SpideyWeb's Realm of Toys

McFarlane, Snap Shot and Sinister 6 Spidey Comparison

2011-05-22T20:29:00.017+08:00

It has been a long time. Not much happening from Hasbro in terms of 6 inch figures as well. I have recently been trying to revisit the older better Spidey figures.

Since I am not at home (working overseas), the number of figures I have with me is limited. I have recently try to accumulate some figures so that I can play... erm... pose them in my free time.

Now I am trying to put the better Spidey figures to a face-off comparison. I realise that not many people have done this before.

The figures I will be comparing will be:

Spider-Man (red carded) Classics Series 12 Superposeable Spider-Man with Wall Crawling Action aka McFarlane (Campbell) Spidey

Spider-Man (red carded) Classics Series 10 Snap Shot Spider-Man

Marvel Legends Sinister 6 Boxset Spider-Man

An afternoon of posing and setting up for pictures, I have these 3 splendid figures in a typical Spidey action pose and the 4-point crouch. Since I have previously mentioned that all these 3 figures are able to pull off amazing action poses as well as 4-point crouch, I will leave you to draw your own conclusion which figure outweighs the other. Personally I think all are great, though one can be better in a pose and worse in another pose.

Action Pose
McFarlane Spidey

Snap Shot Spidey

Sinister 6 Spidey

4-point Crouch
McFarlane Spidey

Snap Shot Spidey

Sinister 6 Spidey

PS: I just realised for my McF Spidey's 4-point crouch, his left bicep is in the wrong way around. LOL.

A year and counting

2009-04-18T20:19:00.010+08:00

Hi folks,

It's been a year since my last post. I have been real lazy (and busy at work). It is bad to be in a foreign land where toys (the kind I am interested in) are not easily found. Been only back home once, and thanks to my many good buddies, got myself a stash of toys during a year of absence.

Think for the Spidey toys, nothing very exciting has been happening. The one worthy mention is that Hasbro reissued 2 new versions of the black Spidey. The one worthy of mention is the one from the BAF Red Hulk wave. I got myself a couple of those. I should do a review of it sometime soon, but I have not my old black Spideys to take comparison pics with. All in all a great figure with the exception of the non-articulated fingers and the hunch pose of the neck/ back.

Then there is this new Spidey wave of toys with the McG Venom, Tarantula and Juggy. Got my buddy to get me a set but I have not collected them. Will not be back for another 6 months or so, so I hope I get some time to write something about those soon.

Hasbro has been taking a more enthusiastic stand on the 3.75" figs and has slowed down on the 6". This is a sad thing. But then they are releasing the Secret Wars (my favourite Marvel crossover) figures which I cannot miss. We'll see how this goes.

I shall end this post with pics of the Hasbro black Spidey (pic gotten from the recovered MarvelLegends.net: http://comicfigs.net/)

SMC12 - Superposeable Spider-Man with Wall Crawling Action

2008-02-03T13:29:00.005+08:00

Hi folks,

Pardon the long hiatus. Been real busy at work and now arranging my transfer (moving to Amsterdam for a job assignment). Still hope to be able to get toys over there.

Anyway, just when I thought I knew a fair bit about Spidey figures I found out something that totally escaped me.

One of my favourite Spidey is the Spider-Man Classics (SMC) 12 Superposeable Spider-Man with Wall Crawling Action, which affectionately known as McFarlane Spidey, but in actual fact, was inspired by J. Scott Campbell's (JSC) artwork. Just very recently, in a very innocent discussion, I found out that there are *gasp* 3 different batches (possibly more, personally I saw a UK version in London which happened to look just like Batch 1 though) of this JSC Spidey and each of them actually had a different headsculpt. My version (and to those whom I sold to) are all Batch 1, from the pics I see. I do hope that Batches 2 and 3 are not bootlegs.

Pilfering the pics on the sources I got, I will attempt to decribe each in detail. Not sure if anyone is such a Spidey action figures geek like me but I do like to go into such details especially for Spidey figures I like.

Batch 1 - The commonly known J. Scott Campbell (affectionately known as McFarlane) Spidey

Batch 2 - Different headsculpt (I suspect to be SMC16 Battle Action Spidey Head)

I am particularly interested in this Batch 2 because from this small pic, I cannot determine what is the difference from the Batch 1's headsculpt. What I understood is that the eyes are slightly smaller for the Batch 2. Somehow I have a tingling that this head could be the SMC16's Battle Action (BA) Spidey's headsculpt.
A side by side comparison of the JSC Spidey and BA Spidey's headsculpt (JSC-Top, BA-Below):

You can see that the eyes of BA Spidey actually curve upwards on the top of the lense versus the flatter one on JSC Spidey and that is the major difference. I am still in search of the Batch 2 "official" close-up pictures of the headsculpt to affirm that the Batch 2 is indeed the BA Spidey headsculpt.

A friend of mine (offloads from SGCollect) actually did this custom by combining a Battle Action Spidey's head with a Fearsome Foes Spidey's body after I posted a similar custom by WeaponXII from Fwoosh.

