Continuing with a look at Chinese bootlegs, here we will be looking at some of the 'big figs' currently available from prominent bootlegger Decool.
The appeal of these big figs, for me, is mainly the idea that this unlicensed line of toys is now producing items LEGO haven't even touched yet. Want a Fantastic Four minifig set complete with 'Thing' big fig? Decool have you covered! You can pick up a set of five (Including Spidey. In Future Foundation outfits, no less) for just a couple of pounds.
This was the first FF bootleg set released. Since then other companies have gotten in on the act, there is an improved Thing with a jointed head as well as the team in their more traditional blue uniforms. Given the way Marvel is currently handling the Fantastic Four merchandising, it's very unlikely we will ever see an official set of Marvel's first family. Even if you use this set as a basis for customs and swap out heads and arms for official pieces. The price here to fill a hole in a Marvel minifig collection makes sets like this a tempting prospect.
It doesn't stop there though. I was not a fan of the Hulkbuster build included in the official LEGO 76031 - The Hulkbuster Smash. Decool actually had their big fig version up for sale many months before 'Age of Ultron' was released. Though it has limited articulation, It's much closer in scale to the Hulk big fig. Not much play value then, but a nice display piece.
Decool continues to put out previously unmade (by LEGO) Figs. After seeing the quality of these first 2 I also picked up Rhino, Juggernaut and Venom. All were impressive pieces, whats more, these sculpts appear to have been based off their character models in the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes console game!
My son owns an official LEGO Hulk big fig, when compared to the Decool version there is no easily discernible difference. Decool also produce Grey and Red Hulks.
As with the Hulkbuster, The buildable Groot included in LEGO 76020 - Knowhere escape from Guardians of the Galaxy wasn't for me. I took a chance on the Decool version. Though his scale is wrong (He's bigger than Hulk) he is still smaller than the official version and rounds out my otherwise official Guardians set.
This brings us to the newest addition to Decool's line. This guy arrived here this morning and is the reason for this post. Again this is another one never produced by TLG. Another Iron Man version, this time we have the Mark 38 - 'Igor' heavy lifting armour as seen in the final docks battle sequence of Iron Man 3. This is the best produced Decool big fig yet, Molding is fantastic and the paint used for the silver parts has a metallic, almost reflective shine to it. He also looks very close to his movie counterpart. Impressive stuff.
And lastly a few group shots to show you the scale. I added a Miles Morales fig for size reference.
As you can likely tell, I'm mightily impressed with all of these, other than the occasional niggle on the paint jobs (common on bootlegs) They are all made to a much higher standard than expected. The higher quality of Decools take on the Mark 38 gives me hope with what they can come up with in the future. I've noticed that they are also now producing Darkseid and Gorilla Grodd from the DC side of things, these however, are just clones of existing LEGO products from some of the latest sets. I'm much more interested on seeing more of Decool's 'original' designs at this point.
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