Tag Archives: Spider-Man

#3042: Symbiote Spider-Man

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

SYMBIOTE SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Spider-Man gets an all-new look when he finds a sleek black costume in a space shuttle wreck. Little does Spidey realize he’s joined himself to the predatory alien symbiote: Venom!”

In early 1984, after over 20 years of more or less just getting minor tweaks to the same basic design, Spider-Man debuted an all-new costume on the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #252.  This black and white number would get its own origin story in the pages of Secret Wars later that year, where it was revealed that the suit was actually an alien symbiote, bonded to Peter during his stay on Battleworld.  He wound up keeping the suit for about 6 months, before discovering its true nature and ditching it.  Not long after, though, he took to wearing a cloth replica of the design, and actually stuck with that for another four years, making it a fairly lengthy run with the suit.  As such, it’s become a staple for toy coverage, meaning it gets trotted back out every so often to keep things fresh.  We got a standard Black Costume Spider-Man Legends release back in 2017, with a re-release in 2019, but with a new standard Spidey body out there, it’s time for another go at the design, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Symbiote Spider-Man is the second Spidey variant in the latest Spidey-themed Retro assortment of Marvel Legends.  Like the standard Retro Spidey before him, this guy looks the be the most-in-demand of this round of figures by quite a bit.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  He’s only the second figure to be built on the body that was debuted with the first Retro Spidey, which is at once surprising, and also appropriate, I suppose.  It’s nice to see it crop up again after such a big deal was made about it.  In contrast to the last Symbiote Spidey, who was a total re-use of parts, this one actually gets an all-new head sculpt.  While I was willing to live with the re-used Scarlet Spider head on the last one, I must admit, I was very happy about the all-new sculpt here, and it’s such a nice sculpt.  It really matches well with my ideal version of the black costume mask.  Beyond that, it’s just re-using the previous body.  While I find myself drawn more to the slighter build of the Pizza Spidey body for a basic Spider-Man, it did perhaps mak the Symbiote design look a little scrawnier than he should have been.  The slightly bulked up body works really well with the design.  The figure’s paint is on the basic side, as is best with the Symbiote look.  No blue accents or anything to muck things up, and the application on the white is pretty sharp.  The eyes are notably a more glossy finish, which adds a nice bit of pop to the head.  Symbiote Spider-Man is packed with three different sets of hands, and can I just say how glad I am that all of the hands are back again?  It was a major nick against the last Retro Spidey was that he didn’t have the open gesture hands, so I’m really psyched that the whole spread is here this time.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Something about the Sandman Series Symbiote Spidey always just slightly missed the mark for me.  He was decent, but just not quite there.  Likewise, I kind of felt that way about the previous Retro Spidey.  So, this was a combo that I was iffy on, but it really, really works.  Legitimately the best version of this costume design, at the very least in Legends form, and certainly the best version I own.

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.

#3040: Spider-Armor Mk I

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

SPIDER-ARMOR MK I

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When Spider-Man’s powers aren’t enough, he dons his patented Spider-Armor. This ceramic-metal battlesuit protects Spidey from his deadliest foes, giving him the time he needs to take it to the bad guys!”