Some pics of the custom figure(s):
WeaponXII's masterpiece from Fwoosh

Masterpiece (he calls it BAFF Spidey) by offloads from SGCollect
The one on the left is the custom and the right is the JSC Spidey (likely Batch 1)

This custom recipe is a hit because of the recent hyped up price of the JSC Spidey (up to USD80 on eBay!!). This would be a (much) cheaper alternative. But little did I know that Toy Biz (now Marvel Toys) actually introduced this version into the amrket as well.

[note] virsago_mk2 bro from SGCollect (the friendly bro who notified me) affirms that indeed this Batch 2 is the Battle Action Spidey's headsculpt after some research

Batch 3 - Fearsome Foes Spidey headsculpt

I was totally surprised by this such that I thought this must be a "swaparoo" by some collector. This is exactly the same as the Fearsome Foes (FF) boxset Spidey with a lighter blue and without the webbing (some of the later (bootleg?) Fearsome Foes boxset also do not have the webbings and a different Lizard figure). As yet, I am still trying the gather evidence that indeed this made it to retail and is a running change. Not too excited about this figure as I do not particularly like the headsculpt. I only like the points of articulation of the base body. Basically a worthwhile get from fans who missed out on the JSC version.

[added] I just realised that this FF batch/version of the SMC12 Spidey has missing twist ties on the missiles as well as the right wrist. This comes across rather suspicious. I certainly hope this is not a bootleg/KO version of such a wonderful figure.

Sources:
Started in the discussion here then linked to here but unfortunately I am not proficient in Berhasa Indonesia (?)

-------------------
[Edited] Corrected J. Scott Campbell's name. Sorry to J. Scott and his fans.

Spidey Stop-Motion Animation

2007-10-16T20:54:00.000+08:00

A wonderful Spidey stop-motion animation. Took me ages to find it after the last I saw it couple of years ago. Made by Xipster for that year's SDCC (San Diego Comic Convention).

Love the smooth and realistic web slinging action, not to mention the Aerosmith's version of "Spider-Man" song. If you pay attention, you will notice the seamless transition of the 6 inch movie Spidey to the 18 inch movie Spidey and back.

Enjoy!

Toy Review - SIC Movie Realization Spider-Man and Black Spider-Man

2007-09-02T02:00:00.000+08:00

Bandai has been very successful with the toy line of Super Imaginative Chogokin (SIC) based on characters created by the late Ishinomori Shotaro. The success saw a number of spin-off toy lines. In 2004, SIC Movie Realization was created as a form of SIC reinterpretation of movie characters which includes characters like Devilman and Masked Rider.

SIC are very good with highly articulated action figures so if you put two and two together, you will soon realise that they would make a very good Spidey figure. Indeed they did just that, and in this review, we will be looking at the SIC Movie Realization Spider-Man and Black Spider-Man 2-pack.

This is in fact my first set of SIC figures and I am pretty sure many Spidey fans who do not own any SIC figures might actually pick up this set. Let’s get going then!

Packaging (4 out of 5)
This 2-pack set comes in a cardboard box (with a peg hanger hook) which is similar to the SIC line of figures. For MOC collectors, the cardboard box is a little flimsy and is very prone to damage. On my box, the bottom right corner is already dented probably due to a bump during transportation. The figures, however, are rather sturdy packaged and protected by the plastic tray with ample space given for any possible shock/bump which might happen. One setback is the numerous twist ties used to secure the figures. They also used cellophane tape to tape down alternate Venom’s mask, which might be a concern for MOC collectors as over time, the cellophane tape may degrade. The poor quality of the cardboard and the twist ties knocked off 1 point in this category.

The red/blue Spidey is packaged on the left and black Spidey on the right. The colours on the box also reflect the position of the figures i.e. red on the left side and black on the right side, which I thought is a very nice touch. The figures are clearly visible on the transparent window in front. In the background is an orange/yellow cardboard of Spider-Man 3 Spidey’s symbol. This cardboard can be used as a display backing on the shelf (I actually considered this as part of the packaging and not part of the accessories). The back of the box are some pictures of the actual figures in some dynamic (though not too much) poses. Rather attractive. Included in the package is another insert sheet showing the Venom interchangeable mask for the black Spidey with lots of Japanese words on it (which I cannot understand though).

Sculpt (4.5 out of 5)
This is an SIC interpretation of movie Spidey so I shall cut them some slack and not nitpick with the inaccuracies compared with the movie character. I believe you will either love the sculpt of this figure or you will hate it. Personally I like it, more than I expected myself to. The musculature sculpting on the chest and the thighs are simply impressive. What impresses me further is that Bandai instead jolly well just made repaints of the figures, decided to sculpt the spider symbols differently. And the symbols are movie accurate, both front and back!

The figure is about 18cm tall, which is around 7”. This means that this is not in scale with other Marvel Legends figures which is set at 6” scale. However, I believe they should be in scale if you pose them along with other SIC figures.

The overall body sculpt “flows” pretty smoothly, just that the SIC interpretation gives an armourish look to Spidey. The shoulder pads particularly stand out. The thick neck does bother me a little but I am slowly getting used to it. Maybe something worth mentioning is that the sculpt of the alternate Venom mask really capture the essence of the alien symbiote. Many would find that it looks more Carnage than Vemom though.

