Tag Archives: Spider-Woman

#3350: Spider-Woman

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

SPIDER-WOMAN

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

“Single mother and Stark Enterprises Vice President, Julia Carpenter conceals a fantastic secret: she possesses the ability to weave psionic webs, and has the strength, speed and agility of a spider! Now, in the guise of Spider-Woman, Julia is determined to turn her astonishing abilities to the downfall of the Mandarin and his sinister schemes of conquest!”

Since Iron Man is a character that’s had a spotty track record with supporting casts over the years, when it came time to give him a cartoon in the ’90s, the show had to sort of make due with the super team he was running around with at the time.  Unfortunately, it was during the brief period of time where that team *wasn’t* the Avengers, and was, instead “Force Works,” a replacement for the Avengers West Coast team, which lasted an astonishingly long 22 issues.  Force Works adopted most of the remaining West Coast line-up, which included Julia Carpenter, the second Spider-Woman, who wound up as one of the members chosen to get the largest focus in the Iron Man cartoon, even remaining in the show when the rest of the team left during the show’s second season.  She got a figure out of the deal, as well, and I’m taking a look at that one today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Woman was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line, as not only this series, but in fact the whole line’s only female figure.  Fellow team member Scarlet Witch was less fortunate (a streak that would continue for United They Stand‘s tie-in line), as was the villainess Hypnotia (who remains without any action figures to this day).   The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  I’ve looked at Julia’s sculpt previously, once in its slightly modified form as Jessica Drew, and also in its completely repainted form as the Invisible Woman.  Apart from issues with the articulation, it’s actually not a half-bad sculpt, and its only flaw when used for Sue was the lack of eyes, which isn’t a problem here.  Other than that, it’s a rather nice, rather balanced sculpt.  The figure’s paint work is decent enough; to keep with her animation look, there’s a slight purple shade to the “black” sections of her costume, which actually doesn’t look half bad.  The application is a little fuzzy in some spots, but it certainly could be worse.  Julia was packed with her Psionic Webs, which were a big goofy purple thing, as well as an ID badge with her bio on it.  She also got an action feature; there’s a lever on her back, which flips her arms up rather spastically.  It was meant to be a “Psionic Web Hurling Action” according to the package, but it really just looks like she’s flipping over a table or celebrating a touch down or something.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Spider-Woman is a figure that I don’t vividly recall getting.  I know she was still new when I got her, and that she was more than likely a gift, probably for either my birthday or Christmas.  I’d guess she came from my parents, since they’re the most likely culprits for purchasing her.  She’s one of those ones that I just recall always being in my collection.  She’s honestly a pretty solid figure, just start to finish.

#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.

#2086: Spider-Woman

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

SPIDER-WOMAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Julia Carpenter becomes an ally of Spider-Man and the Avengers after she is given spider-powered abilities by a secret government experiment.”

So, last year, I returned from my fourth of July review to a set of Spider-Man-themed Marvel Legends with a review of a Spider-Woman figure…and I’m doing that again.  What are the odds?  To be fair, while the codename’s the same, this is a distinct character from last year, specifically the Spider-Woman of the ’80s and ’90s, Julia Carpenter!  Though she’s faded into relative obscurity these days, Julia was a somewhat prominent character for a while there, and even became a member of the Avengers before her predecessor, as well as netting a pretty sweet supporting role in the ’90s Iron Man cartoon, where she was for all intents and purposes merged with Pepper Potts.  After the ’90s, her toy luck wasn’t so great, though, and she’s mostly been relagated to being a quick variant whenever Jessica Drew gets a figure.  Not the case today, though.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Woman is figure 5 in the Molten Man Series of Marvel Legends, and is the penultimate figure needed to complete the Build-A-Figure.  She’s the most loosely Spider-Man-related of the figures included, bit is still a slightly better fit than Jessica Drew was last year.  She’s wearing her classic costume, which is really the only way to go, as it’s by far her most striking.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Spider-Woman’s built on the Phoenix body, which is a solid choice for the character, especially since the two characters even shared parts back in the 5-inch line in the ’90s.  She gets a new head sculpt, which isn’t a bad match for her ’80s appearances.  It’s also distinctly different from both Jessica Drews, which is more than can be said for a lot of Julia’s figures.  Julia’s paintwork is actually some quite solid work.  The costume is a nice, stark black and white, which has very sharply defined lines that all work very well.  On the flipside, the hair actually has a lot of accent work going on, which was something of a surprise to see, but definitely a pleasant one.  Spider-Woman is packed with an extra hand with a web attached to it.  The actual web is slightly purple and iridescent, which is a nice change from the basic Spidey webs.  Spider-Woman also includes the torso of the Molten Man Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Pretty much everything I know about this character comes from the Iron Man cartoon.  In the comics, I’ve never had a huge attachment, so I’ve not really gotten many of her prior figures.  I can certainly appreciate her design, though, and after two versions of Jessica, finally getting an update to Julia is definitely nice.  This is a solid figure, and probably the best the character’s ever gotten.

