are plenty of re-used parts here with the legs and torso taken from the original 2015 Bruce Banner. The legs are cast in dark grey with a touch of black and silver paint on the belt detail. They are a bit slimmer than we might like for Bruce Banner’s proportions but Hasbro is unlikely to move forward with a new pair of suited legs any time soon.
The torso is painted and a checked shirt with a lavender base colour and grey checks. The purple softer plastic jacket is new, while the pinless arms are a subtle reuse. The tell is the very slight pattern on the sleeves which can be traced to the Agent Woo figure from WandaVision.
The head sculpt is a new piece, with a great likeness to Mark Ruffalo as we would expect to see with our most recent Legends releases although in terms of proportions, the forehead might just be a bit too large. The sculpt is overlaid with photo real paint and the hair is cast and attached as an individual piece to give a clean transition between skin and hair.
Banner has no accessories but does come with two sets of hands. You can interchange clenched fists with open hands depending on how you want to display Bruce. I struggled to consider what Infinity War relevant accessories we might have expected. Articulation is OK, with 19 points in total. The issues all exist in these older-suited legs that suffer from visible pins as well as ongoing issues with the feet which don’t seem to want to sit flat and hold the figure in a standing pose. The upper torso behaves much better, and is pinless, allowing Bruce a good range of movement.
The Infinity Sage Bruce Banner is a release that we can call new in so much it is a new iteration of a character, while the figure does recycle most of the parts from previous releases - and there is nothing particularly wrong with that if the look of the character is maintained. The issue with Banner is the issues these re-used parts - namely the legs - bring with them. Bruce also feels light on extra parts considering we have seen alternative heads with nearly all the other figures as well as weaponry or accessories. A second head sculpt, perhaps angry or even partially green Bruce would have been very welcome. I had anticipated this to be the popular figure of the wave, but he is hanging around at retail as others like Spider-Man and Black Widow sell out. He is certainly an acceptable release by Legends standards and won’t disappoint, but like the rest of the wave, he perhaps doesn’t quite go far enough to exceed our expectations. What the new head sculpt does do is open up options for more Bruce Banner variations such as the Ragnarok Banner or even Bruce in a labcoat from Age of Ultron.
Keep Track of all the Marvel Legends figures from Hasbro at our comprehensive
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...