Tag Archives: Gwen Stacy

#2676: Gwen Stacy

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

GWEN STACY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Intelligent and quick-witted, Gwen Stacy has a sharp sense of humor and is a natural leader.”

While Into the Spider-Verse was a rather loose adaptation of the Spider-Verse crossover in terms of most of its elements, one piece it did lift essentially wholesale was the super-heroic version of Gwen Stacy, affectionately known as “Spider-Gwen,” whose role and background are effectively the same for the purposes of the story.  Admittedly, she’s a pretty great concept, so it’s hard to blame them for keeping her more or less the same.  And, as part of the film’s main trio of protagonists, it’s also hard to blame them for pushing her when it comes to the toys.  She’s no stranger to Legends at this point, but one more certainly can’t hurt, can it?  However, we’re not *just* talking about Gwen here, are we?  No, of course not, because Gwen doesn’t actually come packed on her own!  Following the lead of the Hot Toys figure (I guess; is it still following the lead if your product beats the “lead” by, like, a year?), Gwen gets packed in with fellow Spider, Spider-Ham, another character not too terribly changed for the movie.  What a pair they are!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gwen and Spider-Ham collectively represent figure 2 in the Stilt-Man Series of Marvel Legends, and are the second piece of the four figure Spider-Verse tie-in for the line.  Though both characters are included, this is definitely being billed as a Gwen figure with a Spider-Ham pack-in, and less as a proper two-pack.  As such, Gwen is a more proper figure, standing 5 3/4 inches tall and sporting 29 points of articulation.  She’s in her main costumed look from the movie, since she’s got less looks than Miles, and this is the one that she spends most of her time in anyway.  Structurally, this figure winds up having a lot in in common with the last two Spider-Gwens.  Unlike Miles, for whom the straight repaint from the two pack was pretty far off the mark, Gwen’s design falls a little more in line with the traditional base bodies for the line, so the re-use is a little more excusable.  That doesn’t mean she’s all re-use, though, as the head, upper torso, hood, and lower legs are all new pieces, with the aim of making her that much more film accurate.  Additionally, her legs have been modified to remove the visible pins on either side of the knee, brining her in line with the rest of the modern sculpts.  It’s minor, but much appreciated.  The head and hood are separate pieces, but not as easily separated from each other as earlier versions.  The hood hangs a touch closer to the masked head than it does in the film, but the general appearance works pretty well, and fits the overall clean aesthetic.  The new upper torso slims and streamlines the figure a bit further, again bringing her more in line with that animated look.  It’s pretty basic, but it gets the job done.  The new legs give Gwen her ballerina shoes from the film, one of the more notable design changes from the source material.  I also found that these new feet made the figure a little more stable when standing, which I definitely appreciated.  Gwen’s paintwork is pretty basic, and does suffer from a few spots of fuzziness.  It is, however, a notable improvement on the prior Gwen figure, and just generally pretty good overall.  It is lacking the pattern on the black sections, but given they’re black, this detail isn’t too obviously missing.  Gwen gets an extra unmasked head, a hood pulled down, and two pairs of hands in both fists and thwipping poses.  The unmasked head is actually my preferred of the two heads included, and is a very spot-on recreation of Gwen’s design from the movie, with a solidly rendered paint job to boot.  I was very happy about both sets of hands being included, since the last Gwen only got one of each style.  Gwen is also packed with the torso for the Stilt-Man Build-A-Figure, and, of course, Spider-Ham.