Alright, it’s been about a month since I did any Marvel Legends reviews.  I suppose I can manage to jump back into some of those without fear of triggering any flashbacks or anything.  They do seem to be hitting a bit rapid fire again, so I feel like I should tackle them while I can.  I just reviewed a set of Spider-Man-themed Legends back before the holidays, but there’s already another one to take a look at.  This time around, it’s another retro-inspired set.  I’m kicking things off with a figure that certainly helps me to feel nostalgic, the Spider-Armor Mk I!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Spider-Armor Mk I is the first of the three Spidey variants in the latest Spidey-themed Retro assortment of Marvel Legends.  He’s a natural choice for the line-up, since the original line included this very design making its toy debut, and all.  Though short-lived in the comics, the suit was repurposed in the cartoon as an alternate reality version of Peter, and has more recently re-surfaced as one of the alternate suits for Spidey in the PS4 game.  It seems the presence in the game is what really sealed the deal for this release, given how the figure is clearly inspired by that specific iteration of the design.  Funnily enough, this isn’t the first Spider-Armor that’s gotten the Legends treatment courtesy of its presence in the game.  And, given that there’s still the Mk II, which was also in the game, it’s likely this one won’t be the last, either.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 29 points of articulation.  The Spider-Armor’s articulation scheme is generally pretty decent.  It’s certainly better than it looks at first glance, and the neck joint in particular gets some impressive range.  It’s also nice to finally get a proper Mk I Spider-Armor that can actually fully move both of his arms.  Additionally, the figure makes use of the new pinless construction for the elbows and knees, making him the only Spidey in this set to make use of them.  The Spider-Armor is an all-new sculpt, inspired by the PS4 version of the design, thereby making for a slightly sleeker overall silhouette, as well as a little more texturing on the darker sections of the design.  It’s a strong sculpt, with a really sharp, really geometric take on the design.  It works really well in figure form.  The figure’s paint work is pretty straight forward, but also really solid at what it’s doing.  The silver is applied quite cleanly, and it’s a really slick, almost reflective silver, which works really well with the design.  The Spider-Armor is packed with two sets of hands (fists and thwips), as well as two different web effects.  The web effects are cool, but also not really usable with the figure in any way, which is odd.  It’s also a shame he doesn’t get the web shield, but I guess that was more of a vintage toy thing anyway.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m a huge fan of the Mk I Spider-Armor design, and I’ve been hoping to see an update of it crop up in Legends form for some time.  I was really pumped when it showed up in this line-up, and it was certainly my most anticipated figure from this round.  I’m really happy with how this guy turned out.  The sculpt is top-notch, and that paint is really crisp and clean, and the silver is a really nice shade that works very well with the sculpt.  All-in-all, just a really strong figure, and a great way to kick off the 2022 Legends.

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.

#2982: Miles Morales

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

MILES MORALES

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When a fierce power struggle threatens to destroy his new home, Miles Morales realizes that with great power there must also come great responsibility.”

In 2018, Sony took advantage of their exclusive distribution rights on Spider-Man media to release a totally PS4-exclusive game based on the character, which was rather a big hit. There were some toy tie-ins at the time, and last year they launched a follow-up game to go along with their launch of the PS5, now centering on Miles Morales in the title role. Unsurprisingly, there are some more toy tie-ins, starting with a standard version of the main character, who I’m taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Miles Morales is figure 4 in the Armadillo Series of Marvel Legends.  Miles is under the Gamerverse branding, and is the only such figure in this set.  He’s based on his standard costumed appearance from Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which is in turn a pretty straight translation of his costume design from the comics.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  In terms of how the articulation works, he’s pretty much set-up the same way as the Integrated Suit Spidey, with the adjusted neck joint which includes the double ball joint.  It’s generally not a bad set-up, so I can get behind it.  Miles is sporting an all-new sculpt (which is shared with the Gamestop-exclusive stealth version).  It’s a little taller and the proportions are a little more nuanced than on the previous strictly comics Miles.  There’s also a good deal more texture work this time around, with raised webbing and some actual patterning on the suit proper.  It all looks pretty good, and helps give him a little bit of extra sharpness over his predecessor.  It also means that, unlike the Peter figure we got back in 2018, Miles is quite screen accurate, which is pretty cool.  Miles’s paint work is generally pretty solid.  The application’s all pretty sharp, and I quite dig the slightly metallic finish on the red sections.  Miles is packed with quite an impressive selection of accessories, getting three sets of standard hands (in fists, open gesture, and thwipping), plus a set of hands specifically for his shock abilities, as well as an unmasked head, and the right leg for the Armadillo Build-A-Figure.  Given how anemic the accessory selection on some of the Spidey variants has gotten more recently, as well as the fact that he’s an all-new sculpt, there definitely feels like a lot of value here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Special thanks to Max for loaning this figure for review.  I’ve been taking a closer look at how I collect Legends in the last year, and with me already owning a pretty standard-looking Miles figure that I quite like, I wasn’t sure I was in a rush to get this one.  Max, not having the prior release, was snagging one, so he was kind enough to set me up with the BAF piece, as well as letting me borrow this one to round out the reviews.  This figure’s quite nice, I won’t lie.  He turned out very well, and I certainly appreciate the level of detail on the sculpt, as well as how well accessorized he is.  I also like that Hasbro’s committed to keeping a standard Miles available, especially one that’s just a strong all-around figure.

