Tag Archives: Spider-Girl

#3908: Peter B. Parker & Mayday Parker

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

PETER B. PARKER & MAYDAY PARKER — ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

S.H. FIGUARTS (BANDAI)

The two Spider-Verse films we’ve gotten thus far have both had a lot of importance placed on growth of characters and definitively moving them forward in their own narratives.  In a world of super hero movies that change the main heroes’ costumes purely for the sake of change, it’s nice to see an approach that works those changes more into the story, and how it affects the characters.  Into the Spider-Verse showcases a Peter Parker at his lowest point.  He’s alone, out of shape, and disheveled, and spends a good portion of the film in a makeshift outfit that further emphasizes that.  Across re-introduces us to Peter as he’s well into his way of recovering, and he’s so not alone that he’s literally got another person strapped to his chest for most of his screen time!  Despite him being more on the mark and put together this time around, Peter B. Parker was surprisingly absent from the toy coverage for Across, with most of his figures actually being repurposed looks from the first movie.  He got a Pop, which is great if you like Pops, but then it was a rather long wait for a proper figure.  Bandai ultimately took the lead this time, with a figure from their SH Figurarts line, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Peter B. Parker & Mayday Parker are part of the larger sub-line of Across the Spider-Verse figures in the SH Figuarts line-up.  This is the latest of the figures to hit, and it’s the seventh in the set.  Certainly a more in-depth line-up than the prior movie.  Though billed as a two-pack, the set is really a Peter B with a Mayday accessory, so I’ll be treating it that way for the purposes of the review set-up.  Peter stands just over 7 inches tall and he has 40 points of articulation.  Figuarts has always occupied a sort of nebulous “1/12 scale” space, which can make scaling with other nebulous “1/12 scale” lines sometimes hit or miss.  What’s curious about the Across figures is that they land on the opposite end of the nebulous range than usual.  Relative to, say, Marvel Legends, Figuarts tend to run a bit on the smaller side, but Peter here winds up taller than all of the standard sized Legends for the movie.  Not so much so that you can’t fudge things a bit, but it’s a little funny to see him end up taller than Miguel.  Also, it’s not like they’re designed to scale with each other in the first place, but I did find it amusing.  Peter’s articulation is generally decent for a Figuarts release.  They’re definitely less floppy and sort of weird in their articulation schemes these days, so he feels a bit more naturally flowing and intuitive.  I still had some slight issues with stability, especially in the more intense Spidey-style poses, but it generally works okay.  The sculpt is totally new, and it’s doing a few different things at once.  Right out of the box, he’s just a standard Spider-Man in the movie style.  It’s a good match for the film design in terms of proportions and stylization.  The texturing is quite impressive, and there’s a lot of neat visual filler that keeps him interesting.  His build shows that he’s certainly working on getting into better shape then he was in Into, but he’s not quite back to Peter A levels, and I like that.  But, that’s just standard Spidey, and nobody’s really buying this one for a standard Spidey, right?  No, we want the goofy, more put-together, but still disheveled look.  To that end, this figure gets two alternate unmasked heads (with a corresponding neck piece with a lower collar), ungloved hands, and an alternate set of lower legs with socks and slippers instead of boots.  The unmasked heads give us Peter with a more neutral slight smile and with a more intense opened mouth laugh.  Both are very much on model and keep things nice and internally consistent.  The legs are goofy, and fun, and I like them a lot.  And it’s all topped off with the most important part of the whole ensemble: the pink bathrobe.  It’s quite a statement piece and neat counterpoint to his green jacket from Into.  Here, it’s a soft goods piece, which makes a lot of sense.  It’s very soft and fuzzy, and there’s a wire in it for dynamic posing.  Peter’s paint work is all pretty top-notch.  The work on the unmasked heads is by far the best, but even the suit is clean and well-rendered.  As mentioned above, Peter gets all the parts for both of his looks, as well as six pairs of hands (four gloved in fists, thwipping, gripping, and open gesture, two ungloved in open gesture and relaxed), the wrist bracelet goober thingy, and three different weblines.  The weblines are ultimately a bit unimpressive compared to others we’ve seen, but I don’t see myself using them anyway.  The most important selection of extras is Mayday and her associated parts.  The main Mayday is done up in a crawling pose, and is jointed at the neck and waist.  While the arms and legs are separate, they have rectangular pegs, so they can’t be posed, which is kind of a shame.  She does get two heads, so you can do with or without the hat.  Why you’d leave off the hat is anyone’s guess, but the option’s there.  Also included is the carrier for Mayday, which can be attached to the main Peter figure.  There’s a special neck piece that goes in that one of the two heads can be attached to (the hat fits better than the one without), and you can move the arms and legs over as well.  It stays on pretty securely, and scales well to the other figure.  It’s also relentlessly adorable.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Across the Spider-Verse was a well-timed movie for me, because I also had a daughter in the spring of 2023, and Mayday reminded me very, very much of her.  For Halloween that year, my mom knitted Aubrey a spidey hat, and I stole my wife’s pink bathrobe, so that we could be Peter and Mayday, and I assure you, we were also relentlessly adorable.  As we have become rather linked to the look, getting a figure of it was kind of important.  I have the Pop, but it’s just not the same, so I realized I was going to have to make the jump to Figuarts.  But, Rachel and Aubrey got ahead of me on that one, and this was my birthday gift from the two of them this year.  It’s awesome.  I’ve got some quibbles, but they’re minor, and this figure just does so much right.  Just a ton of fun.