Spider-Ham himself is more figurine than figure.  He’s 2 1/2 inches tall and has a single point of articulation, that being a ball joint at his neck. He is otherwise limited to the hands on his hips pose he’s sculpted into.  Given the build and size of the character, this isn’t the worst thing, because it at least allows him to keep his look alright aesthetically.  One of the biggest issues with the single release Spider-Ham was that, worse than his lack of general movement was how badly worked in the articulation was into the sculpt.  At least in this case, he’s just not mobile from the start.  This results in the sculpt being fairly film accurate, and it also results in a figure that’s better scaled to his compatriots.  And sure, he’s got sculpted webbing again, but it’s at least recessed instead of raised, making it easier to fix the lack of painted lines this time if you were so inclined.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m a big fan of the Spider-Gwen design, and I appreciated the changes they made for the animated version.  I’ve actually looked at the two pack version a few times, and been quite tempted by it, but it’s quick jumps in price and lack of a properly updated unmasked head held me back.  I was quite pleased to see her shown off with the rest of the set, though I’ll admit I didn’t give her quite as much thought as some of the others in the set, given her general similarities to the prior figures.  In hand, I really like how this figure turned out, and she’s actually my favorite of the Spider-Verse set.  Plus, this gives me another shot at Spider-Ham, whose single release greatly disappointed me.  Sure, this one isn’t his own standalone thing, but that also means I didn’t end up dropping full price for him either, which certainly makes him a lot easier to enjoy.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with these figures for review.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2650: Ghost Spider – Maximum Venom

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

GHOST-SPIDER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When the Venom symbiote attaches to Gwen Stacy, she gains extreme new powers as Ghost-Spider.”

Remember everything I mentioned about Miles yesterday?  Yep, that pretty much all applies to today’s figure, except that now it’s about Ghost-Spider, aka Gwen Stacy going by her latest supranym.  Can we also, for a moment, bring up that Miles just gets his name on the box, but Gwen gets an up-to-the-minute super hero identity?  That seems unfair to at least one of them.  Not sure which, if I’m entirely honest, but it’s one of them.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ghost-Spider is figure 5 in the “Venompool Series” of Marvel Legends, and is the final figure in the set to contribute to the Build-A-Figure.  Like Miles, it’s our third Spider-Gwen, but the first not to be standard issue.  The figure stands 5 3/4 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  As with Miles, Gwen uses the same body as prior version of the character, but with a few new parts to properly Venomize her.  In her case, it’s a new head, upper torso, forearms, hands, and feet, as well as a new jacket overlay piece.  While Miles’ new parts were all very texture heavy and didn’t really mesh well with the old parts, Gwen’s are actually a bit more sleek and clean, meaning they line-up a bit better.  Aside from the tongue being a bit clumsy and hard to pose around, it’s actually a pretty cool looking design.  It’s more cohesive, and less of a direct take-off from the standard Spider-Gwen design, making it feel a lot more in line with the classic symbiote Spider-Man design, while still respecting the more character-specific elements of Gwen’s appearance.  Even the tongue’s not a terrible idea, just one that’s a little harder to do in toy form.  If it was posable in some fashion, I feel like it would be a bit better, but there are of course drawbacks to that approach as well.  The paint work on Gwen is also a bit more intriguing than on Miles.  It’s certainly got a better visual contrast to it, making it pop a bit more.  Application is pretty clean for the most part, although there’s a bit of slop around the edges of the hood.  Nothing terrible, but it could be cleaner.  Gwen is without accessories of her own, which is again a shame.  Certainly there was some extra they could have thrown in here?  She does at least get the torso and swords for Venompool, which is by far the largest section of the Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted yesterday, I’m not big on the Venomized figures.  That being said, Gwen’s design is a little more appealing to me, so I was slightly more interested.  In hand, I do quite like the figure. The tongue’s still weird, but the design translates well, and generally feels less lazy than Miles.  I’m glad I got this figure, and I’ll make space for her with my other Symbiotes.

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

#2535: Gwen Stacy

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

GWEN STACY

MARVEL LEGENDS RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

“A bright student with a keen scientific mind, Gwen Stacy is girlfriend to Peter Parker.”