Maybe since sculpted weblines have become a norm, most people will not report this. Yes, the weblines on both red/blue and black Spidey are sculpted and raised, similar to the suit in movie and the other lines of movie Spidey figures by Toy Biz and/or Hasbro. If there is one other complaint, that would be that when black Spidey is being posed as Venom, the body used would be too small since Venom should be bigger and more muscular in size (of course one could argue Topher is not anywhere bigger than Tobey). I would also like to highlight that the lower abdomen piece can actually rotated like a belt. Spidey fans may not be used to this but it does not affect the look and the posing of the figures at all.

Paint (4 out of 5)
The paint varies slightly amongst the few packs I saw which is expected of mass produced figures. The main issues are the paint slips on the raised weblines on the body. Fortunately, they are all alright and I had not seen one with an atrocious paintjob like figures from other toy producers. But if you do have a choice to select, choose one with a better paintjob.

Another point worth mentioning is that the red/blue Spidey has gold coloured weblines. I know this had bothered a few people but I actually like it. Black Spidey’s weblines are painted accurate to the movie in silver.

Articulation (4.5 out of 5)
Having heard a lot of good things about SIC’s articulation on action figures, this is one department I am looking forward to. Bandai does make their SIC figures highly articulated and poseable. I am happy at how these 2 figures turned out. The figure can actually do a decent 4 point crouch! Both red/blue and black Spidey has the same articulation and the same range of movements. Plenty of joints and points of articulation (read: useful ones) for posing and playing fun.

Key point to note is that the figures are the “thwip” articulation, meaning that clenched fists would be impossible. I was hoping for some interchangeable fists for posing.

On the bright side, the double jointed elbows and knees are very well done. They follow the same design as the Hasbro Unleashed 360° figure (which I just reviewed a while back) but for Bandai, the joints came out looking way better. It could also be that this new double joints gave the armoured look which is in-sync with the SIC interpretation of Spidey. The shoulder/chest joint also allowed a wide range of movement which played a large part in allowing Spidey to get into a nice 4 point crouch pose.

Joints (4 out of 5)
The figures felt of higher quality out of the packaging. It feels more “solid” compared to the Marvel Legends figures. As such the joints also feel more durable to posing. Do note that the joints are not the rickety joints but they are tight for lots of proper posing.

I noted on both my red/blue and black Spideys that the left ankle joint seems to protrude more compared to the right ankle. However, this does not affect the posing of the figure a single bit. I am just trying to nitpick here.

Action Feature (5 out of 5)
This 2 action figures has absolutely no automated action feature! The only wonderful feature is that both of them can be posed however you like it (or close to) and this is the ONLY action feature you ever need in a Spidey. Perfect score here.

Accessories (Red/Blue Spidey – 0 out of 5, Black Spidey – 1 out of 5)
Coming from SIC, I was expecting more accessories. From other SIC figures, you will find loads of armour, weapons included with the figure and you have a single figure with close to 4 different armours! In this case, since it is a 2 figures pack, the amount of accessories would be less. But Bandai failed to live up to the expectation. For red/blue Spidey, there is no accessory at all, whereas for black Spidey, the alternate Venom mask is included. Quite a number of people who got this set do not care too much for the alternate Venom head, but it is still a nice addition.

Value (4.5 out of 5)
This is almost a full score for me because I manage to get it at my friendly local store for SGD65 (USD42). As this is a Japanese exclusive, the cost of getting this may be higher and if you are getting it at a much higher price then you may wish to knock off another point or two in this department.

It was brought to my attention that at more than USD20 a figure with next to none accessories this cannot be a high score. Whilst this is true, I was so impressed with the quality and poseability of the figure that I am actually willing to fork out USD20 for a Spidey figure of this quality. Yeah, that's the biased Spidey fan in me talking. However, it might just be an average score of 2 to 2.5 if you are looking for a value for money figure rather than a quality Spidey figure for money.

Overall (4.5 out of 5)
I must say I am pleasantly surprised at how much I like these 2 figures. Initially I bought this 2-pack for the sake of completeness and then I come to realise how much I will be missing if I had chosen not to purchase this. With the drought of good Spidey figures introduced recently, this 2-pack does certainly take the limelight. All in all, I really enjoyed posing and playing with these 2 figures very much!

Score Recap:

Packaging – 4 out of 5
Sculpt – 4.5 out of 5
Paint – 4 out of 5
Articulation – 4.5 out of 5
Joints – 4 out of 5
Action Feature – 5 out of 5
Accessories – Red/Blue Spidey – 0 out of 5, Black Spidey – 1 out of 5
Value – 4.5 out of 5
Overall – 4.5 out of 5

Toy Review - Spider-Man Unleashed 360°

2007-08-13T20:55:00.000+08:00

It’s been a while since my last toy review. Recently, Hasbro has released a Unleashed 360° movie Spider-Man figures boasting of “Ultimate Posability”. Let us have a look at the Spidey figure and see how it fares on my chart.

