HOBGOBLIN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Deploying an eerie arsenal of pumpkin bombs and razor-sharp bats from his goblin glider, the criminal mastermind Hobgoblin has Spider-Man constantly on his guard!”

In preparation for this review, I realized that I haven’t actually reviewed a Hobgoblin figure since 2015’s Build-A-Figure of the Phil Urich version of the character.  On one hand, that seems like forever ago, but on the other, I suppose there really aren’t that many Hobgoblins for me.  To be honest, I do generally gravitate more to Green Goblin proper, rather than his runner up, so I don’t have a ton of them in my collection.  Further more, the last Legends release was part of one of the most scarcely distributed assortments of the current line, so he wasn’t exactly easily found.  It’s cool, though because there’s a new one.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hobgoblin is the second of the three villains in the latest Spidey-themed Retro assortment of Marvel Legends.  This marks the third Hobgoblin in the modern line, following the Build-A-Figure in 2015 and the more classic version in 2016.  He continues the trend of 6-inch Hobgoblins each being different incarnations of the character, meaning they could all theoratically be different people, I suppose.  This one’s based on the incarnation seen on the cartoon most specifically, which fits with the design of the packaging and all.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  As with the last Hobgoblin (and the last two Green Goblins, for that matter), this figure is built on a Bucky Cap-centric body, specifically the less muscular torso first use of Dr Strange.  Since they’re going for more of an animated look, this one gets the standard arms and legs, rather than the scale-mail ones that the other Goblins got.  Less going on visually, but it’s also more accurate, and it does also give him some slight variance from Green Goblin from the same line.  He gets the cape, hood, satchel, and belt from the prior Hobgoblin, which are still good fits.  The head beneath the hood is similar to the more classic Goblin head from the last figure, but it’s a distinctly different.  It’s a pretty nice sculpt, and matches well with the character, so I can definitely get behind that.  Hobgoblin’s color work is rather on the basic side.  Mostly, it’s just molded colors.  They match the animation look, so it’s very bright.  Brighter, perhaps, than Hobgoblin tends to be, but it’s certainly eye-catching, and a good callback to the old figure.  Hobgoblin is packed with a glider and a pumpkin bomb.  The glider has trouble working with the standard Bucky Cap feet, so he’s not very easy to get balanced, and he doesn’t really stay in place very well, which is kind of a shame, because it’s a good looking sculpt.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As touched on in the intro, I’m not the biggest of Hobgoblin fans, and even within the whole Hobgoblin set-up, I’m more of a fan of the Urich version of the character.  All that said, I was still a little bummed about missing the Space Venom Series version.  I was glad about getting another chance at a more classic version of the character at the very least.  He’s a pretty by the numbers figure, all things considered, and in an assortment of slightly more inventive figures, he’s maybe not the flashiest or most showy, but he’s a decent follow-up to the old Toy Biz figure.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.