Hasbro’s Retro Collection sub-line of Marvel Legends is loosely meant to replicate the Toy Biz toys of the ’90s, which typically means aping at least a little bit of what the ’90s cartoons were doing.  Today’s figure, however, kind of spits in the face of that whole thing, since by the time Toy Biz was making Marvel figures, Gwen Stacy was about two decades deceased, and Peter had been with Mary Jane Watson for about half of that time.  That, and the fact that Gwen was just a civilian with no costume or anything, meant that Gwen was absent from the Toy Biz Spider-Man line*.  Hasbro has, nevertheless, decided to include her in their latest round of Retro-inspired figures, and I’m not really going to fight them on any of it at this point.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gwen Stacy is the second figure in the recent Spider-Man-themed Marvel Legends Retro Collection assortment, which just started hitting retail in the last month or so.  She marks the second of the two figures I’ve looked at so far that don’t actually really fit in the packaging style the line is emulating, but, honestly, that’s become something of a running theme with these figures.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation.  Gwen uses the Phoenix body as a starting point, but is mostly made up of new parts, with only the legs and hands ultimately being re-used.  Everything else is new to this figure, and that’s probably for the best.  Gwen is seen here in her attire from “The Night Gwen Stacy Died,” a suitable choice for her, given it not only captures the spirit of the character well, but is also a pretty slick look, and by far her most memorable design.  The sculpt does a pretty solid job of capturing her design from the comics, and just generally making her look as one might expect Gwen to look.  There’s some really nice texture work on her sweater, and both her jacket and hair get a nice bit of dynamic flow to them, which helps keep her from looking too static.  The head sits a touch high on the neck for my taste, and I wouldn’t have minded seeing a different set of hands used (I’m getting a little tired of that splayed oped hand), but the sculpt is overall a good translation of her design into three dimensions.  Gwen’s paintwork is overall pretty solidly handled.  It’s clean, and it gets the job done.  I think I might have liked her jacket to maybe be a slightly brighter shade, just to give her a little bit more pop, but the application is all pretty clean, and she doesn’t look bad in the slightest.  In terms of accessories, Gwen gets a handful of items that all seem…misplaced?  The big one that caused a tiny bit of controversy was the Mary Jane head sculpt.  Some people misread it as Hasbro saying that Peter’s love interests are interchangeable, and were rather miffed at the thought of putting MJ in an outfit that is so clearly linked to Gwen.  Of course, I see it more along the lines of Mystique‘s Lilandra head, or Skullbuster’s Reese head, where they *can* be used on the body they’re included with, but are more meant to give collectors a head that can go on another body, effectively giving them two figures in one.  I myself like how the MJ looks on Jessica Jones’ body, albeit with a hand-swap as well.  Also included are a rolled up copy of the Daily Bugle, which feels more like a J Jonah Jameson bit than a Gwen one, a binder (which is admittedly the one inoffensive piece here), and a Midtown High School yearbook, which long-time Spider-Man scribe Dan Slott pointed out makes no sense for either Gwen or MJ, since neither of them actually went to Midtown High.  Odd choice.  Still, props to Hasbro for trying *something* I guess.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Gwen’s one of those figures that I wasn’t sitting there desperately waiting to get or anything, but that I was happy enough to see turn up in the line.  She’s a solid addition to the ever growing roster of civilian supporting cast members, and definitely a key character that deserves some proper toy coverage.  Her accessories are maybe a little odd-ball, but they don’t detract from the core figure, and I’m pretty happy to at least get the MJ head as an option, given I never got the two-pack version back in the day.

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

*Gwen did eventually get the Toy Biz treatment in their Silver Age line, one of their many one-off lines distributed through specialty retailers, so she wasn’t entirely left out of the fun.

#2409: Masked Spider-Man & Gwen Stacy

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

MASKED SPIDER-MAN & GWEN STACY

MARVEL MINIMATES

In its second year, Marvel Minimates worked to fill in some of the gaps left by its first year, but also looked to find its footing and how to successfully carry on a brand when you’ve already put out a lot of the heavy hitters.  For their first series in the second year, they had a theme of “retread and new” to their pairings.  This was already visible with the Doc Ock and Unmasked Spidey set from last week, and it becomes even more obvious with today’s set, Masked Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Masked Spidey and Gwen were released in Series 4 of the Marvel Minimates specialty line-up.  Gwen would remain exclusive to this particular assortment, but this version of Spidey wound up paired off with Series 5’s Wolverine variant for the Walmart/Target assortment.  Oh good, he was more places.