#3436: Spider-Girl

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

SPIDER-GIRL

MARVEL COMICS 2 1ST APPEARANCES (TOY BIZ)

“May ‘Mayday’ Parker is the daughter of Peter Parker, the one true Spider-Man. Like her famous father, she has the proportionate strength, speed, agility, and early warning danger sense of a spider and she can crawl up walls. May first became a costumed crime fighter in order to save her parents from an attack by the Green Goblin and now uses her powers to continue her retired father’s battle against the forces of evil, while still trying to maintain a normal life as a teenager.”

During the continuity dumpster fire that was “The Clone Saga,” one of the story elements introduced to give the “real” Peter Parker a reason to pass the role to Ben Reilly involved Peter and Mary Jane having a child. By the end of the story, the child seemingly died, leaving Peter and MJ childless and carefree(ish) once more. The whole angle was rather quickly revisited in the pages of What If…?, and proved popular enough to launch a whole line of alternate universe stories, dubbed “MC2.” Central to the whole thing was Peter and MJ’s daughter, now a teenager, going by Spider-Girl. While the rest of the universe did well enough, Spider-Girl was a break away hit. Her series ran 100 issues, and she’s even made return appearances in crossovers such as “Spider-Verse” and “Spider-Geddon”. She’s had a few figures over the years, including he debut figure during Toy Biz’s 5-inch days, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Girl was part of the four figure Marvel Comics 2 First Appearances line, offered up in 1999 as a Previews-exclusive.  She’s by far the star piece of the set, and is one of two Spider-Girl figures offered that year (and one of three Mayday Parker figures, if you count the Earth X Venom), with the other being the similarly PX-exclusive Famous Covers figure.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 13 points of articulation.  She represents Toy Biz experimenting a bit with articulation, before going totally crazy with Spider-Man Classics and Marvel Legends, so she’s a bit more mobile than the average 5-incher, albeit with the v-hips that I don’t generally dig.  At least everything else distracts from them, I suppose.  Spider-Girl was a mix of old, new, and shared parts.  The beginnings of her sculpt come from the Alpha Flight line’s Snowbird, from whom she borrows her arms and most of her legs.  She gets a tweaked torso piece, which she shared with the Greatest Moments Dark Phoenix figure from the same year.  She also gets her own head and feet, as well as add-ons for the web-shooters.  The head is basic, but different from the Spidey heads, which is cool, and the feet are flat-footed, rather than high-heeled, making her a far more stable figure than the others built from similar parts.  It’s all a pretty solid recreation of her comics design, and a pretty balanced looking figure overall.  Her paint work is actually rather decently handled; the webline detailing is all sharply applied, and the base colors don’t have any notable issues with slop or bleed over.  There’s a little bit of wonkiness on how her spider-emblem is placed, but it generally works.  In terms of coloring, there were two different color set-ups for the Ben Reilly costume at this point, so this figure sort of splits the difference between the two, which is honestly the best of the three choices, really.  Spider-Girl was packed with a large web piece, as well as a trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I very much recall when these figures were released, but I didn’t read any of the comics at the time, so I didn’t know any of the characters, and as such I passed on the whole lot.  I’ve come to regret that a bit over the years.  Thankfully, I’ve been able to slowly piece together a full set.  Spider-Girl was the second of them I got, grabbed from a comic store that was doing a clearance on a bunch of 5-inch Marvel figures, in fact.  She’s honestly a pretty great figure, especially for the time.  Also, fun fact: I shot these photos with the assistance of my daughter Aubrey, who was absolutely fascinated with her the whole time!

#0541: Spider-Girl – Warriors of the Web

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

SPIDER-GIRL – WARRIORS OF THE WEB

MARVEL LEGENDS INFINITE SERIES

MayDay1

Comics, as a medium, operate on a strange sort of compressed/decompressed timeline. Since we only see the characters once a month, their lives move much slower than our own. Sometimes, this works to the story’s advantage. It allows the characters to remain in their prime for much longer. Sometimes, however, creators like to show their characters aging, especially when you start building more than 20 or so years of stories. When your characters begin to age, sometimes the best course of action is to let someone else step into the mantle, creating legacy heroes. Typically, legacy heroes have been DC’s thing, what with their four Flashes and six Green Lanterns, but Marvel has gotten in on it a few times. In the 90s, they actually created an entire universe of legacies, dubbed MC2. It was set a little further in the timeline than the regular MU, and it focused on the children and successors of the Marvel Universe’s greatest heroes. The breakout character was May “Mayday” Parker, aka Spider-Girl, the daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane. She’s seen her fair share of action figure love over the years, and she just found her way into Marvel Legends, courtesy of the latest series of Hasbro’s Amazing Spider-Man Marvel Legends Infinite Series. Incidentally, she’s a completely different character from the last Spider-Girl I reviewed from this line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