I purchased Spider-Woman from All Time Toys, who set me up with this whole set to review.  If your looking for other Legends or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#1717: Spider-Woman

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

SPIDER-WOMAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Spider-Woman uses heightened senses and powerful venom blasts to strike down any enemies of justice!”

Okay, took a break from Legends for some patriotic appreciation, but now I’m back over in the Legends corner.  Still looking st the Spider-Man stuff, specifically his distaff counterpart, Spider-Woman!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Woman is part of the Lizard Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s the second main universe Jessica Drew we’ve gotten during Hasbro’s tenure.  She’s wearing her newest costume, introduced following Spider-Verse.  It’s a more real world design, no doubt put together for easy movie translation.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  She’s built on the Phoenix body, with a new head, torso, and pelvis.  The new pieces change up the body pretty suitably, resulting in a fairly nice looking translation of the design.  The head is definitely the nicest piece.  It takes a page out of Mockingbird’s book, and gives her removable glasses.  While it’s not super needed for this particular figure, it has the added benefit of giving an unmasked head to those who already have the classic Spider-Woman from a few years back.  The removable glasses actually work a bit better here, leaving almost no visible connection points when removed.  The paintwork on Spider-Woman is quite sharp, and very cleanly applied.  The face in particular is really nice looking, especially with the glasses in place.  If there’s one downside on this figure, it’s her general lack of extras.  She’s got the torso of Lizard, which is pretty sizable, to be fair, but she’s got nothing character specific.  A web line or some extra hands would be nice.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION 

I don’t have any particular attachment to this Spider-Woman design, so I wasn’t really itching for a figure of it.  However, I’m really wanting to build Lizard, and this figure looked nice enough.  I ended up grabbing her from All Time Toys, which also helped.

Speaking of All Time Toys, they still have this figure in stock on their website, if you want one of your own.  Or, if your looking for something else, check out their eBay store for tons of other cool stuff.

#1629: Ultimate Spider-Woman & Vault Guard

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

ULTIMATE SPIDER-WOMAN & VAULT GUARD

MARVEL MINIMATES

Minimates are great, because they give you a wide swath of characters, but there’s also a little side bit of amusement, drawn from their multi-pack nature.  While there are plenty of totally natural pairings of characters, every so often, you just get a couple of left-overs, who deserved to be made, but had not hard-set compatriots.  Today’s pairing is notable in that, not only have the two characters never met, they aren’t even from the same universe!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Ultimate Spider-Woman and the Vault Guard were released in Series 30 of Marvel Minimates.  Spider-Woman was the one-per-case variant, swapping out for the more heavily-packed May Parker Spider-Girl.  The Vault Guard was packed in both versions of the set.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-WOMAN

“The result of genetic experimentation by Dr. Otto Octavius, Ultimate Spider-Woman actually shares a majority of her DNA and memories with Peter Parker. Choosing to abandon her previous life, she takes the name Jessica Drew and continues fighting crime.”