MASKED SPIDER-MAN

So, yeah, I’m wondering the same thing you’re wondering: isn’t “Masked Spider-Man” just a regular Spider-Man?  I mean, that would be my guess, but this figure seems to think otherwise.  I believe the figure was originally solicited as “Half-Masked Spider-Man”, and perhaps they realized this was too many words to fit on the packaging.  They were still committed to giving each figure a unique name, though, so “Masked Spider-Man” he became.  From the neck down, he’s the same as the other two non-battle damaged Spider-Men, which I guess is good for consistency.  It means that the majority of this guy is the same as a really good ‘mate.  But now he’s got his masked pulled up to reveal his mouth.  It’s not an uncommon look for the character, and was of course prominently featured in the first Spider-Man movie, so I guess it makes sense?  It would make more sense packed with an MJ, but I digress.  To further mix things up, this guy’s also got a new web-line piece.  Its attached to a hand, and the end of it is shaped to a Minimate torso, allowing him to grab them.  It’s probably the best thing about this figure.

GWEN STACY

After butchering poor MJ’s debut ‘mate, I guess DST felt the need to prove that not every woman in Peter’s life was a horrible monster mash.  So, we got a Gwen Stacy.  How about that.  Gwen didn’t have a costume, but DST opted to put her in the outfit that most people remember: the one she died in.  It’s got a distinctive flair to it, to be sure, and it’s certainly iconic.  Gwen is constructed from the usual base body, with add-ons for her hair, jacket, and skirt.  All of the add-ons were new for this release, and they look decent.  The jacket does really bulk her up, though, especially when compared to other supposedly larger characters, who were still just on the basic body.  Hey, that’s the difficulty of using the same base for everyone, I suppose.  Gwen’s paintwork is cleanly done, and pretty basic, but that’s honestly a good thing, because it’s really that too many details approach that messed up poor MJ.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have this set when it was new, but my brother did.  I myself was never majorly impressed by either figure included.  However, I found them from Luke’s Toy Store for really cheap, and I’ve been slowly filling out my early Minimates collection, so now I have them.  I still don’t find it to be a terribly exciting set.  Gwen’s okay, and honestly better than I expected, but Spidey’s just kind of pointless, even moreso than the unmasked figure from the same set.  Fortunately, they would learn how to make better Spidey variants as the line progressed.

#1882: Gwenpool

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

GWENPOOL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A self-made hero from the so-called real world, Gwenpool possesses unrivaled knowledge of the comic book universe.”

