After a consistent downpour of new Marvel Gallery statues being announced most of the year by Diamond Select Toys, new solicitations have slowed to a drizzle recently. But it looks like the storm is picking up again—! In addition to the announcement of the Black Panther Marvel Gallery movie statues earlier today, DST officially announced two other new PVC statues: the GameStop/ThinkGeek Exclusive Unmasked Gwenpool & Red Hulk are now up for order!
Well, it took quite a bit longer than I had expected, but the other shoe has finally dropped—the 11″ Marvel Gallery Red Hulk Statue has now been revealed… and is available for immediate ordering!
This statue is basically just the first DST Hulk Gallery statue repainted with red skin, black jeans and an all-new head—but that’s fine by me. I can’t recall any company ever offering a low-priced Rulk Statue—not even Kotobukiya—so I know that many, many fans will welcome this release.
And honestly, I think the new head and paint deco make a big difference: although the Marvel Gallery Hulk is one of my least favorite releases from the line, Red Hulk looks much better to me aesthetically.
As a reminder, Gwen Poole is not Gwen Stacy, which is why she looks quite different unmasked. I dig the awesome pink dye job at the ends of Gwenpool’s strands of hair, but this just isn’t a character I’d ever need an unmasked variant of.
The Unmasked Gwenpool is now available for order from GameStop and ThinkGeek, while the Red Hulk has only appeared on the ThinkGeek website so far (but is expected to be available from GameStop as well). Shockingly, both statues are already in-stock and ready to ship out—not bad timing, what with this being the busiest shopping week of the year! Red Hulk is priced at $46.99 on ThinkGeek, with Gwenpool unmasked priced at $45-$50 depending on which store you snag her from.
Show of hands: How many of you Marvel collectors are still fans (or were ever fans) of Gwenpool and Rulk, and are you planning on picking up either of these new low-priced Diamond Select Toys statues?
Unmasked Gwenpool is a must buy for me. I didn’t pick up the prior statue because I was waiting to see if they’d do an unmasked version.
If I recall, she was created as Gwen Stacy doing Deadpool by Chris Bachalo as a variant cover sketch that mocked the Spider-Gwen popularity trend that saw things like Gwenvengers and Gwenverine (hi!).
I ridiculed her debut and scoffed at the book when it first hit, but went back to the comic shop later in the week and picked up the first issue on a gut feeling. I found it to be one of Marvel’s best books, especially in a time when everything coming out of Secret Wars and the Civil War 2 going ons were so serious and not that entertaining from what I want out of my Marvel comics.
Yes, the Deadpool connection threw me off, but the jokes are a different and, for my money, cleverer type of 4th wall breaking. Then it turns out there is no Deadpool connection. Or Gwen Stacy connection. The sheer cheek of how they addressed it won me over.
I’ve recommended it to readers and non-readers, and after initial resistance, they too were ensnared by the book’s humour and bombastic action. Yeah, it starts one note. Then it slowly unravels itself to be more than what everyone assumes it is. It gets even better in later arcs when the whole book pushes further into an examination on mental health and fandom.
I want the Unmasked statue because she spends as much time unmasked as masked in the book. I’m rather disappointed Hasbro hasn’t given us an unmasked head for her, as I believe her portrait to be just as iconic as Gwen Stacy’s headband or Deadpool’s cancer-eaten face. Silk and Elektra get secondary heads. Spider-Man has a wonderful selection of alternate portraits. Gwen and her pink dyed locks are just as deserving.
I’ll take the look through the Select statues, then, and continue hoping Hasbro will unveil Gwen Poole’s manic grin, mischievous eyes, and sweet dye job.
Red Hulk…less interested.