Lepin 03088C: Orange Modified Hulkbuster Mech and Minifig Review

First previewed here along with three other Hulkbuster mechs!

Didn't apply stickers anymore because they seemed minimal anyway.

A look at its height. Of course, the usual Hulkbuster is much smaller.

In terms of its orange-ness, I think it's more yellow. But then again, I had these pair of shorts that I was certain were yellow, but my friends kept insisting they were orange.. maybe the same situation is going on with this guy.. Haha

Now for the quality, the bricks were good. I had a comfortable time building, even though I was building on a bed (it makes a difference for me, flat surfaces just make building easier; this is personal preference). The parts were able to attach easily, no need for extra force or push for the parts to stick. The bricks were also not sharp, meaning my fingers didn't hurt from building them, unlike the case for some other bootleg brands. Print on the Hulkbuster head/dome was also good, clear printing and aligned too!

Though while the quality of the individual parts were great, it's a different story on the design of the mech.

Notice anything negative? From the picture you might not realize it, but try to articulate his arm and it'll come right off. I mentioned that the bricks attached easily, but the weight of his arm is too much for a 2 stud connection. 

Yup, that's the only thing connecting the torso and the arm, and it's the same for both. Not technic pieaces, no extra bricks, just two studs. (The orange 2x1 joint piece.)

A possible solution to the shoulder problem is to get one of those arc-like pieces and attach them to the top stud and lower stud encircled above.

Additionally, the upper torso and lower torso were only connected by this 4x1 stud connection too. It also wasn't enough to hold the mech when articulating the arms. Even when left alone, that gap is present.

He looks really cool in picture, but see it in real life, and a lot is left to be desired.. One could always use glue on the problematic parts though.

Additionally, his legs need to be bent like above to stand flat. Well, I think this looks better anyway.

Side views. He's got designs for missile looking pieces, but they're not play features and aren't really removable for play.

View of the back. Very bare minimum and as such, the upper half and lower half of the torso have attachment problems..

Now for the fig, which is probably why you're buying this mech. You might think it's a Midas armor, but looking closely, it's the same design as TLG's Starboost/Gemini, but in orange/yellow. The quality of the fig is good though, perhaps my only issue is how the hip part and torso print connect, it's not as seamless as SY's print on Starboost above.

Both Tony's faces. Tony's face print on Lepin is actually a bit too high than we'd want, but the helmet's covering it up anyway.

A view of the back. No alternate print. Good print quality, though not too aligned with the middle.

Don't get me wrong, the quality of the fig is actually good, and the individual parts too! The problem is the design of the mech. It's times like this when TLG's expensive prices are becoming more and more justified because money really is invested into the designs, among other things. I mean, just look at Lepin's IW Hulkbuster, it was great because the individual pieces were good and TLG's design was also good!

We also recently updated our Iron Man guide here! This one isn't listed as a canon armor, but many of the other [bootleg] Iron Man figs that have come out are listed either based on their movie counterparts or comics counterparts!

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