The original Gwen Stacy may have been dead for 45 years, but that hasn’t stopped all sorts of variants of her from popping up.  The most prominent of late is, of course, Spider-Gwen, who made her debut during 2014’s Spider-Verse event. The success of Spider-Gwen led to a series of Gwen Stacy-themed variant covers for the Marvel line, leading to the creation of the Deadpool/Gwen Stacy amalgam “Gwenpool.”  Gwenpool has been starring in a string of self-titled books since, and just recently joined up with the relaunched West Coast Avengers.  Oh, and she also has a Marvel Legend.  Yay!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gwenpool is figure 1 in the Lizard Series of Marvel Legends, which was our first Spidey-themed assortment of the year.  The figure stands just under 6 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  She’s built on the Spider-Girl body, which is sensible enough, given that’s the same body Hasbro used for Spider-Gwen.  It lends some consistency to the Gwen Stacy-take-off characters.  Gwenpool actually gets a fair quantity of new pieces to set her apart from all the other Spider-Girl builds.  There’s a new head, upper torso, forearms, shins, and feet, as well as add-ons for her belts and backpack.  The parts all mesh well with the base body, and do a pretty respectable job of melding Gwenpool’s typically cartoony style with the established stylings of modern Legends.  I really appreciate the little details that Hasbro has peppered throughout the sculpt, such as the piping on her socks under her shin guards.  I also really like the implementation of the new ankle articulation (like we saw previously on Moon Knight and Spider-Punk).  So, I guess, what I’m really getting at here, is that I quite like Gwenpool’s lower legs.  Just go with it.  The rest of the details are quite fun in their own right.  Her facial expression is a nice big smile that feels very true to the character as established in the comics.  I also really enjoy her penguin-shaped back pack.  Gwenpool’s paintwork is clean and appropriately pink-heavy.  Nothing particularly notable, but it works to get the job done.  Gwen includes a nice selection extra accessories, including an extra head (with tongue out for proper selfie etiquette), her phone (which can be nicely stashed in her utility belt), a pair of katanas, and three sets of hands (in heart-shaped, phone-holding/peace sign, and standard gripping poses).  It adds up to a rather expressive figure.  She is also packed with the tail of the Build-A-Figure Lizard.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve got no particular attachment to Gwenpool, so I didn’t rush out to buy her.  Sure, she came with a piece for Lizard, who I definitely wanted to build, but there was one other figure preventing me from completing him, so Gwen stuck nearer to the bottom of my want list.  When I was finally able to get ahold of that other figure (who I’ll be reviewing tomorrow…spoilers), Gwen was along for the ride, because, dammit, I was finishing that Lizard figure.  I may have only bought her for the Build-A-Figure piece, but Gwenpool is a fairly strong figure in her own right.

I got Gwen here from my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’re interested in buying Marvel Legends figures, or are looking for other cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#1753: Spider-Man & Spider-Gwen

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

SPIDER-MAN & SPIDER-GWEN

MARVEL AMAZING YAMAGUCHI (REVOLTECH)

While I’m familiar with Revoltech, I’ve not really jumped into the deep-end when it comes to their stuff.  I was quite a big fan of Assemble Borg, an in-house line of theirs, but my experience with licensed figures has so far been limited two their two Aliens offerings.  Outside of Aliens, perhaps the best way to pique my interest is Marvel, and as luck would have it, Revoltech has recently been offering up a line of Marvel comics-based figures, under their Amazing Yamaguchi banner.  Today, I’ll be looking at two such figures, Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen were released in Revoltech’s Marvel Amazing Yamaguchi line of figures.  They’re numbered 002 and 004 respectively.  Spider-Man arrived in early 2017, with Gwen arriving just a few months later (Venom bridged the gap between the two of them).

SPIDER-MAN

Spider-Man is, of course, no stranger to action figures.  In fact he’s usually on the short list whenever anyone picks up the license.  So, it’s not a shock that he was amongst Revoltech’s first two releases (supplanted only by fan-favorite Deadpool).  This Spider-Man appears to take inspiration from J. Scott Campbell’s version of the wall-crawler, with a little bit of Humberto Ramos’ very expressive version thrown in, and it’s all filtered through Revoltech’s usual style.  The point is, he’s definitely a very stylized figure, designed to fit specifically with the rest of Revoltech’s Marvel figures.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall (just a little shorter than Hasbro’s Pizza Spidey) and he has 43 points of articulation…theoretically.  He’s got a lot of joints (the majority of them are Revoltech’s signature Revolver joints), to be sure, but how they interact and are used is slightly different that your typical action figure.  Due to how the figure has been sculpted and how the Revolver joints are placed throughout the sculpt, you can’t really just pick this figure up and randomly pose him, the way you might with, say, a Marvel Legend.  You have to know what pose you’re going for, and sort of reconfigure him into that set-up.  In some ways, he’s a little more like a construction set that you can reassemble into different configurations.  The end result is a figure that can get into and hold some pretty spectacular and very Spidey-esqe poses.  He’s definitely dynamic.  By nature of the figure’s design, his sculpt is, overall, rather unimpeded by the articulation, though he is rather segmented.  Depending on how you have him posed, this segmentation isn’t as noticeable.  He’s very sleek, and there’s no denying that this is a very good looking figure.  His paint only adds to that.  The blue is nice and metallic, and the red has a satisfying glossy sheen, which only furthers the very slick stylings of this guy.  Accessories are another strong suit of this figure.  He includes four different sets of hands, in fists, open palm, web-shooting, and gripping.  The gripping hands don’t really have much practical use on this figure, but the rest are all pretty great.  The fists and the web-shooting hands have spots to plug in weblines, making for even more dynamic set-ups.  My personal favorites, however, are the open palmed ones, because they’re just very versatile.  There are two full-length weblines and two shorter ones, as well as one with a slight hook on the end, for actually using to hang the figure.  They definitely follow the Todd McFarlane style guide for webs, which is a good a good one to go by.  Perhaps the coolest extras included with this guy are the extra eyes.  Some of the recent Legends Spider-Men have experimented with extra heads with differing “expressions” on the eyes of his mask.  This takes that idea and runs with it, allowing for the eyes to be swapped out independently.  There are rather basic eyes included on the figure, plus squinting, wide-eyed, and “angry.”  You can mix and match as well, which certainly results in some amusing combos.  Lastly, the figure includes display stand with an articulated arm, so you can keep him in those more intense poses for longer.

