When Bandai Tamashii Nations announced that they would be doing Avengers: Age of Ultron figures as part of the S.H. Figuarts line it was pretty exciting, but I think it's fair to say that the most exciting element of all (at least until the reveal of a Hulkbuster figure anyway) was the Hulk . The Avengers had previously had a brief foray into poseable Japanese figures as part of the Figma line in 2014, but the fact their Hulk seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth after the other three core members were released was rather disappointing to say the least. However Bandai here plan to make no such mistake, winning fans over by guaranteeing Hulk as one of the earliest releases from their Age of Ultron range. Now that the Figuart is out, it seems Figma are gearing up to finally release their version of the character based on the first Avengers film. Nice try Max Factory but you're a little too late to the party - this is Figuarts town now.

Marvel Comics has always had a bit of an odd relationship with Japan. The old 1978 Spider-Man  tokusatsu series from Toei was a piece of sureal genius, while the more recent quartet of Marvel anime shows ( Iron Man , Wolverine , X-Men  and Blade ) ranged from forgettably average to mind-numbingly bad. So cue 2014 when the world is still very much in Marvel hype mode thanks to the shared movie universe, and the company has teamed up with Toei once again. This time its something a little more Japanese though, as Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers  takes a typical children's toy-driven anime series and gives it a Marvel comics twist.