#2977: Black & Gold Suit Spider-Man

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

BLACK & GOLD SUIT SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Spider-Man relies on his Black and Gold suit and abilities to defend against threats.”

Everyone worth their salt knows that a Spider-Man movie these days can’t just have one look for Spidey.  How would you sell all these toys otherwise?  So far, all of the MCU Spidey films have had two main looks, and the merchandising has followed accordingly.  For No Way Home, I’ve already looked at the more classically “Spidey” Integrated Suit, but there’s also the slightly more divergent Black and Gold suit, notable for how black and gold it is.  The exact purposes of the suit are a bit muddied at the moment, but early listings referred to it as the “mystic” suit, so it stands to reason that it might be the suit more tied into Spidey’s dealings with Strange and his magic.  Whatever the case, it’s an excuse to put Spidey into all-black again, and everyone loves that.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black & Gold Suit Spider-Man is officially figure 1 in the Armadillo Series of Marvel Legends, since Integrated was not actually numbered and all.  He’s the second of the four movie figures, the second of the two Peter Parker Spider-Men, and the second of the three Spider-Men in the assortment.  The figure stands just under 6 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s pretty simple, because he’s actually just a total parts re-use of the Far From Home standard figure.  I’m not sure if that’s entirely accurate based on what I’ve seen of the suit so far, but it doesn’t seem like it’s terribly far off, and there are at the very least a good number of shared elements between the two suits.  Moreover, it’s just kind of a solid sculpt, so I don’t really mind seeing it crop up again.  There seem to be a few different options on the gauntlets, at least as far as we’ve seen from all of the other tie-in stuff.  This one goes for the look that keeps the Upgraded Suit’s red and black gloves, presumably to avoid the need for new parts.  In terms of paint work, this figure is admittedly a little bit messy.  Not terrible, but the belt in particular is definitely misaligned on my copy, which does not look super great.  Otherwise, he’s alright, I guess.  The figure is packed with the same sets of hands that the mold’s original release sported, as well as the left leg for the Armadillo Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Remember all of the things I said about not feeling the upgrades to the suits yesterday?  Well they apply even more so here.  I mean, it’s a different color scheme at least, and it’s also a mold I like, so in hand I don’t wind up minding this figure all that much.  Were it not for the issues with the paint, I’d say he was actually a rather nice figure.  As it stands, he’s just alright, but I don’t feel like he’s a space waster or anything, and I may feel more excited about him after seeing the movie.

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.

#2976: Integrated Suit Spider-Man

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

INTERGRATED SUIT SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Spider-Man gears up in his Integrated Suit to bravely confront a new threat.”