SPIDER-GWEN

Who knew Spider-Gwen would take off quite as well as she has?  Marvel, apparently, since they actually managed to get her merchandising out there pretty darn quick for a brand new character.  Her Legends release hit shelves in record time, and this one wasn’t that far behind, hitting less than three years after her original appearance.  Gwen is actually a lot less stylized than Peter.  While she’ll still certainly fit in with him, she’s a lot more versatile than he is.  She stands about 5 3/4 inches tall (again, not much different from the Legends figure) and she has 45 points of articulation.  Unlike Peter, who has a bit of a learning curve attached to his articulation, Gwen’s actually fairly straight-forward.  Her articulation is far more intuitive, a lot smoother, and the joints are more carefully placed.  Where Spidey feels a little like the Revolver joints were added to a finished sculpt after the fact, Gwen definitely was sculpted with those joints in mind.  This is most clearly illustrated in the two figure’s knees.  On Spidey, the joints are set back behind the knee, and there’s this large flat gap that appears when the knee is bent.  On Gwen, her knees *are* the joints, and they work like actual knees.  No weird breaks in the sculpt necessary.  On the flip side, however, Gwen’s multi-part hood construction doesn’t work quite as well as the multi-part head/neck that Peter has.  For the most part you can make it look alright, but there are some angles where it just looks perpetually off.  Still, its hinged design is somewhat inspired, and I can tell they were trying for something a little better than how the hood was attached for the Legend.  There’s a bit more going on with Gwen’s paintwork than there was with Peter.  It’s all very clean, and the slight gradient of the pink around the eyes is very impressive.  There’s a slight bit of slop on the edges of the white parts, but it’s very minor, and not particularly noticeable.  There’s another very impressive accessory complement with Gwen.  She gets even more hands, with all of the same basic offerings as Peter, as well as an extra pointing hand for her right hand, and a left hand for holding her phone.  She then gets the aforementioned cellphone, two very dynamic web-lines, and two shorter ones for plugging into her web-shooter hands.  Instead of swappable eyes, Gwen features four different face plates to choose from.  There’s the basic eyes, the squinty eyes, the asymmetric eyes (by far my favorite), and a fully unmasked face.  The unmasked face is very stylized, and I find not particularly well-scaled to the body, but the other three plates work very well, and swap in and out without much trouble.  Lastly, Gwen also includes a display stand, for those prolonged poses, though she’s quite stable on her own.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In terms of 6-inch figures, my go-to for Marvel’s always going to be Marvel Legends.  When this line was announced and Deadpool and Spider-Man were unveiled as its first offerings, I wasn’t particularly sucked in, but I kept my eyes open to see what else they might be doing.  Upon seeing these two in-person, I was certainly intrigued.  Ultimately, I think your opinion on these figures is going to be heavily depended upon what you want from them.  Do you want something that looks good on your shelf and can hold extreme poses long-term?  These are for you.  Do you want a figure that you can just pick up and mess with from time to time?  These are less for you.  Ultimately, I’m more in that latter category.  As such, Gwen, the more traditional figure of the two, is definitely my favorite.  I can appreciate both for what they are, though, and there’s no denying that they’re both solid, well-made figures.

