Maestro

Nearly 100 years into the future of the Marvel Universe, the world had been reduced to radioactive hellfire and ash from a series of nuclear wars, during which the vast majority of the heroes and villains were wiped out. One of the only survivors was the Hulk, possessing the merged mind of Bruce Banner with the physical strength and powers of the Hulk, who was far enough from the warzone to absorb the left over radiation and become vastly more powerful, at the cost of the slow degradation of his mental health. The Hulk started a new society shaped in his image, with him as its sole dystopic ruler, The Maestro.

After decades of cruel, totalitarians rule, a resistance movement created by Maestro's old friend Rick Jones were able to recover Doctor Doom's time machine and traveled backwards to bring the heroic modern age Hulk forward into the future to finally bring down the Maestro's empire.

Incredible Hulk: Transformations - Maestro (1997)
Maestros' first action figure was released as part of Toybiz's 1997 Incredible Hulk sub-line, Transformations, which was focused on creating new figures for various alternate forms of the Hulk. Maestro is an original molded figure with an original design loosely inspired by the original Future Imperfect storyline. The figure features six points of articulation - with cuts at the neck, waist, and hips, and ball-hinges at both shoulders.

Instead of the action features which were frequent with figures of the line, Maestro included three accessories, each pieces of the Fallen Hero Armor, which reinterprets Rick Jones' museum of Hero and Villain souvenirs as wearable equipment. The first piece is a large harness that slides over the chest, and is connected to a cape piece for his back- with the harness adorned with the helmets of fallen characters including Juggernaut, Ultron, Iron Man, Doctor Doom, and Nova, with the cape itself inspired by Doctor Strange's cloak. A gauntlet is designed to fit on to his left arm and is made from the Adamantium skeleton of Wolverine. Finally, Maestro includes a battle-damaged Captain America's shield, which features Mjolnir chained to it.

Series 12 (Apocalypse Series) - Maestro (2005)
The Maestro made his Marvel Legends series debut as part of the 12th series released in December 2005, as part of the Apocalypse Build-A-Figure series. The figure is an original sculpt, standing slightly taller and wider than the other Hulk releases from Toybiz to make him appear more imposing, and is based on his appearance near the end of Future Imperfect, during his final battle with the Hulk in Rick Jones' souvenir room.

The figure includes one accessory - his crown, worn earlier in the storyline for ceremonial events and when he was showing an injured Hulk on a tour around his wasteland society. The crown does not peg in or have any way of staying on the figure, and thus remains a loose fit. While there was a backlash around the lack of Fallen Hero Armor, Toybiz's Jesse Falcon took to message boards to lash back out, pointing to negative responses to Ultron from the previous series, which had also been an original design created by Toybiz, as a factor in the decision. Like the rest of the figures in the series, Maestro include a Build-A-Figure part, the left arm of Apocalypse. Each BAF part in this series was actually released in two color schemes - a classic blue, and a darker black variant. The arm also includes a tube that connects from Apocalypse's arm to his torso, but the first shipments of the figure lacked this piece, requiring collectors to contact Toybiz through their website to get replacements sent until subsequent releases could restore the missing piece.

Finally, the figure included a pack-in comic like the rest of the figures from the era. Maestro includes Captain Marvel #30, the final issue in the Time Flies storyline which served as a partial sequel to Future Imperfect written by Peter David with art by ChrissCross.

Infinite Series Deluxe - Maestro (2021)
Released as part of the stand-alone Deluxe price point of Hasbro's rebooted Marvel Legends: Infinite Series toyline, Maestro is a new, more modern take on the character based on his appearances from more recent books, primarily Secret Wars, Spider-Man 2099 and Old Man Logan. This Maestro is a remold of the Hulk figure released for the Marvel 80th Anniversary subline, and is thus far larger than even most Build-A-Figures and features a wide range of articulation including butterfly shoulder joints. The figure includes a new headsculpt and new gauntlets.

Accessory wise the figure includes two pairs of hands; one pair molded in clenched fists and the other pair molded open to grip or pose expressively, both of which are the same as the previous figures released on this mold. The only other accessory is a separately sculpted necklace piece, draped around the figure's neck.

Marvel Legends 3.75 Series - Maestro (2016)
One of the final releases in Hasbro's Marvel Universe family of 3.75" scale action figures, Maestro is based on his appearance on Battleworld, first appearing in Kablam's Contest of Champions mobile game, before being adapted for Al Ewing's Contest of Champions ongoing series. The design was inspired by his Fallen Hero Armor first seen on the original 1997 figure, with a new suit of armor inspired by Iron Man which was often adorned throughout his appearances with various additional accessories and trophies. The figure features a new head sculpt on top of a remold of the Marvel Now Hulk figure, which was itself a heavy retool of the Marvel Universe Apocalypse figure, from which the Maestro takes his repainted hands. Newly sculpted forearm armor is added to help the hands mesh into the rest of the design.

The figure includes no accessories, as is traditional for a Marvel Universe figure of greater than average size, however the chest armor, cod piece and shoulder armor is one single overlay piece which can be removed. The underside is revealed to be an all black jumpsuit. The armor is designed to be flexible and thus provides minimal blockage to the movement of the joints.

The Incredible Hulk Through the Ages Boxset - Maestro (2013)
Maestro made his debut in the Marvel Minimates line of roughly 2" scale miniature figures in a Hulk themed four pack released in 2013, The Incredible Hulk Through the Ages, which also included Barbarian Hulk, Joe Fixit and Composite Hulk. Maestro shares the same core body as every other Minimates figure- but like other larger scale characters, the mold underneath is left featureless and separate pieces representing a larger scaled torso and limbs are placed over top to give him greater height and mass at the cost of some range of articulation. Maestro is based on his original appearance in the Future Imperfect storyline.