Packaging (5 out of 5)
Packaging is a clear plastic box, much like the Icons series Hasbro has been introducing. I like this box as you can see the figure clearly. There are some movie pictures at the side of the box and there are pictures of the figure at the back of the box. If you look closely at the pictures behind the box, the spider symbol is slightly different. The symbol resembles the movie black Spidey’s symbol with the extended legs. So maybe we will be seeing a repaint of that as black Spidey soon.

Opening up the box, I realised that there are no irksome twist ties, which is a great improvement from Toy Biz era. And now the figure is held to the plastic tray with the help of transparent rubber bands. All in all, I like this packaging though it might take up more space than norm.

Sculpt (3.5 out of 5)
The figure stands at 8 inch tall and is not of the typical scale we are familiar with. Sculpt of the figure is acceptable, even though the shoulder articulation seem to detract the “flow” of the body a little. The head sculpt takes a dip in the point because somehow I find the head unlike the movie and it looks much too cartoonish to be desired. One other point to nitpick would be the very very thick neck which makes Spidey looks puffed up at the upper torso.

Paint (3.5 out of 5)
Paint is acceptable for a mass produced figure. Quality is similar to what I expect from Toy Biz. On the few that I saw on the shelves, a few have some paint slip around the eyes and the region when the transition of blue into the red. The silver lines on the costume also does not necessary fall on the sculpted lines. This is also true of the spider symbol, so if you can, do choose the best paint of the lot as it is not consistent. Pay particular attention to the eyes area.

One thing to note is that the head’s red colour seems to be a slight tint deeper than the rest of the body. This is consistent with the few figures I see on the shelves.

Articulation (2 out of 5)
As I am a fan of highly articulated figure, the claim on “Ultimate Posability” (I thought it is poseability) tempted me to buy this figure. Even though this figure may be the best articulated Spidey figure Hasbro has produced (discounted the re-issue of the 2nd movie 6 inch Spidey) to date, there are still some issues I cannot swallow.

This figure has the basic points of articulation (POA) like the neck ball joint, shoulder twist/swivel, double jointed elbows and knees (more on that later), wrist/ankle twist and swivel, upper torso twist, lower torso swivel, hips ball joints and toes swivel. But the bicep twists, neck swivel as well as the very basic waist twist are missing from this figure.

Let’s get the positive points out of the way first. The one good thing about this Spidey is that it has individual articulated fingers! Hasbro seems to have decided to do away with this wonderful articulation on most of its Marvel Legends figures and such. But we see the full glory of the articulated fingers back here. The individual fingers pales in comparison to Campbell (McFarlane) Spidey and/or Icons Spidey but is definitely way better than Marvel Legends 10 First Appearance Spidey.

Next up, is the new type of double joints Hasbro has decided to experiment. You can see in the following pictures the way these double joints look in the elbow and the knees. Personally, I prefer the older version as this double joints break up the smoothness of the body sculpt and make Spidey looks more like wearing an armour.

The other downside to this figure’s POA would be the weird direction of the peg into the hips and feet. As can be seen from the diagram below, the ball joints at the hips now rotate horizontally. It becomes rather difficult to pose the figure if you are familiar with posing Toy Biz figures (even though the poses are still achievable). Toy Biz figures typically has the peg directed horizontally or at 45° into the hips, making posing almost like second nature.

The direction of the pegs into the feet results in certain poses unable to be achieved.

I tried to make the figure get into the Spidey 4 point crouch (see picture below) and this is the best he can do. You can see the comparison of the Fearsome Foes Spidey getting into a 4 point crouch with Unleashed 360° Spidey in the pictures below. The lack of a neck swivel also means that Spidey cannot look upwards and that limits many poses that would make this toy fun to pose with.

All in all, a disappointment because of lack of some of the most basic yet critical POA and poor design on joints.

Joints (3.5 out of 5)
The joints are generally good except that the double joints at the knees got a little loose after some posing. I hope this will hold up over time.

Action Feature (5 out of 5)
None. I give full marks in this category for the lack thereof of action feature! Toy companies should know that action features are not welcomed especially if the feature takes away some of articulation that the figure would originally has.

Accessories (4 out of 5)
The package comes with a large poseable rubber webbing (about 9 inch in diameter). The webbing comes with a “skeleton” that has some ball swivel and bendable “tentacles” that allow you to get the soft rubber webbing into the pose desired. The last picture shows the fully set up webbing. I guess this webbing is more for children playability though it can also be a very good backdrop for diorama posing.

Value (4 out of 5)
I got my figure at SGD24.90 (~USD16.60). I think this is a very good deal. The original retail price is SGD40 (~USD26.70) and if at that price, I would knock off 2 more points out of this category.

Overall (3.5 out of 5)
It is an acceptable movie Spidey figure from Hasbro comparing with the 5 inch figures which I passed on. There is definitely room for improvement especially in the articulation department. Due to the large scale, it can only be posed and played with other Unleashed 360° figures. But as a figure on its own, it is still a fun toy.