Next week, we get the third installment in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man film series, Spider-Man: No Way Home.  It’s pretty hyped up, and there’s a lot going into it, and no one knows exactly how it’s going to play out, but it sure does look like a fun ride.  Hasbro’s actually managed to get the tie-in assortment out in a rather timely fashion, and I’ve managed to get them and prep them for review, also in a timely fashion, so how about that?  I’m going to be looking at the movie figures specifically this week, starting off with the newest Spidey variant, Integrated Suit Spider-Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Integrated Suit Spider-Man is part of the Armadillo Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s the first of the four movie-based figures in the assortment, as well as being the double-pack, and, of course, the one figure in the set that doesn’t actually come with a part for the Build-A-Figure.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on this figure is largely the same as the prior MCU Spideys, with the only change-up being how the neck articulation works, as it’s now a proper double ball-joint, which gives him a slightly better range of motion.  Additionally, he’s the first movie Spidey with the pinless construction on the elbows and knees, which is pretty nifty.  The Integrates Suit is an all-new sculpt based on the movie design.  It looks like it’s kind of a mid-way point between the Iron Spider suit from Infinity War and his standard suit from Far From Home.  I’m still kind of partial to the FFH design myself, but this one looks pretty cool too.  The sculpt does a rather nice job of capturing the design as we’ve seen it in the trailers and promo shots, and translating it into a figure that’s consistent with the prior figures stylistically, while also improving a little bit on how the assembly works.  The sculpt’s definitely a bit sharper than the last couple of MCU Spidey’s, which is a nice trend, and he’s just generally got a very nicely put together, rather sleek appearance.  My only complaint is the the gauntlets are separate pieces, and, more specifically, that they’re not affixed, so they pop off when you go to swap out the hands.  It’s a minor issue, to be sure, but I almost lost one of them in the process of getting my photos, which was a little bit panic-inducing.  The paint work on this guy is a little bit better than the last one.  There’s a little more going on, and the application is pretty sharp.  They’ve still foregone the webline detailing, but I’ve learned to live with it.  Integrated Suit is packed with two sets of hands, in thwipping and fist poses.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As noted above, I really liked the Upgraded Suit from FFH, so I wasn’t really sure about this new change-up.  I’ve liked what I’ve seen in the trailers, though, and I’ll admit it’s just generally growing on me.  The fact that the figure’s actually really nice certainly helps.  I appreciate that Hasbro took the opportunity to really refine the process here, and it results in a figure that’s just a really strong movie Spidey.

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.

#2975: Web-Man

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

WEB-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A product of Dr. Doom’s Twin Machine, Web-Man is the opposite of Spider-Man in every way.”

And hey, we’re right back to the Marvel Legends.  Seriously, I hope you guys aren’t expecting a prolonged break from Legends soon, because I’m legitimately booked up through the new year with these suckers.  I blame Hasbro.  And also myself.  I did buy them all, after all.  Before I delve into the rest of this week’s very timely movie-themed Spider-Man figures, I’m going to first take a small detour into Spider-Man’s very first live-action adaptation, courtesy of The Electric Company.  The Electric Company had a live-action segment, “Spidey Super Stories,” which was itself the subject of its own adaptation in comic form back at Marvel.  Spidey Super Stories ran 57 issues, with all sorts of slightly more specifically kid-aimed stories.  In issue 25 of the series, Spidey faced off against Dr Doom and his Twin Machine, leading to the creation of Web-Man, Spidey’s opposite in every way.  Fortunately for our hero, this opposite set-up proved quite helpful in defeating Web-Man, since the opposite of Spidey being a genius made Web-Man a blithering idiot.  You know, for kids!  The most outrageous thing about all of this is that it all ends with Web-Man getting an honest to god action figure 44 years after that first appearance.  I certainly wouldn’t have put money on it.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Web-Man is a one-off Fan Channel release under the Retro Collection sub-line of Marvel Legends.  He started showing up at retail about a month or so ago.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Curiously, despite being in the Retro line, which had its own updated Spidey last year, Web-Man is yet another case of Spidey variant that *doesn’t* make use of the updated parts at all.  Instead, he’s using the ANAD 2099 and Spider-UK head combo that we saw on the first Gamerverse Spidey.  It’s certainly not a bad combo at all, and it matches up well with the mid-70s Spidey look, but it’s admittedly kind of funny that Web-Man, whose whole thing is being a copy, isn’t actually a copy of the standard Spidey from the same line.  In fact, he’s not a copy of any standard Spidey, since this exact combo of parts is still yet to be used for basic color scheme Spidey.  Speaking of color scheme, that’s this guy’s whole selling point, since he’s got a reverse color set-up.  It generally works pretty well, although, again, we’ve not actually gotten a Spidey with this specific shade of blue.  It matches the comics design, though, so I get why they went with it.  Web-Man is packed with three sets of hands, which I’m very happy about, because I get bummed out every time we get a Spidey variant without the full range.  Yay for the full range of hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Web-Man’s one of those rather goofy concepts that you never expect to see, at least not released in any explicit sense.  Like, maybe a one-off Spidey variant in some toyline might swap the colors for a laugh, but they’re not gonna actually call him Web-Man, right?  But, well, then they did, and now here we are.  He’s a very simple figure, with a very basic premise, but he actually does it quite well, and I’m honestly all about it.