This pair aren’t from my personal collection, but were loaned to me for review by my friends over at All Time Toys.  If you’re interested in owning either of the figures reviewed here today, they’re both available individually from All Time’s eBay store.  And, if you’re looking for other toys, both old and new, please also check out All Time’s full eBay store front, and take a look at their webstore at alltimetoys.com.

#0888: Spider-Gwen

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

SPIDER-GWEN – EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

SpiderGwen1

Death in comics, particularly superhero comics, has long been considered a temporary thing. However, there are few characters that are more or less guaranteed to stay dead. For a long time, the list was Uncle Ben, Bucky, Jason Todd, and Gwen Stacy. Well, Bucky and Jason Todd have both found their way back to the world of the living, so they’re out of the club. Marvel’s pretty much never going to back down on Uncle Ben, and bringing back Gwen would, I guess, be viewed as a mistake. Fortunately, regular universe Gwen being all corpsified and gross doesn’t mean Marvel can’t use a Gwen Stacy. First they brought her back in the Ultimate universe, and more recently, an alternate, spider-powered version was introduced during the “Spider-Verse” event. She’s made a pretty speedy jump to action figure form, getting both a Minimate and a Marvel Legend n fairly short order. Today, I’ll be looking at the latter figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

SpiderGwen2Spider-Gwen is the second figure in the fourth series of the Spider-Man Marvel Legends Series line. She’s titled “Edge of Spider-Verse” on the front of the box, a name she shares with Ben Reilly Spider-Man (also, she’s named “Marvel’s Spider-Gwen” on the back, which I found a bit silly. Is there another Spider-Gwen that this one might accidentally be confused with?). The figure has a height of 5 ¾ inches and features 29 points of articulation. Gwen makes use of the Spider-Girl body as a base. Proportionally, this is still one of Hasbro’s best, so I’m always happy to see it turn up. It’s a good fit for Gwen’s design, too. She gets a new head and feet, and uses the right hand from the second Spider-Girl figure, as well as having an add-on piece for her hood. The hood has a little bit of trouble staying in place, but aside from that, the pieces are very nicely handled. Gwen’s paintwork is alright, but nowhere near as good as some of the other figures in this series. There are some nice touches, such as the slight pink misting around the eyes, and the overall look isn’t terrible. That said, there are more than a few sloppy lines, and the transitions from white to maroon are incredibly sloppy. Also, after keeping the webbing clean on their last few Spider-Men, it’s kinda slipped up here. There are also some spots with uneven coverage, particularly the black areas on the upper chest, which are a bit distracting. This is the sloppiest paint job I’ve seen from Hasbro in a while. Gwen was packed with an extra, unmasked head, as well as a pulled back hood piece to go with it. They’re both pretty nice, and they swap out fairly easily. I do wish that Gwen’s face was a bit more expressive, though. In addition, Gwen includes Absorbing Man’s ball-and-chain.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Spider-Gwen was definitely at the top of my want list for this series. I haven’t really followed the character’s solo adventures, but she was a lot of fun in “Spider-Verse,” and she’s got a pretty awesome costume design. Plus, she’s on the Spider-Girl body, which has resulted in some pretty awesome figures in the past. The sculpt is great, but the paint leaves a lot to be desired. I had thought this would be my favorite figure in the set, but she ended up being a bit lower on the totem pole. Overall, I enjoy this figure, though, and that’s the important part.