Score Recap:
Packaging – 5 out of 5
Sculpt – 3.5 out of 5
Paint – 3.5 out of 5
Articulation – 2 out of 5
Joints – 3.5 out of 5
Action Feature – 5 out of 5
Accessories – 4 out of 5
Value – 4 out of 5
Overall – 3.5 out of 5

Custom - Broken Peg Fix on Anniversary Spawn

2007-06-09T15:42:00.003+08:00

Backdated entry. A little ashamed actually, promised a good friend of mine > 6 months ago to fix his Anniversary Spawn for him.
By the way, I will be giving a detailed description of what I did. So to start with, what is wrong with it? Here is a pic of it after being fixed. So sorry I did not take any WIP because I didn't know if what I did will work or not.

Looks cool and nothing wrong right? But the effort put in was really much more than I had expected. Here is the pic with the problematic parts:

Right elbow peg was broken
Both ankle pegs were broken
Hips were loose because the hips was cracked open and was glued back poorly, causing a loose hip.

The pegs were broken and I wonder if this is the quality of McF figures, because I don't own many McF figs and definitely not this Anniversary Spawn fig. I tried supergluing the pegs back but when I try to fix it back, it broke again, then I conclude that superglue will be unable to give the strength required to keep the joints up. I tried thinking of what to replace it with. It was a headache. Finally I found what to do.

I decided to use nails to put in place of the pegs. What can be stronger than metal pegs right? Anyway I cut the nail (with much difficulties) and hammered the end in to make the peg head. Then using Apoxie Sculpt, I build up the middle of the peg to resemble the original peg shape (red boxed area).

It seems to work beautifully. I started with the right elbow peg first and then proceed on to the ankles. The nail head was way bigger than the peg "mushroom" head so I had to use my dremel to "round" the edge off to the right size. After fixing the metal pegs into the joints, I decide to cover up the ugly metal pegs showing in the peg hole. I used Apoxie Sculpt to cover the peg hole then I mix my Folkart paints to get the right colour and paint over them. Check out the pics below:

For the loose hip, I did a couple of things. I crack open the hip again, remove the nasty "lousy" glued residue and then re superglued it. This time using a tough crocodile clip to hold the hips together overnight to make sure the bond was really good. Had to paint the area to cover the superglued parts. Had a hard time trying to match the red.

However, after that I find the hips still loose. Then I used the superglue drip method to tighten the part. For the first time I tried Jin Saotome's method (http://www.thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18335) of dripping water to crystallise the superglue to prevent freezing up the joints. The disadvantage of this method was that immediately, white residue of the superglue started to form. Since this figure had black joints, it was easily painted over. Be careful about using this method if you have complicated colours at the joints you are trying to tighten.

After the whole figure was fixed, I used Citadel's Chainmail silver to paint over the paint chipped spikes and then I sealed all the parts I painted with Mr Color's Matt Top Coat sealant to prevent paint rub.

There you go, that's the completed fixed Anniversary Spawn. Personally was quite satisfied with the outcome. It may not be a big project for the pros here but it is my first figure fix! Let me know what you think. Cheers.

Custom - Broken Peg Fix on Marvel Select Black Spidey

2007-06-09T15:27:00.003+08:00

Ok, not really a custom but another figure fix of mine...
I broke the right arm of my Marvel Select Black Spidey sometime back. Had a bit of a heartache as it is the first Marvel figure which broke on me and it had to be a Spidey...

So I remember seeing somewhere of using screws as a way to replace pegs. So I decided to go ahead with it.First I dug out the remnant of the peg that was embedded in the arm. You can see that the remnant of the peg was not really a peg already. If it still remain as a peg, I could have used it for the fix.

Then I cut a screw to a suitable length copying the peg length from the left arm.

Using the other undamaged side as reference:

Thereafter I screw the screw into the part where the peg should have been and adjust to the appropriate length. After test fitting using the "boil and pop" method for the arm, I finally found an optimal length of the screw which would not make the arm look jutting out and neither will it be too tight for the arm to turn.
Then I drip a drop of superglue into the newly drilled hole and screw in the screw to the desired length. Then I coat the screw head lightly with oil (since the screw head is slightly larger than I would like it to be) and heat the arm and pop it back on again. Presto! My Marvel Select Spidey is whole again!!!

Toy Review - SMC 14 Buzzing Beetle

2007-04-13T20:09:00.001+08:00

Since the last review on Mysterio, there had been a good influx of Spider-Man wave. Singapore is honoured to be the first country to be receiving assortment 14. In this wave, there are 2 villains, namely Buzzing Beetle and a repainted version of Scorpion. I shall cover the former in this review. This is possibly the first review of Beetle worldwide! =)

I know Beetle, one of the oldest villains our fave webhead had to face but seeing this figure, I cannot seem to refer him to any Beetle I know of. Just some history on this character if you are not familiar with him, (data quoted from http://www.spiderfan.org/):

Abner Jenkins was a skilled factory mechanic. However, he had other plans, constructing a sticky-fingered battle suit with flight capabilities in order to become a master thief. Early run-ins with Spider-Man and Daredevil convinced him that he needed power as well, resulting in a sleeker battle suit with more offensive capabilities and greater strength.

[added] I manage to find the reference art Toy Biz (probably) used. Its the Thunderbolts Beetle as shown in the comic cover below. And I must say it is (very) comic accurate so kudos to Toy Biz, though I wonder why they did not go for a more classic (and more commonly known) armour.