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.

#2943: Zombie Hunter Spidey

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

ZOMBIE HUNTER SPIDEY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Zombie Hunter Spidey is in a ragtag group of survivors, fighting his way through a zombie-infested world.”

In the original Marvel Zombies, just about all of the major heroes had been zombified, which included everyone’s favorite web-slinger, who in the main story actually served as sort of the token good guy of the zombie group.  For the purposes of the MCU version of the story, the zombies no longer retain their personalities, and Peter Parker is also spared his zombified fate, instead becoming the story’s central remaining human character.  It makes him a solid choice for toy treatment, I suppose, and so I’m looking at that figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Zombie Hunter Spidey is figure 3 in the Watcher Series of Marvel Legends, and the second figure in the assortment based on the “Zombies” episode.  The figure stands just under 6 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on the figure is a little bit outmoded in its implementation, so he’s not quite as agile as you might hope.  Notably, as a first for an MCU Spidey, he lacks butterfly joints on the shoulders.  Not exactly sure why, but that’s how it is.  Peter’s design in the episode is a mix of a few of his designs from the movies, most heavily leaning on his Homecoming appearance, which is really the most classically “Spider-Man” look of the bunch.  To that end, his sculpt makes use of parts from the Homecoming figure (which does again raise the question of why the shoulder joints were adjusted.)  The figure’s upper torso and arms are new pieces, following the slightly tweaked design of the suit from the episode.  It’s really not terribly removed from the other MCU Spider-Men, which I suppose is the point, really.  During the course of the episode, Peter inherits Doctor Strange’s cloak of levitation, and as such the figure gets its own version of the piece.  It’s totally unique from the ones we’ve gotten with the various Strange figures, which was honestly surprising.  It also has no peg or anything to hold it in place, which does make it a bit hard to keep it seated properly.  Zombie Hunter Spidey’s paint work is notably brighter in color than other versions of the MCU suit, bit it works well.  There’s a bit of shading to indicate the suit’s gotten a little dirty during the apocalypse, which makes sense, and also keeps him from being too bland.  Spidey is packed with an alternate unmasked head, two sets of hands (fists and thwipping), and the right leg to the Watcher Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had not particular attachment to this figure before the episode aired, and I still really didn’t have any after.  Mostly, I got him because I was getting the whole set.  He’s an MCU Spidey wearing a Doctor Stange cape.  That’s really it.  It’s not like he does that badly, I suppose, though the decision to remove the butterfly joints and not to include a peg on the cape both do seem rather strange, and also serve to kind of hold him back a bit.  Ultimately, he’s a rather middle of the road figure.

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.

#2914: Spider-Man – Negative Zone

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

SPIDER-MAN — NEGATIVE ZONE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Spider-Man’s Negative Zone suit allows him to absorb the Negative Zone’s dark energy and even merge with shadows. By doing so, the wall crawler becomes practically invisible, which gives him a major advantage against his enemies.”