At the time of this figure’s release, Ultimate Spider-Woman was a relatively recent and still quite relevant member of the Ultimate Spider-Man supporting cast, though she did come after the Ultimate line had mostly disappeared from Marvel Minimates (Series 27’s Ultimates line-up notwithstanding).  Her placement likely had a lot to do with the character having one of the better designs to come out of the Ulitmate line in later years.  The figure stands 2 1/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  She’s built on the usual body, with an add-on for her hair.  The piece was originally designed for “Natalie” Six from the BSG line, but since that figure never made it to release, I believe this was its first appearance.  It’s a decent piece, though slightly restricting to the articulation on the neck.  The rest of the costume is handled via paint, which turned out relatively well.  The metallic red gives her a more unique look, and the creative use of shading, especially on the face, capture’s Bagely’s depictions of the character quite nicely.  The black on her face ends a little bit earlier than I’d like, but it’s not terrible.  Spider-Woman didn’t include any accessories, which always struck me as a bit of a waste.  The lack of an extra unmasked head is somewhat forgivable, since they weren’t yet a common item, but not even giving her a webline or something seems a bit weak.

VAULT GUARD

“Tasked with monitoring and protecting the maximum security super-villain prison known as the Vault, the Guardsmen utilized a variation of Tony Stark’s Iron Man armor to create their super-powered battle suits and weaponry.”

The fifth figure in the army building venture was one of the armored Guardsmen from super villain prison The Vault.  Thanks to some shared designs, he can also sort of double as a non-army builder as well, representing either Kevin or Michael O’Brien.  This is quite the versatile figure!  He’s built on the same standard body, with add-ons for his helmet, chest plate, gloves, and boots.  All these pieces are re-used, with the helmet being a standard mask piece, the chest plate coming from the Mark I War Machine, and the gloves and boots coming from the DC Series 1 Lex Luthor.  It all adds up to a Guardsman that’s a little bit of a departure from the sleeker design of the comics.  Why would they do this?  Simple, it’s emulating the Toy Biz Techno Wars Vault Guardsman figure from the 90s, which is actually a pretty nice little nod.  As designed, he was even supposed to have all of the detailing for a proper classic Guardsman painted under the extra armor bits.  For the final product, he ended up losing the proper detailing on the wrists and shins for boots and gloves, but still has the classic torso detailing (as well as a bonus face under the helmet).  If I have one complaint beyond those small missing details, it’s that his palette’s a bit more monochromatic than it should be.  He’s classically been all green, but the greens tended to be a little more divergent.  They aren’t awful as it is, though.  Guardsman included a spare set of standard green hands and feet, as well as a pair of mini-gun attachments for his shoulder armor.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked these guys up the day they were released from my usual haunt Cosmic Comix.  I’ve always been a big fan of the Guardsman, so I was thrilled about the inclusion here.  That said, I wasn’t super into either of his pack-mates.  I ended up going with the one whose design I most liked.  In the end, both figures have some minor nits, but they’re overall really cool additions to the collection.  Even if the pairing is still totally whack.

#1369: Spider-Woman

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

SPIDER-WOMAN

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“Once an illegal operative, Jessica Drew left the group called Hydra to fight crime as the original Spider-Woman! With the ability to climb walls and emit bio-electric spider-blasts, Spider-Woman put many super-villains behind bars. Eventually giving up her identity as Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew now fights crime as a private investigator!”