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#0706: Unmasked Black Costume Spider-Man & Gwen Stacy

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

UNMASKED BLACK COSTUME SPIDER-MAN & GWEN STACY

MARVEL MINIMATES

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Hey, you guys like Minimates, right? Well, if you’re still following this site at this point, you kind of have to, don’t you? Though Marvel Minimates based on the latest Marvel movie are more or less a certainty these days (unless you’re Fant4stic…), they weren’t always such. X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Hulk, and Fantastic Four all had to make due with loose, comic-based tie-ins. It wasn’t until Series 14’s X-Men 3 Minimates that we would see any direct representation, though that series sure did open the floodgates. It was followed shortly thereafter by a whole two series based on Spider-Man3, which included the pair I’ll be focusing on today, Unmasked Black Costume Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two were released as a two-pack in Series 18 of Marvel Minimates. Gwen was the regular release figure, who was swapped out for Mary Jane in the variant set. But, I don’t have Mary Jane, so…

UNMASKED BLACK COSTUME SPIDER-MAN

Spidey&Gwen2Wow, that’s a long name isn’t it? Need a few more adjectives there Pete? Trying to compensate for something? Every single pack in these two series featured a Spider-Man variant and he’s the one for this set. Yay. The figure is about 2 ½ inches tall and has the standard 14 points of articulation. He is, of course, based on the symbiote version of the Spider-Man costume, as seen in the third movie. He’s got a specially sculpted mask piece, with his mask part of the way rolled up. I’m not a fan of this piece; it’s awkwardly shaped, and, for some reason, the bottom, unmasked portion of his face is a part of the piece, making his head look really bloated. Also, given that this figure is packed with Gwen, one would presume the rolled up mask is meant to replicate their kissing scene from the movie. Except for one thing: Peter’s still wearing his normal costume at that point in the movie. So, I’m not really sure what this is meant to be. Overlooking the whole bit with the wrong costume, the paint on this figure’s not bad. The weblines are nice and clean, and the texturing on the unlined portions looks great. Under the mask is a Peter Parker face, with more or less the same expression as what’s on the bottom of the mask piece. It doesn’t really look much like Tobey Maguire, but it’s a decent enough Peter. The expression’s totally wrong for this costume, but oh well. The figure included a spare hairpiece, allowing him to actually live up to his name.

GWEN STACY

Spidey&Gwen3This was actually only the second time Gwen made into the Minimates line. This one’s based on her movie appearance, of course. Her inclusion as the heavier packed figure between her and Mary Jane was somewhat odd, seeing as she has a rather minor role in the film. That said, she was played up pretty heavily before the film’s release, so that probably influenced DST’s decision. She was based on her appearance from the previously mentioned “kissing scene” (which only further emphasizes Spidey being in the wrong costume). She’s built on the standard Minimate body, with add-ons for her hair, jacket, and skirt. All of these were new to this figure; they’re well sculpted, and they capture her look from the movie very nicely. The skirt would go on to become a standard piece, which is still in fairly current use, but the other parts remained unique to Gwen. The level of detailing on her hair and jacket is actually very nice, and marked the some of the Marvel Minimates line’s earliest transitioning into the more modern style of Minimates. Gwen’s paint work is fairly basic, but it does a pretty good job of translating her look from the movie into the ‘mate style. Her jacket could probably stand to be a few more shades removed from the flesh-toned plastic, but that’s a minor issue. The face has a rather good likeness of actress Bryce Dallas-Howard, which is good. Gwen included no accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this pair, as well as all of the other regular release Spider-Man 3 Minimates, as a Chritmas gift from my parents, the year they were released. Purely looking at the quality of the ‘mates, they’re pretty well done. The mask on Spider-Man is weird, but it’s easily swapped out for the much better looking hair piece that was included. Gwen is actually a pretty top-notch ‘mate, with some fantastic sculpted pieces, a good likeness, and pretty decent paint work. As a whole, though, neither of these two is particularly exciting. Maybe they would have fared better if they’d been packed with other figures.