Gladiator Hulk is unquestionably in the upper echelon of best Marvel Legends Build-A-Figures that Hasbro has ever done from a marketing perspective. As the highly hyped co-star of Thor Ragnarok, basically every MCU movie figure collector set their eyes on owning a Gladiator Hulk BAF from the film. But not every fan could or wanted to buy a whole $120 6-figure set for the armor-clad Jade Giant, and those collectors were left out in the cold—until now. With a new extra head and a few updated paints, the individually sold Amazon Exclusive Marvel Legends Gladiator Hulk is now up for pre-order!

Gladiator Hulk was a bit of a merchandising bonanza in 2017, instantly garnering multiple statues, a Marvel Select figure, a Hot Toys, a One:12 Collective mixed media figure and more—including a Thor Ragnarok Legends released that cheesed a lot of folks off by being a Build-A-Figure.

And so, whether I wanted every figure in the assortment or not (I didn’t), I plunked down my pre-order dollars and purchased the whole Marvel Legends Thor Ragnarok wave, ultimately enabling me to build the original Gladiator Hulk BAF I reviewed a few years back.

The original Ragnarok Hulk Build-A-Figure (shown above) was actually quite nice as a “free” pack-in, with my primary complaints being the disinterested facial sculpt and the poor plastic used for the weapons (I remember Hulk’s limpy hammer fondly to this day).

Hasbro is fixing at least one of those issues with this updated Gladiator Hulk Legends figure, as they the now including an all-new angry/yelling head as an extra (second) head in addition to the bored-looking original head. It’s unknown right now if the weapons will utilize stronger plastic this time out.

The base figure itself is unchanged, so all sculpting details and articulation will remain the same. However, Hasbro is at least updating the color palette with a few changes, including changing Hulk’s left shoulder armor from silver to a more accurate blue. I like the splash of color and authenticity this minor change brings to the table. He still stands the same 8”+ tall without helmet, or 9”+ tall when wearing it. He’s priced at $39.99, about a third of the cost of the wave that included all the original BAF pieces.

And, well… that’s really about it. This is a bit of a cheap and easy reissue for Hasbro, but it’s also a toy that was pretty solid to begin with of an essential character from the third Thor movie. Given how iconic this version of Hulk has become to many, it’s hard to fault Hasbro for bringing this figure back for far, far less than the original has ever been obtainable for.

The Amazon Exclusive Gladiator Hulk Marvel Legends action figure is currently open for pre-orders and is scheduled to ship by October 2023. I don’t imagine he’s likely to pre-sell out quickly, but he is an exclusive and stranger things have happened.

Have any of you held out this long waiting for a solo release of Marvel Legends Gladiator Hukk and plan to pick up this former Build-A-Figure now? How about anyone who has the first release and is considering buying him again?