Toy Review: The Hulk + Ultron + Captain America / Marvel Mashers (Hasbro)

This set is exclusive to Target and was made for the second Avengers movie which released this summer.  It is the only way to get Ultron as a Masher and the $30 original asking price was a bit much for me because it's not like it's three completely new Mashers, but when I saw it at Target on clearance for $15 I had to get it.   At $15 this is the same price as one of the "deluxe" style Mashers which is essentially one figure plus a lot of weapons and just overall more weapons/accessories than what comes with the "basic" figure at the $10 price point.   There are quite a few accessories in here though and this is also a full three figure set.

Taking them in order we will start with The Hulk who is actually not that closely related to his cocunterpart which we got as part of a two pack with Loki.   There is also a Hulk out there that comes with pizza but I mainly just want that one for the pizza.   This is our third Hulk, the second green one and then we also have Red Hulk.   He has the same body as the original green one we have and even the arms, but then hands/fists and legs/feet are different as they appear to be a bit more robotic in their nature.   He also has shinier/glossier pants on than the original and so he is not just simply a repaint in that sense and so I do enjoy that.

I'd feel all right with paying $5 for a Hulk repaint but this isn't even really a repaint and is just a different version of the green Hulk.  His head even has darker hair- closer to black- on the first one we got and this one is closer to green in the hair which makes me think of the Jolly Green Giant.    Is it really bad to have two green Hulks?  No because there are worse duplicates to have and the fact that he isn't even a direct repaint makes me happy that we got him for $5 and would have considered paying $10 for him had I looked at him more closely back when he was full price.

Ultron is actually a really cool Masher in and of himself.   If he was in a "basic" package with the $5 price tag and I saw him with one of the other new characters coming out I'd probably add him to my group to use a coupon.   So I'm not saying I'd pay full price for him, per se, but I'd buy him at $10 with another $10 Masher and use a $5 off coupon.   He's just that cool of a Masher.    He also has this appeal where he looks like he'd fit in the Transformers line of Mashers pretty well.   Since the Marvel and Transformers Mashers can interact you have to appreciate that if you're like us and collecting both lines.

Captain America rounds out this set.    He's in black, as opposed to the bright blue version we already have, and his hands as well as his feet are of different molds.   His head is the same but his face- the skin tone- is slightly lighter on this one, as if he needs to get some sun.   This was probably just done to contrast the darkness of the rest of the figure but it is still kind of interesting to see him being so pale as I imagine Captain America as being the kind of guy who hits the tanning salon.    Still, he's a sort of darker Captain America and though not a true repaint in the sense that it's not simply the same parts in different colors this Masher still makes me feel happy to have it.

With the different versions of characters it's difficult to see these versions of The Hulk and Captain America as being that different.   Characters like Iron Man and Wolverine- who we have different versions of- can appear more obvious in their differences and even the Red Hulk is a bit more obvious in his not being the same as the green Hulk.   Even though the differences aren't quite as obvious they are still there and these are just two really solid alternatives to the versions we already have.   Add Ultron into that- as he is only available in this three pack- and this is just such a solid set it was probably worth the full asking price so I'm rather fortunate to have found it at half of that.