When does a spin-off character have nothing to do with the original?  When they’re Spider-Woman, of course.  The first Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, was introduced in 1977 as little more than a way of preventing Filmation from putting out a cartoon with their own Spider-Woman.  She had a similar power set to everyone’s favorite wall-crawler, but there the similarities ended.  The two characters wouldn’t even meet for quite a long time after her creation.  Which makes the fact that her very first figure came from a Spider-Man toyline all the more amusing.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Woman was released in Series 7 of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in toyline.  She wasn’t based on a cartoon appearance (likely to avoid viewer confusion; her successor, Julia Carpenter, was a regular on the Iron Man cartoon at the same time).  In fact, Series 7 was right about the time that the series stopped focussing on following the cartoon, so Spider-Woman was not the only non-show figure in the series.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 8 points of articulation.  Jessica’s sculpt is a reworking of the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman from Series 1 of the Iron Man line.  This would be the first time they’d share a sculpt, but far from the last.  Given the similarities in design, it’s a rather practical way of getting an extra use out of the molds, I suppose.  She’s been tweaked to add in elbow joints and also to remove Spider-Woman II’s action feature.  Sadly, they didn’t go as far as to add back in the neck movement lost due to the action feature, but that would have been a more hefty re-working, I suppose.  The sculpt is a pretty decent one overall.  The proportions are fairly balanced, and pretty decent for the time.  The hair has a pretty nice sculpt, and sits nicely, and the face isn’t too terrible.  The one main drag with this sculpt is just how stiff it is.  She doesn’t really look natural in any pose.  It’s largely to do with the arms, or more specifically, the hands.  She’s got this karate chop thing going on, and it just looks rather out of place.  The paint is really the key part of this figure, and it’s pretty decent.  The colors match well with her comics counterpart, and the work is generally on the clean side.  Some of the black lines are a little fuzzy, but it’s not terrible.  In terms of accessories, Jessica was about on par with most of the other figures of this time, which means she has a bunch of random stuff that doesn’t amount to much of anything.  There was like a shield and a weird gun-thing I think?  Mine has neither piece, and that’s just fine.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Spider-Woman wasn’t one of my childhood figures.  My dad had one, but I didn’t, largely due to not being overly familiar with Jessica Drew.  I’ve since picked up some knowledge and appreciation for the character, so I’ve been on the look out for this figure.  I found her at Yesterday’s Fun last week, but ultimately put her (and a few others) back in favor a few other things.  My Dad apparently took note of this, and presented me with the whole lot the next day.  He’s nice like that.  She’s a decent enough figure, I suppose.  Nothing amazing, but certainly entertaining.

#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.

SpiderGwen3

#0538: Spider-Woman – Warriors of the Web

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

SPIDER-WOMAN – WARRIORS OF THE WEB

MARVEL LEGENDS INFINITE SERIES

UltSpiderWoman1

Wait a second, didn’t I just review the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Spider-Woman a week ago? Ah, yes, eagle-eyed reader, I did indeed. However, that one was the Avengers Marvel Legends Infinite Series Spider-Woman, aka Jessica Drew. This is the Spider-Man Marvel Legends Infinite Series Spider-Woman, aka Jessica Drew. They are very different. No, really, in all seriousness, they are. See, the last one was the main Marvel universe’s version of Jessica Drew, who has no connection to Spider-Man. This one is based on the Ultimate universe’s version of Jessica Drew, who’s actually a female clone of Spider-Man. It’s kind of complicated. Anyway, she’s got a figure, and I bought it, so I’m reviewing it. Let’s get to it!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

UltSpiderWoman2Spider-Woman is from the second series of Amazing Spider-Man Marvel Legends Infinite Series figures. Officially, she’s titled “Warriors of the Web,” which is a name she shares with series-mate Spider-Girl. However, she’s neither a swap figure, nor does she share the same or even similar Build-A-Figure pieces with the other half of the name-sake. Both figures are essential to completing Hobgoblin, and both are packed equally with most other figures in the series. So the shared name thing is a little odd here. Oh well. Spider-Woman stands just shy of 6 inches tall, with 29 points of articulation. As stated in the intro, this figure represents the Ultimate universe Spider-Woman. She’s only had the one look, and that’s the one that’s presented here. It’s a take-off of Spider-Man’s symbiote costume, which is always a good starting point. As far as the sculpt goes, Spider-Woman uses the Spider-Girl body as a base, along will an all-new head. I’m not gonna lie, I think the Spider-Girl body is my favorite base body in Hasbro’s inventory right now. It’s fairly well proportioned, has sturdy construction, and it works in the articulation very nicely. Fantastic basis for a figure. With this body, all you need is a head that doesn’t suck. So, how’s that head work out? Well, it’s not bad, that’s for sure. But I can’t say that it’s exceptional work either. The actual “head” part is actually pretty great work. The eyes are well defined, and there’s a slight hint of a nose and mouth UltSpiderWoman3under the mask, which looks pretty sweet. The biggest issue with the head is the hair. It’s fine from a purely aesthetic standpoint, but the windswept look ends up holding the figure back quite a bit. It makes her harder to pose and it really limits the display possibilities. Spider-Woman’s paintwork is passable, and on par with the vast majority of Hasbro’s recent offerings. The pearlescent white is a nice touch, but the edges are rather fuzzy, and areas like the hands have a few spots of slop. Like Anti-Venom, this figure is light on the accessories, only including the torso of Build-A-Figure Hobgoblin.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, dear reader, do you care to guess where I got this figure? If you guessed Big Bad Toy Store, you’re correct. I actually was fairly interested in this figure. The story from which she originated isn’t one of my favorites, but I do kinda like the character, and she does have a pretty great design. Plus, the idea of getting another figure on the Spider-Girl body was pretty cool. Ultimately, I find the final product a little bit disappointing. It’s not a bad figure at all, but the head, specifically the hair, ends up being rather limiting to the figure, which is a shame.

