Weighing in on the Hulkbuster Conversation from yesterday..
The ToyBiz ML Hulkbuster Helmet was revised somewhere along the way. In fact, the picture of the figure on the back of the package shows the original. I cant find a higher res image.
So when the were doing the card pack in, the artist based the trading card art on the prototype Hulkbuster ML.
So, September 2005 comes along and here's the final Hulkbuster figure, with the helmet revised too look more like a 90s Hulkbuster.
There are bits and bobs throughout that are inspired by the 90s design, the arms certainly with their color blocking with the red biceps, to gold in the elbow/forearm, to red gauntlet. There are a lot of liberties taken with the design, the chest, shoulder pads (got back to the prototype image for reference, the honey comb presence is clear), and just the overall sculpting. Toybiz made the design a little more "functional" looking with some extra detail. You can see they even did this with their Silver Centurion, as well.
Now we get to September 2006 and what's on the cover of Iron Man this month? Why it's a Hulkbuster that looks an awful lot like the Original ToyBiz Hulkbuster and the Trading Card accompanying it. Now it would have been solicited by, June or July so the art would have been complete for a couple of months at least. However, also noteworthy is that the Hulkbuster armor in the comic art itself does have a different torso design, but the helmet arms and legs seem to be the same. That's not super relevant, but worht mentioning.
So what came first? Probably the action figure design. We know action figures have long lead times from design to hitting the shelves. It's likely figure was being designed as early as 04 or even LATE 03. Sure, Granov was slow at interior art.. But he was a regular cover artist for Marvel on 2-3 titles a month consistently. Plus, editorial/writers will regularly pitch cover art based on the story within, which CLEARLY happened here. At this point, Granov is no longer doing interior work and has been the series regular cover artist for this arc and continues through the Civil War tie-ins and a variant cover to the first Director of SHIELD issue.
I would love to know for sure how the design of this Hulkbuster came around as it has been a topic of conversation, but I think it would be fair to say the figure's design was first. Did Marvel supply Granov with the Hulkbuster design as reference material for the cover? Sure would love to know for sure.
So what do I consider the ToyBiz ML? I consider it binned because it was always super ugly and no longer has a place on my shelf.