Like all Minimates boxsets, there are numerous accessories, most of which are left unlabeled allowing them to be used by any of the figures in the set. The ones intended for Maestro includes an alternate head and arm piece to recreate the posed drape of Maestro's formal cape. The entire cape assemblage can be removed and he includes a swappable normal forearm to create his normal appearance throughout the run. He also includes two head pieces - one based on his crown, and one that replicates his balding head. The figure also includes a special stand to store three included trophies from fallen heroes - a cracked Iron Man helmet, Mjolnir, and a scuffed up Captain America shield. There are also four of the Minimates traditional round, clear stands which Maestro can peg into included with the set.

Marvel Minimates Wave 64 - Wastelands Wolverine and Dystopia Hulk (2016)
Maestro would reappear in the main series of Minimates two-packes, released in 2016's Secret Wars themed Wave 64, and this time sporting his new, more modern appearance which first debuted in said crossover. This figure, now referred to as "Dystopia Hulk", is paired with Old Man Logan, labeled "Wastelands Wolverine". Like his previous release, Dystopia Hulk is based on the standard Minimates body with alternate larger limb pieces and a torso overlay to increase his mass.

Dystopia Hulk himself includes no additional accessories, aside from the traditional Minimates clear round base, though he retains the removable bare head piece from the Hulk Through the Ages boxset, repainted to match this release's more muted color scheme.

This same two pack was released as part of the 21st wave of Toys'R'Us store exclusive waves as well, but there were no changes between the Toys'R'Us release of the set and the wide retail release. Instead, the Toys'R'Us wave retained this and one other set from the normal wave, and included a third entirely original set featuring Iron Spider and Spider-Gwen shipped alongside them.

Maestro - Mutations and Monsters #60 (2007)
Maestro made his debut within the long-running Heroclix collectible tabletop game, where he appeared in 2007's joint X-Men and Hulk themed set, Mutations and Monsters, where he was a Super Rare rarity figure and #060 overall in the set. He has a cost of 195 points, and has synergy tags for characters from the Future, Monsters and Rulers. The figure is loosely based on the character's original appearance in the Future Imperfect storyline.

Maestro has access to multiple abilities including Leap/Climb, Charge, Rage/Flurry, Super Strength, Willpower, Regeneration and Battle Fury. He possess the trait "Emperor" which grants him the Impervious status, and "Survivor" which grants him Invulnerability. He also possesses the ability Gamma Saturated, allowing Maestro to use Quake and Super Strength, gives Maestro a power action and optionally allows him to make a close combat attack as a free action; with a modification to his attack value by +2 for the action.

Maestro - The Mighty Thor #56 (2017)
Maestro was released for a second time in the Heroclix collectible tabletop game as part of The Mighty Thor expansion set, released in 2017 to tie into the release of the Thor: Ragnarok Marvel Cinematic Universe film. Maestro is a Super Rare rarity figure released as figure #56 in the set. The figure is also available in three forms, with each having a different cost to allow you to balance your teams to accommodate him, available in 100, 175 and 250 points, with each variant changing his abilities and skills. The figure was based on the character's redesign from the Secret Wars event.

Maestro uses the Keyword tags Brute, Future, Monster and Ruler. The 100 cost version the figure features the abilities "Improved Movement" which ignores any Hindering Terrain and automatically destroys any Blocking Terrain as Maestro moves through it, and "A Trophy Room Full of Toys" which grants the figure Colossal Stamina, and allows you to include up to 3 Equipment-Objects that each cost 10 points or less in your Sideline during the construction of your force. When placing objects during game setup, you may place one of these objects in addition to your other placed objects.

The two more expensive variants of Maestro includes an additional two abilities, "This Place is Already A Wreck, What's A Bit More Destruction?" which grants him Charge, Flurry and Force Blast, and establishes that if a character Maestro knocks back is stopped by a square of blocking terrain, destroy that terrain, then place that character in that square and, after resolutions, deal that character 1 penetrating damage, and "I'll Show You How It's Done" which grants him Leadership, and whenever Maestro utilizes the ability successfully is able to remove an action token from the figure.

Maestro - Secret Wars: Battleworld #38 (2018)
Maestro's third figure released in the Heroclix collectible tabletop game was released in 2018's Secret Wars themed set, Secret Wars: Battleworld. Maestro is an Uncommon rarity figure and released as figure #38. The figure has two variations to allow more variety in the version of teams he can be added into, with different abilities and stats, with one version costing 100 points and the other costing 175. The figure itself is a remold of the common Worldbreaker, figure #13 from the same set, and as such still features the gladiator armor of that figure.

Maestro uses the Keyword tags Battleworld: Other, Brute, Future, Monster, Ruler. The 100 cost version features the abilities Improved Movement as a mobility ability granting him the Elevated and Hindering statuses, and "Baron of Battleworld" which grants Leadership and Perplex, and allows Maestro to use Perplex to target another character and instead modify a combat value except damage +2 if the target shares a Battleworld keyword or -2 if it has a different Battleworld keyword. "I Am Inevitable" allows Maestro to steal Energy, while "Still Standing?" is a free ability that allows him to make a close attack. Finally the figure includes "I'm Coming For You" which allows Maestro to move through Blocking Terrain and, after the movement action is resolved, destroys all the Blocking Terrain passed through.

The 175 cost variation uses the same abilities, and just features better stats on his dial instead.