MayDay2Spider-Girl is part of the second series of the Amazing Spider-Man Marvel Legends Infinite Series. She’s officially titled “Warriors of the Web,” a title that she shares with Ultimate Spider-Woman. However, as I noted when I reviewed Spider-Woman, the figures include completely different pieces to the Hobgoblin Build-A-Figure, and they are equally essential to completing said figure, unlike previous shared-name figures. I would guess that the shared name is purely to cut down on packaging printing costs. Spider-Girl stands just shy of 6 inches tall and she features 29 points of articulation. The figure uses the smaller female base body we first saw on the Arana Spider-Girl. I can’t say enough how much I love this base. It’s a well-sculpted, well-proportioned body, and it offers a lot of mobility. It’s a great choice for Spider-Girl. In addition to the base, Spider-Girl features a brand-new head and hands and a set of add-ons for her web cartridges. The head is fairly similar to the one we saw on the Spider-Man from this series. It’s simple, but very nicely handled. One minor nit: the socket for the neck joint isn’t set quite far enough up in the head, so she can look a little off in some poses. The hands are done in a web-shooting pose, and they’re pretty well sculpted as well. It would, however, be nice if she included another set of hands, as the double web-shooting hands do limit what can be done with the figure a bit. If Spidey can get three sets of hands, she should have at least two. The cartridges are nicely done, and I wonder if we might see them turn up again on a classic Black Widow in the near future. As far as paint goes, Spider-Girl is pretty good. The webbing isn’t quite as good as the normal Spider-Man, but it’s a definite step up from Superior. The reds on the legs/feet could also stand to be a little cleaner, but that’s minor. Spider-Girl includes no accessories of her own, which is a shame.  However, she does include the head and wings of the Hobgoblin Build-A-Figure, so there’s that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hey, do you know where I got Spider-Girl? Well, you should, because I’ve said it 13 times now. Yes, she’s from the full set of these that I ordered from Big Bad Toy Store. I didn’t really put a whole lot of thought into Spider-Girl before getting the set in hand. I’ve only got a marginal knowledge of the character. Still, I knew she had a decent fanbase, so seeing her eventually crop up in Legends was certainly not a surprise. Ultimately, this is a surprisingly well-done figure. Aside from the issue with the hands, there’s not really anything I can knock it down for. And that’s pretty darn good.

MayDay3

#0214: Spider-Girl – Skyline Siren

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

SPIDER-GIRL – SKYLINE SIREN

MARVEL LEGENDS INFINITE SERIES

Spider-Girl

Sometimes you buy a figure because it’s a character you love, or like, or at least decently interested in. Other times you buy a figure because it’s in a set with others you want or because it includes that final Build-A-Figure piece you’ve been looking for. On rare occasions, you buy a figure because it’s just that darn cool. Today’s figure is in the last category.

Don’t get me wrong, It’s not that I’m completely unaware of the most recent person to call herself Spider-Girl. In fact, I’ve even read a few of her comicbook appearances. She’s a perfectly entertaining character. Normally, I’d write a Backstory for a figure like this, but given my own lack of knowledge about the character, you might just be better googling her. Anyway, let’s take a look at why I bought the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Girl was released as part of the Amazing Spider-Man 2 Marvel Legends Infinite Series. She is labeled “Skyline Sirens” on the package, and appeared in the second wave of the series, as a replacement for the initial Black Cat figure. The figure stands a little under 6 inches tall and has 29 points of articulation. The body sculpt looks to be a 6-inch scaled version of the basic female body used for the Marvel Universe versions of Wasp and Scarlet Witch, but I’m not certain. I’m also not sure whether it’s been used on any previous figures. Regardless, it’s easily one of the best female body sculpts I’ve seen. The proportions aren’t 100% realistic, but they still look pretty good, and it doesn’t seem to have the short-armed problem present on the MU body. The figure is topped off with an awesome headsculpt, which is truly a beautiful piece of work. Female headsculpts tend to either look too man-ish or totally void of personality, but neither is an issue here. The paintwork is not quite as outstanding as the sculpt. She has some fuzzy lines in a few spots on her logo, and there are a few spots where the paint missed covering up some of the dark red plastic her head was molded in. It’s nothing too terrible, but I do wish it were a little cleaner. Spider-Girl’s only accessory is the torso of the Ultimate Green Goblin, this series’ Build-A-Figure. I’ve got no interest in completing this one, so I guess I’ll just have a spare torso laying around. Yay.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In an increasingly rare circumstance, I actually found Spider-Girl at my local Target, and marked down to $17.99 at that! The figure ended up being a spur of the moment purchase, which is something I don’t tend to do anymore. However, this figure exceeded my expectations, and presented me with an outstandingly fun figure. Generally, a good female figure is still only as good as an average male figure in terms of quality, but Spider-Girl is one of the most fun action figures I’ve gotten in quite some time!

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