Packaging (3.5 out of 5)
As with the previous Spider-Man waves, this is the regular red-carded packaging. Not much excitement here. And there are a few twist ties in here that you got to untie, so that drops some points here.

Sculpt (4.5 out of 5)
First impression, this guy is huge! I really do not understand why he is so big. Abner Jenkins is only 5' 11", even with his battle suit I do not think he became so bulky.

I’ll be objective on the sculpting here, judging it solely on the sculpting and not whether it is comic-accurate. Sculpt is very good, you can see some fine details on the forearms, biceps, legs and even the helmet.

The addition of the wings to the sculpt makes the figure very majestic. The wings are meant for the action feature (see below section) but it adds a lot to the sculpting which is very welcomed!

Paint (4 out of 5)
Paint is not consistent over different figures. On the 2 that I saw, one has a silver wash and the other has not. Also, you may also want to check that there are no silver blotches on your figure which is most likely due to the silver wash. The thumbs are painted gold and on mine, the gold paint seemed to be covering up to the first digit of the thumb. Clearly it is a paint slip. The rest of the figure is pretty alright with no major paint slips between the purple and green boundaries. This is considered an achievement by Toy Biz’s standard.

Articulation (5 out of 5)
I gave this a perfect score. This figure loses out on the lack of mid torso bend (due to action feature), double jointed elbows and the mid calves twists but I have little to complain at all. And since I am an articulation freak, it says a lot. And why is that so? Because this figure comes with 3 articulated fingers on each hands and 2 articulated toes on each feet! The 2 rubber shoulder pads do not restrict the movement of the arms too much so is not too much of a problem for me.
Besides this, the standard articulation is there. The head can look up and down despite having the light up feature. The wrist twist is also preserved despite having missiles launcher at the wrist area.

All in all I am very happy with the articulation of this figure. The figure is fairly stable and Toy Biz should keep up the good work!

Joints (5 out of 5)
All the joints for mine are tight but not too tight. They are all functional and very well done. No complaints whatsoever here.

Action Feature (2.5 out of 5)
There are a couple of action feature in this figure. The simplest one is the firing missiles from the forearm launchers on both the arms. The light up feature caused the body to lose the mid torso bend which can be very useful for balancing.

The other feature is the interesting one. You fixed up the wings, and wound up a knob on the back and when you press the button under his right armpit, the wings will flutter and the face will light up (note that you have to turn the switch to “ON” located at below the left armpit, which I did not do initially and I thought the batteries were flat and went through a lot of hassle of finding screwdrivers and batteries).

The light up face is nice. There is a translucent face located below the mask and when light (red color) is turned on, you can see the details of the face. This alone gave this section 1.5 point. The fluttering wings do not work well. If you wind the wings and do not press the button until fluttering of the wings ceased, the batteries will run flat. The missiles launchers are also not that attractive to me. If you like these kind of stuff or are intending to give one to a kid, you might want to add half a point here.

Accessories (3 out of 5)
Included in the package are the fluttering wings (1 set outer, 1 set inner) and 2 firing missiles. Not a lot by my standards. But if you take into account the size of this figure, the lack of accessories should not come as a surprise. The wings, however, made the figure look much better (see sculpt section).

Value (4.5 out of 5)
At S$12.90 (approx US$7.80), I think it is still a good deal. This is one villain that I suspect will not see plastic for some time to come so it is cool to have (despite being not exactly comic accurate). If you have to get it at a much higher price than this, then I would probably drop off 2 stars.

Overall (4.5 out of 5)
Given the rarity of this figure (probably 1 per pack), it should be hot for collectors. I will pick it up anytime as you can see that this figure has fantastic articulation and good sculpt although the fluttering wings action feature can be better. It also won’t come to me as a surprise if this is the only Beetle we are ever going to see in plastic, so, if you do see this guy hanging on pegs at retail, do pick him up!

Score Recap:
Packaging – 3.5 out of 5
Sculpt – 4.5 out of 5
Paint – 4 out of 5
Articulation – 5 out of 5
Joints – 5 out of 5
Action Feature – 2.5 out of 5
Accessories - 3 out of 5
Value – 4.5 out of 5
Overall – 4.5 out of 5

Toy Review - SMC 13 Mysterio

2007-04-13T19:47:00.000+08:00

Hi people! This is my first ever toy review (so please be nice ;) ) Since I am a super duper Spidey fan, the first review gotta be a Spidey character. So here we go, Spider-Man Classics (SMC) Assortment 13 Mysterio.

Packaging (4 out of 5)
It is the standard red carded SMC packaging. Used to prefer the original clamshell packaging of the old wave (which became the template for the clamshell for Marvel Legends) but it had grown on me after 13 waves.

However, I gave a rather high score in this area because this is the first red-carded SMC (first for me, maybe there are other examples) that I opened without the need for untwisting wire twist ties.

Sculpt (4 out of 5)
The sculpt is well done. It lose one point because of the oversized “bowl head”. This is probably due to the action feature which require the “bowl” to be larger than what is accurate in the comics. Also, because of the action feature, there is a button sticking out of Mysterio’s back. This does not bother me a lot but may be a concern to some.