Last fall, Hasbro leaned pretty heavily into the retro carded style for Marvel Legends, specifically for their Spider-Man sub-section of the line.  There was a dedicated assortment of figures, as well as a handful of one-offs and exclusives.  Target got themselves two different variants on Spidey himself for their exclusives.  I looked at Cyborg Spider-Man last year, but I never got around to the other one, Negative Zone Spider-Man, who I’ll be taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Negative Zone Spider-Man was released at the tail end of November of last year, alongside Gambit, Rogue, and Cyborg Spider-Man, as a small set of Target-exclusive Retro Collection offerings for Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line.  Like Cyborg Spider-Man, this is the Negative Zone suit’s third time in toy form, also following a Toy Biz 5 inch figure and a Minimate, just like Cyborg.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  The figure is a total repaint of Pizza Spidey.  It’s an interesting choice, really.  I don’t dislike Pizza Spidey in the slightest, and it was the standard Spidey for several years, but I find it funny that Hasbro tooled up a new standard Spidey for this very sub-line, and yet none of the variants on Spidey made use of the new parts.  Maybe they felt Negative Zone should be a skinnier Spider-Man?  Like I said, I don’t mind so much, but it is curious.  It’s all paint that makes the difference here.  He’s in a stark all black and white, as is accurate for the design, and it does look pretty sharp, I must say.  I just dig the sleekness, and the Pizza Spidey body emphasizes that.  Also something that excites me is the accessory selection, because for the first time in far too long, we get a Pizza Spidey release that actually gets the full range of hands.  How about that?  Boy how I missed the full range of hands.  He also gets the pizza, but in Negative Zone colors, which is pretty fun.  No half-masked head for eating the pizza, but I’ll learn to live with it, I suppose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Neither of the Spidey variants from this round were essential to me, as I was far more focused on Gambit and Rogue at the time.  Target was running that “Buy 2 get 1 Free” sale at the time that they dropped them, and the only reason I really got Cyborg over this one was that this one wasn’t in stock at the moment I was ordering.  I saw him once or twice in-store, but I wasn’t in a rush.  I wound up getting him finally when one got traded into All Time.  I know, it’s quite a thrilling story, right?  Well, I guess more a touch thrilling than “I bought it at Target.”  I didn’t think much of the figure, but he’s actually pretty fun, and I’m glad I finally snagged one.

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.

#2764: Spider-Carnage & Spider-Woman I

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

SPIDER-CARNAGE & SPIDER-WOMAN I

MARVEL MINIMATES

As I discussed last week, the 10th series of Marvel Minimates would be the first of a number of re-use assortments, which were entirely built from previously existing parts.  This certainly had an impact on character choices as well, since they needed to be characters that would require no new parts in the first place.  The end result was something of a hodgepodge, but they did hold to a vague Spider-Man theme, I suppose?  Today, we’re looking at the totally sensible, and not at all strange pairing of Spider-Carnage and Spider-Woman!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Spider-Carnage and Spider-Woman I were released in the 10th specialty assortment of Marvel Minimates, which hit in the summer of 2005.  This set was the non-variant set, with the  Spider-Woman II variant swapping out for this one in one pack out of every case, while Spider-Carnage remained.  They’re an odd pairing, since Spider-Woman wasn’t actually a Spider-Man character, and was in fact retired during Spider-Carnage’s brief run, but here we are.

SPIDER-CARNAGE

Spider-Carnage, being a combination of Ben Reilly and the Carnage symbiote, and even being in the same assortment as a Ben Reilly Spider-Man, honestly feels like he would have made more sense as the variant for this particular line up, but DST clearly felt differently.  He’s built on the post-C3 body (with a pre-C3 head, of course), so he’s about 2 1/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  Spider-Carnage’s construction makes use of the same bands as Ben Reilly, plus the hands from the Series 1 Carnage.  It’s a pretty straight-forward combo of the two, so I guess that makes sense.  Otherwise, he’s just handled with paint.  The application on the torso is 100% identical to the Ben Reilly, which makes sense from a consistency stand point.  He swaps out the blue for black, which isn’t strictly accurate, but Spider-Carnage was typically shaded a little darker, so I guess it’s not terrible.  He gets some additional red detailing on the arms and legs, which is true to the comics design.  The face is new, of course, but, rather strangely, the head loses the web-lines on the back that should be there.  Also, rather oddly, he drops the extra detailing on the wrist bands for a straight silver.  It’s an odd detail to drop, and feels like it would be more hassle than not, but I’m not in toy production, so what do I know?

