SPIDER-MAN with REAL WEB-SHOOTING ACTION

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“Spider-Man gained his amazing powers when he was bitten by a radioactive spider! Now he’s super-strong, super-athletic, and able to crawl up any wall! Not only that, but he’s got an amazing “spider-sense” that warns him of trouble before it happens. To help him catch criminals, Spider-Man invented a secret weapon — web shooters that shoot out webbing at lightning speed. In fact, the webbing is so strong that it can trap even the toughest super-powered enemy! ”

Though typically more of a solo hero, Spider-Man’s spot as Marvel’s top super hero has frequently been leveraged in the world of merchandising as a way to get the other heroes in the door, rather than jumping straight to just the Spidey-exclusive stuff.  This was especially evident with Toy Biz’s early run with the license, where their main Marvel line was still very heavily leveraged on Spidey.  The first assortment of Marvel Super Heroes just had one Spidey and one antagonist for him, but as the line progressed, both the web-slinger and his nemeses became more plentiful.  Here’s one of the first “variant” Spider-Man figures, quite a novel thing at the time.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Man with Real Web-Shooting Action was one of two Spidey variants in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line.  Since the figure in Series 1 was a bit more general purpose, Series 2 focused on recreating specific powers via gimmicky action features.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation.  At this point in the line, Spidey was still operating on the same articulation scheme as everyone else.  Likewise, he’s using a variation of the Series 1 molds for the character, which also have a lot more in common with everyone else in the line than they do later Spider-Men.  That means he’s rather chunky, oddly proportioned, and very stiff.  None of that really adds up to the ideal sort of Spider-Man.  This is especially notable on the head, which is small, has a very long, but also very thick neck, and just generally doesn’t look like any notably incarnation of Spidey’s quite distinctive mask.  He does at least have the benefit of losing the obvious suction cups present on the original figure’s hands, so his left hand is now just a flat hand with noting attached to it.  Unfortunately, to facilitate his action feature, his right arm is totally straight, at an odd angle in relation to the rest of the body, and his hand permanently has a big whole in the front of it.  Also, his hand is in a fist, as opposed to, oh, I don’t know, maybe the very distinctive pose his hand is usually in when he’s shooting web?  Weird choice.  His color work is…fine.  Much like the sculpting, it’s kind of weird and off kilter, and the web lines of the costume don’t really line up with usual depictions of his look.  Also, it’s very fuzzy on the lines, which makes the whole thing look wonky.  In accordance with his “Real Web-Shooting Action,” Spidey includes missile with a rubber “web” attachment on the front.  Look, I don’t want to split hairs here, but, umm, that’s not a “real web-shooting action.”  Because a missile isn’t “real” web.  So, you know, weird choice of words.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The MSH Spider-Men are an interesting and eclectic bunch of figures that generally all look very similar and are easily confused.  Also, they all have completely different selections of accessories that don’t really correspond with the main figure, which can be extra confusing.  Several years ago, a bunch of the MSH figures got traded into work, and there was a bag specifically of Spider-Men, which I of course grabbed.  This was the only one in the bag that was complete.  It’s not a great figure.  it’s not even a good figure.  You might call it a bad figure.  But, it’s also one of the first Spider-Man variants, and so it’s neat and sort of quaint.  Earnest, perhaps.  So, we’re gonna let it have that.