Monthly Archives: March 2022

#3044: Ben Reilly Spider-Man

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

BEN REILLY SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“After years of self-imposed exile, Spider-Man is back! Now calling himself Ben Reilly, and sporting a brand-new costume and web-shooters, the Wall-Crawler returns to fight crime!”

In the midst of the monster of a cross-over that was “The Clone Saga”, there was a big shocking twist, revealing that Ben Reilly, the clone of Peter Parker, with whom the audience had just become re-acquainted, wasn’t a clone at all, but was the original Peter, and, by extension, the Peter the audience had been following for 20 years, was actually a clone.  With this (obviously temporary) revelation, our Peter stepped down from the role of Spider-Man, leaving it to Ben, who would take over the Spider-titles for a year, up until the ultimate conclusion of the Clone Saga, which saw Ben’s demise.  But, of course, no one stays dead in comics, and so Ben came back.  He re-adopted the Spider-Man title quite recently, making it the perfect time to revisit his time as Spidey in figure form.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ben Reilly Spider-Man is s the last of the three Spidey variants in the latest Spidey-themed Retro assortment of Marvel Legends. He’s the second version of the Ben Reilly Spidey in the Legends line-up, following up on the one from the Absorbing Man Series in 2016.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  He marks the third figure on the updated Retro Spidey body, following regular Spidey and the Symbiote costume.  This one uses all of the main retro body parts, as well as the exterior web shooters previously used with Scarlet Spider and the last Ben Reilly Spidey.  It’s a pretty by the numbers construction, which does about what you expect.  If I’m honest, it doesn’t work quite as well here.  The head sculpt and build on this figure are very much a Romita Spidey, and that doesn’t quite so much fit with the Bagley design.  He just feels too bulky for how Ben was usually depicted, at least to my eyes.  That said, it still makes for a decently assembled figure, even if it’s not one that’s quite as ripped from the pages as the others.  Ben’s paint work is generally pretty decently handled.  It brightens up the colors compared to the last one, which is different.  I’m not entirely sold on the colors, especially the blue, which does feel a touch too bright and also means this figure isn’t quite able to match the Spider-Carnage pieces from the last one, despite the larger build making more sense for that particular design.  Speaking of extras, this Spidey gets the full run of extra hands again, which is always nice to see.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really like the Ben Reilly Spider-Man design, and I really like it as an action figure.  That said, I was pretty happy with the last Legends release, and he’s definitely a solid instance for me of the Pizza Spidey really working in the appropriate context.  So, I was iffy on this one, but I still really like the design, so I grabbed it anyway.  I don’t like it quite as much as a standard Ben Reilly Spidey, but I do like it as a way to display the Spider-Carnage parts, even if the blues don’t quite match.  And, I’m glad there’s another Ben Reilly Spidey available to those that couldn’t get the last one.

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.

#3043: Hobgoblin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

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.

#3042: Symbiote Spider-Man

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

SYMBIOTE SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Spider-Man gets an all-new look when he finds a sleek black costume in a space shuttle wreck. Little does Spidey realize he’s joined himself to the predatory alien symbiote: Venom!”

In early 1984, after over 20 years of more or less just getting minor tweaks to the same basic design, Spider-Man debuted an all-new costume on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #252.  This black and white number would get its own origin story in the pages of Secret Wars later that year, where it was revealed that the suit was actually an alien symbiote, bonded to Peter during his stay on Battleworld.  He wound up keeping the suit for about 6 months, before discovering its true nature and ditching it.  Not long after, though, he took to wearing a cloth replica of the design, and actually stuck with that for another four years, making it a fairly lengthy run with the suit.  As such, it’s become a staple for toy coverage, meaning it gets trotted back out every so often to keep things fresh.  We got a standard Black Costume Spider-Man Legends release back in 2017, with a re-release in 2019, but with a new standard Spidey body out there, it’s time for another go at the design, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Symbiote Spider-Man is the second Spidey variant in the latest Spidey-themed Retro assortment of Marvel Legends.  Like the standard Retro Spidey before him, this guy looks the be the most-in-demand of this round of figures by quite a bit.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  He’s only the second figure to be built on the body that was debuted with the first Retro Spidey, which is at once surprising, and also appropriate, I suppose.  It’s nice to see it crop up again after such a big deal was made about it.  In contrast to the last Symbiote Spidey, who was a total re-use of parts, this one actually gets an all-new head sculpt.  While I was willing to live with the re-used Scarlet Spider head on the last one, I must admit, I was very happy about the all-new sculpt here, and it’s such a nice sculpt.  It really matches well with my ideal version of the black costume mask.  Beyond that, it’s just re-using the previous body.  While I find myself drawn more to the slighter build of the Pizza Spidey body for a basic Spider-Man, it did perhaps mak the Symbiote design look a little scrawnier than he should have been.  The slightly bulked up body works really well with the design.  The figure’s paint is on the basic side, as is best with the Symbiote look.  No blue accents or anything to muck things up, and the application on the white is pretty sharp.  The eyes are notably a more glossy finish, which adds a nice bit of pop to the head.  Symbiote Spider-Man is packed with three different sets of hands, and can I just say how glad I am that all of the hands are back again?  It was a major nick against the last Retro Spidey was that he didn’t have the open gesture hands, so I’m really psyched that the whole spread is here this time.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Something about the Sandman Series Symbiote Spidey always just slightly missed the mark for me.  He was decent, but just not quite there.  Likewise, I kind of felt that way about the previous Retro Spidey.  So, this was a combo that I was iffy on, but it really, really works.  Legitimately the best version of this costume design, at the very least in Legends form, and certainly the best version I own.

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.