SPIDER-WOMAN I

Jessica Drew had actually just returned to active duty in the comics, as part of the New Avengers line-up, early in 2005, making this figure a very well-timed and relevant choice, which was really a first for the line.  She too was built on the basic post-C3 body, but with the pre-peg-hole head.  As far as construction goes, do you remember Black Cat?  Because she’s exactly the same, as was her variant, the Julia Carpenter, and also Silver Sable, who was in this same assortment, too.  Not a ton of diversity there.  It’s not an inaccurate look for Jessica, so I guess it works.  Otherwise, she’s all paint.  Curiously, Jessica is entirely painted, from head to toe, with none of her parts being molded in the appropriate colors, a real rarity for Minimates.  It’s not terrible looking, though, and does help keep any weird bleed through from happening, so that’s good.  The one downside to the figure is that she’s got flesh tone painted on the top of her head, ruining an easy conversion to her fully cowled look from her earliest appearances.  It’s kind of an odd choice.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I snagged this set at the same time as last weeks pair, back when they were still new.  I actually don’t really know why, as neither of them really spoke to me.  I mean, I guess I like Jessica Drew well enough.  But it’s still not a set I really get excited about.  Ultimately, they’re both well put together figures, but neither of them really jumps out as all that inspired or anything.

#2757: Black Cat & Ben Reilly

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

BLACK CAT & BEN REILLY

MARVEL MINIMATES

The third year of Marvel Minimates had a very focused beginning, bringing in the FF for the first time, but after getting them out of the way, the rest of the year wound up being a pretty major mixed bag.  The 9th, 10th, and 11th assortments were all sort of mixed bags in terms of characters, and the 10th and 11th in particular would introduce something new to the brand: total parts re-use assortments.  In order to stretch things as far as they could go, DST would do as many characters as possible with no new pieces.  Included amongst these heavily re-used figures were today’s offerings, Spidey characters Black Cat & Ben Reilly!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Black Cat and Ben Reilly were released in Series 10 of Marvel Minimates, which hit in the summer of 2005.  Black Cat would remain exclusive to this pairing, but Ben found his way into a re-pack, alongside fellow Series 10 figure Sandman, for Target later that same year.

BLACK CAT

Black Cat made her Minimates debut here, sporting a fairly classic design for the character.  She was built on the basic body, post C3 feet, so she stands about 2 1/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  She doesn’t get the new head with peg hole, due to the re-used hair piece, which comes from the Series 6 Phoenix.  While not a terrible piece on its own, it was about to get a bunch of uses all right on top of each other, which earned it the nickname “The Rachel”, in reference to when lots of women got the same haircut as Jennifer Aniston, during Friends‘ hey-day.  And now you know that completely useless bit of trivia.  Aren’t you glad?  Apart from the hair, Felicia was a totally vanilla ‘mate, which honestly isn’t all that out of place for the character.  The rest of her design is handled through paint.  It’s actually pretty decently handled.  The face is really my favorite of the Black Cats that DST did, and they even did a respectable job of recreating a more feminine shape for her body, by use of shading.  It’s actually pretty cool.

BEN REILLY

Spider-Man had plenty of Minimates by this point, but this marked the first one for his clone, Ben Reilly.  Interestingly, it’s not in his Scarlet Spider gear, but instead his take on the Spider-Man costume.  Exactly why is anyone’s guess, especially since it’s usual thing of “being a more credible standard Spidey variant” is kinda lost given he didn’t get Spider-Man in his name at all.  I’m probably over thinking things.  DST didn’t overthink this guy, that’s for sure.  He’s got two add-ons, for his web-shooters on his wrists.  They’re re-used from Power Man, and, while they should technically be segmented, they do work pretty well in a pinch.  Beyond that, he’s another heavy on the paint sort of figure.  It’s pretty good paint, and I do like how they actually painted the red entirely, rather than the mix of paint and plastic like the standard Spidey.  Honestly, this is probably my favorite Spidey paint scheme.  He’s got no accessories, not even the generic webline piece, which is kind of a shame in one way, but a bit of a relief in another, because one man can really own so many of that one piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is a set I actually snagged new.  This whole period of time marked me starting to fall out of things a touch (though, to be fair, it’s not like even DST felt all that invested at the time), but I liked this pair enough to buy them.  I’ve always had a soft spot for the Ben Reilly Spider-Man costume, and it remains perhaps my favorite Spider-Man minimate.  Black Cat’s not too shabby either.  Overall, a pretty solid set, even if they were just re-use.