The gloves, torso are very well done. The purple rubber cape is also very nicely done.

Articulation (4.5 out of 5)
Being an articulation freak, I love figures with loads of articulation (read: useful articulation). Toy Biz is very good in pumping up articulation numbers to the point where some are useless. For Mysterio, standard articulation like shoulder ball joints, double jointed elbows, wrist swivels, palm swivels, waist twist, ball jointed hips, double jointed knee, ankle swivel (with side twist) and feet bends are included and this is loads of articulation. The only articulation not included in this figure is the head and this is because of the action feature which will be mentioned below.

Paint (3 out of 5)
Paint application is acceptable with minor paint slips (which is not unusual for Toy Biz merchandise). This is especially so for the gold rim around Mysterio’s “bowl head” and the gold rims at the gloves. Some of those I saw had quite bad paint spillovers. So if you have a chance, do pick the one with the best paint.

Joints (3.5 out of 5)
The joints are acceptable. However, for mine, the right double elbow joint is pretty loose. This points again to the QC of Toy Biz but they have since improved a lot, so I’ll cut them some slack here.

Action Feature (1 out of 5)
The action feature is a light up effect in the “bowl head”. And with each press of the button, the head inside will turn to reveal another face. There are 3 faces – Man face, Alien face, Monster face.

For my piece, the button does not work very well to turn the head. So please check for your piece before buying (you can test it MOC, see the back of card pic).

The light up effect, however, works fine for me.

Accessories (1 out of 5)
The accessories that come with Mysterio are rather useless for collectors in my opinion. They are more for children (for playability’s sake). It is a base (with wheels) what is supposed to simulate the smoke effect that usually accompanies Mysterio. The effect was not pulled off nicely and it looks more like some beard than anything. The base is also supposed to shoot 2 missiles which look neither like a bird nor a parrot. Personally I don’t know what it is supposed to be.

Value (5 out of 5)
At S$12.90 (approx US$7.8), I really see no point to complain. Mysterio, a long time villain, is a must have for all fellow Spidey fans like me. However, if you find this figure at a higher price, you may want to knock off 2 points from this category.

Overall (4.5 out of 5)
Being an ardent Spidey fan, I would snatch this figure anytime! This is packed 4 per case (for Singapore) and yet they are clearing fast. So grab yours while stocks last!

Score Recap
Packaging - 4 out of 5
Sculpt - 4 out of 5
Articulation - 4.5 out of 5
Paint - 3 out of 5
Joints - 3.5 out of 5
Action Feature - 1 out of 5
Accessories - 1 out of 5
Value - 5 out of 5
Overall - 4.5 out of 5

SpideyWeb's Guide on Spider-Man Figures

2007-04-12T20:37:00.001+08:00

Hi peeps, I have been wanting to do this for the longest time. I have been a Spidey fan since young and the only action figure I ever wanted was a Secret Wars Spidey, which I never got round to owning (*sigh*). Anyhow, I came to terms with that as I was unable to find the figure then (no internet and no income at that time). But when I first set my eyes on the Clamshell Spider-Man Classics, it rekindled my desire to own Spidey action figures and since then, I have been trying to get the cooler versions of Spidey made.

Just a note, typically, I only get Spidey figures at the 6 inch scale and I will only get the articulated versions (i.e. no water spraying action feature etc). The acid test for me is still the "four-point crouch" of Spidey and I dare say not many Spidey figures out there can pull it off nicely.

I will go in chronological order (roughly) on the Spidey figures that were introduced and give some comments on the figure and you can make your own judgment call on which one works for you. I shall only include the comic versions of Spidey.

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Comic Red/Blue (black) Spidey

Clamshell Spider-Man Classics (SMC) Series One Red/Blue McFarlane Spidey
This is the first wave of SMC introduced by Toy Biz in 2001. They had decided to go with a new type of packaging, a sturdy clamshell instead of the typical bubble/card packaging. This wave did so well that they decided to package (and articulate) the subsequent Marvel Legends in this manner.

This is the official McF Spidey. The design was based on Todd McFarlane's artwork. The points of articulation (POA) was fantastic in its time. The finger articulation enables our friendly neighbourhood web-slinger to do the "thwip" hand pose. What were missing were the individual finger articulation and the bicep twist. The rest of the articulation was there. It was awesome but it still could not do a proper four-point crouch.

This wave also includes the black Spidey, Man-Spider and and a half-transformed Venom.

Clamshell Spider-Man Classics Series Two Amazing Fantasy Spidey
Following the success of Clamshell SMC Series One, Toy Biz introduced the second wave of SMC. This time this wave was launched with Kaybee exclusives of Spider-Man 2099 and Scarlet Spider. The other figures include Battle-ravaged Spidey, Rhino, red Daredevil and the ever so rare Yellow Daredevil.

However, the main figure is the Amazing Fantasy Spidey, or more affectionately known as Ditko Spidey as inspired by Steve Ditko's art in Amazing Fantasy #15. There were 2 different packaging as well, the more common one is the one with the Amazing Fantasy #15 reprint inserted whereas the other is a silver foil poster.