UltSpiderWoman4

#0531: Spider-Woman – Fierce Fighters

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

SPIDER-WOMAN – FIERCE FIGHTERS

MARVEL LEGENDS INFINITE SERIES

SpiderWoman1

When any male comicbook character reaches a certain level of popularity, there inevitable comes the female counterpart. The reasoning for such characters is really just a shrewd business move. See, if Marvel is publishing Spider-Man, and he’s really popular, it’s totally fair game for a completely different company to come along and claim Spider-Woman. In fact, the cartoon studio Filmation almost did, before Marvel stepped in and created a Spider-Woman of their own, just as quick as they could. Now, what’s interesting about Spider-Woman is that she actually doesn’t have anything at all to do with Spider-Man. She just has a vaguely similar power set. Also, a super complicated backstory. It’s easier just to not get into that. Anyway, she’s had more than a few figures over the years, including one in the most recent series of Marvel Legends Infinite Series. Let’s have a look at that one.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

SpiderWoman2Spider-Woman is another figure in Hasbro’s Avengers Marvel Legends Infinite Series. She shares the name “Fierce Fighters” with Hellcat, though they’re both in initial case shipments, so they aren’t technically swap figures. What’s interesting is that both characters are actually listed by their individual names on the back of the box, which I do believe is a first. The figure stands about 6 inches tall and sports 28 points of articulation. As there are two main versions of Spider-Woman, it’s important to note that this figure represents Jessica Drew, who is both the first and the current person to bear the name. She’s only really had the one costume, though initially her hair was contained by the mask. This figure opts for the more common hair out look. As far as the sculpt goes, Spider-Woman makes use of the Moonstone body, with a unique head, bicep pieces, and funky pose hands (previously used on Satanna). The Moonstone body is one of Hasbro’s better sculpted bodies. I don’t personally like it quite as much as the Spider-Girl body, but it’s serviceable. The biggest issue with it is that the waist is really flat, which makes the figure look odd when viewed from the side. A lot of the figures that have used this body have had some sort of belt or something to mask this issue, but Spider-Woman doesn’t, so it’s just kind of there. The hands are sort of pseudo “web-shooting” hands, though they are a little different. They’re decently sculpted, but they seem to be just a bit on the large side. The biceps aren’t much different from the Moonstone arms; they’ve just been retooled to accommodate Spider-Woman’s web-wings. The head is easily the shining point of the sculpt; it’s very attractively sculpted, with lots of nice fine detail work. The hair is a little restricting to the neck movement, but the quality of the sculpt makes up for it. Spider-Woman marks the first figure I’ve looked at from this particular series of Legends who hasn’t disappointed me when it comes to paint. She’s not anything amazingly spectacular, but the colors are nice and bold, the application is even, lines are sharp, and there’s minimal bleed over. There’s even a little bit of darker airbrushing on yellow parts of the costume to help bring out the sculpt, which manages to look pretty good, especially for yellow. Spider-Woman includes two sets of web-wings, in both extended and folded layouts, as well as the head and left arm of Thanos. While the new web-wings are certainly better than the thick rubber pieces on the ToyBiz version, they’re still a bit of a pain to deal with. They figure ends up working a lot better with them removed.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Spider-Woman was purchased from online retailer Big Bad Toy Store, along with the rest of this particular series. While I had a pretty decent interest in the other figures in the series, I wasn’t really expecting much of anything out of this figure. I’m happy to say I am pleasantly surprised by the final figure. She’s got one of the best female head sculpts I’ve ever seen, she’s got pretty good paint, and she’s on one of Hasbro’s better bodies. This figure is just a whole lot of fun!

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