SPIRAL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Spiral, Mojo’s deadly enforcer, possesses additional cybernetic limbs, powerful mystic abilities, and a deep enmity for her former flame, Longshot.”

The residents of Mojo World have an interesting relationship with time travel, especially when it comes to recursiveness and stable time loops.  Obviously, the tip of that particular iceberg is certainly the Longshot/Shatterstar “I’m my own Grandpa” loop, but Spiral’s got her own crazy loop of events too, and one that’s especially intricate and involved for a character that’s as minor in the grand scheme of things as Spiral.  She sure looks cool, though.  Makes for a good toy as well.  Those are important factors around these parts.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spiral is another figure in the latest series of retro-inspired X-Men Marvel Legends.  Technically, while Spiral was included in the vintage ToyBiz line which the packaging is homaging, she was after the switch-over to the generic Wolverine header style card, so there’s not a direct equivalent in this set-up.  This is Spiral’s second time as a Legend, following up on the one from early in Hasbro’s run.  It’s been a good 15 years since that one, though, and that’s a lot of time for some progress.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has a quite astounding 56 points of articulation.  Previous figures with additional arms, going as recent as the Six-Armed Spidey mold, have had some sort of trade-off on the movement to offset the extra appendages, but Spiral bucks that trend by getting all of the articulation that would be top of the line for a standard figure, and then getting four fully articulated arms on top of that.  And it’s all in a standard retail package.  So, clearly to offset all of this articulation, she’s got a lot of parts re-use, right?  In fact, she doesn’t appear to have any re-used parts at all.  And, she’s sporting a pretty darn good sculpt at that.  The last Legends Spiral struggled a bit with how to work in the two extra arms on each side, resulting in a rather notable hunch to her back.  This one still has the tiniest bit of that, but it’s far less pronounced, and the arms just fit much closer together.  The new head sculpt foregoes the last one’s removable helmet feature, which is honestly just a better choice.  She’s rarely seen helmetless in the comics, and this allows the helmet to be better scaled to the head, and it also prevents it from falling off all of the time, which was a common issue with the last one.  Spiral’s outfit is a pretty simple one in a broader sense, made more interesting here thanks to the smaller details; the seams running down the sides of the legs in particular stand out as a detail that helps to add a grounding feel to a design that’s otherwise a rather absurd concept.  A lot of Spiral’s color work relies on molded plastic, presumably to help offset the costs just a touch.  She does get a little bit of paint work, and apart from some slightly inconsistent coverage on her belt buckle, it’s all pretty cleanly handled.  Spiral makes out pretty well on the accessories front, which is another pleasant surprise.  She gets four of the Deadpool-style long katanas, plus Angela’s broadsword and axe-thingy.  She also gets two extra hands…which feels a bit silly, if I’m honest.  Like, I’m not knocking getting spares, since all six arms just get gripping hands.  That said, one is for her metal arm, which is on the left, and the other is a non-metal one…which is also a left.  I feel that at least doing one right and one left would be more sensible, or, quite frankly, leaving out the extra hands all together, since it’s hardly like she’s hurting for accessories or perceived value without them.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always liked Spiral as a concept, but her figures have never really done anything to wow me.  This one was a different case from the start.  She just looked really cool, and was definitely high on my want list for this round.  Wow, is this an impressive figure.  Hasbro really pulled out all the stops, making unquestionably the definitive Spiral, as well as one of their best Legends in general.

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 and their eBay storefront.