While 2025 has been heavy when it comes to Transformers and Gundam purchases, it has been quite light when talking about Iron Man. It helps what we don’t have any live action iteration at the moment and there’s not much on the comic book-based figures side either.
That’s why I’m surprised that Sen-Ti-Nel just dropped solicitations for the Fighting Armor Hulkbuster figure. Yes, that line that I only bought a single figure since most of them are the variations of the same banana. And this one is definitely from a different fruit altogether.
If you recall, the concept of the Fighting Armor line is basically having the other Marvel heroes use Iron Man armors matching their original power sets. So it makes sense that they are more or less derivatives of the Iron Man design, which translates to figures sharing a good portion of parts outside of those specific to their individual designs. All of which are not applicable to the Hulkbuster because of obvious reasons.
The last time Sen-Ti-Nel did a Hulkbuster figure was in their RE:EDIT line, and it was based on the comic book design. While this version has all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a Hulkbuster design, certain elements are specific to this one. For starters, I prefer the more angular armor panels, especially on the shoulders and arms. Especially on the manipulators with complete digits and the large hinge joints connecting each segment, which give a strong impression on how powerful they can grip.
Size-wise, it’s meant to scale with other Fighting Armor figures, which I assume are along the 1/12 scale range. Standing at 260mm to the tip of the missile launchers, it’s more or less at the same height as the S.H.Figuarts version from Age of Ultron, which is 250mm tall.
On that note, the upper section along with the helmet can flip open to reveal an Iron Man bust within Hulkbuster, which is based on the Fighting Armor Iron Man figure. Though in case you’re expecting otherwise, this is just the head and not the complete figure inside. Still, it is mounted via a ball joint to provide basic head articulation.
Despite the bulky design, this Hulkbuster looks very articulated, and can even do a natural three-point stance, or the “superhero landing” as Deadpool puts it.
For Repulsor blast poses, the forearm armor can flip backwards to allow the manipulators to face forward and reveal the Repulsors. Likewise, the support struts on the feet can fold down to provide a wider base for more challenging poses. I do hope these are really functional struts to help stabilize the figure, and not just visual gimmicks.
Speaking of Repulsors, these, along with the other Arc Reactor parts spread across the armor, are made from clear parts with sculpted details inside for a more realistic look. Unfortulately, the figure doesn’t have LED light up gimmicks to utilize these but at least they look really good even without them.
As part of its cross-compatibility with the rest of the Fighting Armor line, the missile launchers can be used as handheld weapons for the other figures while Hulkbuster itself has several 3mm hard points where accessories from other figures utilizing the same connectors can be mounted.
If you decide to get yours via the Sen-Ti-Nel Store, then it will come with additional head parts exclusive to this online shop. This would allow you to display the Hulkbuster with the inner Iron Man head visible from the outside, as if the main Hulkbuster helmet was removed.
I have been gladly passing up the other Fighting Armor releases because of the whole “same banana” argument. But it looks like I’m not able to do the same with the Fighting Armor Hulkbuster over here. I already have the two MCU S.H.Figuarts Hulkbuster, along with the relatively new Marvel Legends figure of the comic book version. While it doesn’t hurt to add another one, it’s not helping that a good number of premium items I’m looking at getting are being released roughly at the same time. So much so that I already had to cancel my reservation for Synergenex Shield-D-Prime.
Oh well, such is the life of collectors.
Fighting Armor Hulkbuster
January 2026 / ¥27,000
Order via HobbyLink Japan, Sen-Ti-Nel Store
