SPIDER-MAN & VULTURE
MARVEL LEGENDS – 3.75 INCH (HASBRO)
“When Vulture sets out on a nefarious mission to steal the world’s most powerful technology, it’s up to Spider-Man to shut down the bad guy and save the day.”
You know what was a good movie? Spider-Man: Homecoming. Oddly, the merchandise associated with it mostly didn’t go out until after the film premiered, and now, less than a month later, it’s completely disappeared from most store shelves. Which has been rather frustrating for me, let me tell you. I did manage to pick up the 3 3/4 inch Legends pack, which gives us the film’s protagonist and antagonist in one fell swoop!
THE FIGURES THEMSELVES
Spider-Man and Vulture were released as one of pair of two-packs released in the lead-up to Homecoming’s release. This pair is the movie-based set, with the Shocker and Spidey set being comic-based.
SPIDER-MAN
Can’t have enough Spider-Men, right? I suppose this one’s fair. It is his movie and all. Peter is seen here in the suit he got from Tony Stark during the course of Civil War, which is also his primary look in Homecoming. It’s a decent enough recreation of Spidey’s comic roots (there’s a lot of Romita Spidey in there), with a little extra flair to help it fit in a bit better with the other MCU designs. The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 21 points of articulation. The articulation is generally pretty good, but he’s really hindered by the lack of wrist joints. Just two swivels would have gone a long way. The figure’s sculpt is wholly unique to this release, and it has its ups and its downs. The head is really strong, and definitely nails the design from the movie. The upper torso and arms are also pretty decent as well. Really, it’s the lower torso where it starts to fall apart; the two parts of the torso don’t match up at all. And then the hips don’t really meet the waist very well. And the upper legs don’t meet the knees all that well either. It’s a bit of a mess. It’s definitely not helped by the odd shape of the upper legs, which look almost like they’re upside down or something. With the right pose, you can hide most of the issues, and the sculpt is decent enough as a whole, but I really feel like they could have workshop-ed this a little bit better. The paint on this guy is passable; it’s about what you’d expect from a Spider-Man. He’s red, blue, and black. The application’s mostly pretty clean. There’s some slop in a few spots (the arms seem to get the worst of it), but it’s okay overall. This figure includes no accessories, which feels a bit off. Not even an extra head, or a webline? Something would have been nice.
VULTURE
Vulture was a nice choice for the film’s main villain. He’s got some general public recognition, but his characterization’s not quite as set in stone as some of the other Spider-Rogues. Plus, he hasn’t been overdone, and his less earth-shattering persona allows for a slightly smaller-scale story. He also has one of my favorite MCU re-designs, so that’s cool. This figure is based on that design…in theory. He stands about 4 inches tall and he has 20 points of articulation (21 with the wings). He’s a bit less hindered by missing joints than Peter, but I might have liked some form of joint around his mid-torso. Like Peter, he’s an all-new sculpt. On it’s own, it’s an okay piece of work, I guess. The pieces line up better than they did on Spidey, and his overall proportions seem a little better. The big issue here is that he’s not particularly faithful to the source material. He’s got the most basic elements, but they all seem to veer off slightly. The helmet’s the most noticeable for me. It’s way too boxy, especially in the mouth/chin area. Everything is super boxy, which isn’t what he looked like in the film at all. His visor is also a solid piece, attached to the rest of the head, thus removing the eery illuminated eyes from the movie design, which is one of the cooler elements. The wings are also pretty far off. They’re under-sized, which is somewhat understandable, given the price point, but they’re also just the wring shape. Where the helmet when too boxy, these go the opposite direction; they’re too sleek for movie Vulture. They seem more like Falcon’s wing pack than Vulture’s. His body is a little more accurate; the only real issue is the gloves going over his coat sleeves, which is relatively minor. The paint is similar to the sculpt, in that it’s fine removed from the source, but rather inaccurate. In general, the colors are far too light. Areas that were a dark, gunmetal grey in the film are a pale, largely flat grey here. This is most obvious on the head, which is made to look even larger than it is thanks to the lighter color. The visor has been made an opaque metallic green for some reason; even if they couldn’t afford to make the visor a separate piece, couldn’t they have at least tried to replicate the eyes via some clever paint work? Vulture’s only real extra is the wings, which still puts him above Peter, but I wouldn’t have minded getting an unmasked head or something.
THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION
I bought this set for two reasons. First, to tide me over until I can finish finding the 6-inch Legends Homecoming assortment. Second, because for reasons I can’t begin to fathom, Target started clearancing this set a week before the film’s release, so I was able to get it for $10. It’s not a fantastic set. There’s some very frustrating choices here. But, for $5 a figure, it feels like an okay deal. I’ve gotten worse figures.
This Spider-Man is figure 2 in the Vulture Series of Marvel Legends. It’s the third Spider-variant in the series, and the second based on Homecoming. This figure is based on Peter’s homemade costume, which he ends up wearing during the film’s climax, following the more advanced suit’s confiscation by Tony. As I’ve noted before, the design is loosely based on Ben Reilly’s Scarlet Spider costume, which is nifty. The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation. Spidey’s sporting an all-new sculpt, which is a pretty solid piece of work. He’s not sporting quite the same build as the Stark Tech Spidey, but he’s close enough that they’re believable as the same person. This figure’s probably the closer of the two proportions wise, so that’s a plus. The detail work is pretty solid as well, with some cool 
work on the folds and everything. There could maybe be a little more texture work, but it’s acceptable for the line. It mostly follows the movie design, though the goggles lack some of the technical details. Still, not bad. The paintwork on this guy is fairly decent, though not quite as impressive as some more recent releases. However, the colors are decent and the application is mostly pretty clean. The figure is packed with two sets of hands in both fists and web-shooting poses, as well as a hood piece (both pulled up and down). He’s also got the flip side wing piece of the one included with the standard Spidey. Yay for an almost complete Vulture!
The Figure In Question 