One other "running change" worth mentioning would be that some of this Ditko Spidey actually had an improvement in articulation. It has the added bicep twist. Most of them do not. I am fortunate enough to find one with the bicep twist. There was no breakthrough improvement in articulation and they only have the "thwip" finger articulation. The clamshell SMC ended with this wave despite doing very well. Thereafter they introduced the red-carded SMC (which I will refer to as SMC now onwards).

Some good read on clamshell SMC in the link below:
http://actionfigures.about.com/library/arc/blar-smc.htm

SMC 6 Parachute Spidey
Toy Biz restarted the ever loved SMC with a red-carded version. However, first 5 waves seen many versions of Spidey which did not catch my attention at all. In wave 6, there’s this Parachute Spidey (commonly known as Para Spidey) that made many US collectors named it the definitive Spidey.

Personally I did not like the Para Spidey as he look more "cartoony" than comic accurate. Para-advocates like the fact that he is slim and had painted weblines, as many of the Spidey figures out there sport sculpted weblines instead. It also has the "bent" 2 middle finger articulation that allows it to have a nicer "thwip" pose but it looks very weird in any other position.

Para Spidey was reissued into many other Spideys in subsequent waves (I can't even remember what were most of them). One notable reissue was that this Para Spidey was reissued in the Urban Legends boxset. The only difference what that in Urban Legends boxset, the blue was a deeper blue than the regular Para Spidey.

Urban Legends boxset:

Despite not liking Para Spidey, I got myself 2 of it.

SMC 10 Snap Shot Spidey
This Spidey is the first comic version Spidey to sport individual finger articulation (first being Spidey 2 movie superposeable Spidey). I like this Snap Shot's head sculpt very very much. However, there were man quality issues complaints on it, saying that the pegs are very brittle and breaks easily. There was a running change, the initial release had red coloured plastic pegs whereas the later batches had blue pegs. The quality of the blue pegs were claimed to be much worse but it is not exactly confirmed.

This is also the first Spidey figure to be able to do a nice four-point crouch, not to mention the numerous awesome poses with the included display stand. One complain I have is the hips of Snap-Shot. For many angles he looks as though he has too large a hip but it's nothing that can't be managed by adjusting the camera angle.

Sinister Six boxset Spidey
This Sinister Six boxset Spidey (SS Spidey) has much of the base body as Snap Shot and many people mistaken them to be the same. They are not. The headsculpt is different and even the body has slight differences. SS Spidey was considered to be Romita Sr's redition (correct me if I am wrong). This is also the first Spidey to have a webbing accessory added for the webbed wing effect (ML10 FA Spidey and Fearsome Foes boxset Spidey being the others).

SMC 12 Superposeable Spidey with Wall-Crawling Action
This is IT! This is THE Spidey for me. When this was introduced, many people called this a McFarlane Spidey re-do. However, over time, Jesse Falcon from Toy Biz confirmed that this is in fact the rendition of Campbell's artwork and hence the official "Campbell Spidey". But you know how fans are like, many insisted on calling this McF Spidey (me inclusive).

Campbell Spidey must have the most beautiful body sculpt (a little lanky though) with the nicest sculpted fingers.

Marvel Legends Series 10 (Sentinel) First Appearance Spidey
This is the first Spidey (in fact the ONLY Spidey) that appeared in the ML line. It is a re-do of the Ditko's Spidey in Amazing Fantasy. A reprint of Amazing Fantasy was also included with the figure.

This ML10 FA Spidey comes with Sentinel's head and chest as part of the Build-a-Figure (BAF). The complaint on this Spidey is the fingers. Even though each finger is individually articulated, the fingers are of EQUAL length, making them look more like sausages. In addition, this Spidey has the hinged shoulder joint with is rather useless.

SMC 16 Super Strength Spidey
This is the first worthy SMC Spidey after SMC changed the card to light blue card instead of the initial red card. Many US folks love this version of the Spidey. I had gotten him, however, I am not exactly impressed with him, not to mention that Super Strength Spidey had the Para Spidey's finger articulation and not the individual finger articulation.

Fearsome Foes of Spidey boxset Spidey
This Spidey has the same base body as Campbell Spidey, just sporting a different head sculpt. I have yet to own this figure as Fearsome Foes of Spidey boxset never made it to Singapore at retail.

Will try my best to get my hands on him for completion sake even though I prefer Campbell's headsculpt.

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Comic Black Spidey

Clamshell SMC Series One Black Spidey
This is part of the Clamshell SMC Series One. It is the same base body as the red/blue McF version with the exception that it is a totally smooth body.

SMC 9 Black Spidey
This is the re-do of the Secret Wars black Spidey using a new articulated base body. For those who are familiar with Marvel Legends, this has the same base body as ML7 Iceman. The finger articulation no longer is the "thwip" pose. It is the full palm articulation that allows the hand to be open or closed into a fist. This is alright since black Spidey shoots web from the white patch at the top of his hand when he is donning the alien costume.

After Hasbro took over the Marvel license, they reissued this black Spidey with silver paint instead of white paint. The figure (even the hang-glider accessory) is exactly the same.

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Pics were taken from these following sites:
http://www.thefwoosh.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=14&Itemid=111
http://www.thefwoosh.com/forum/
http://marvelousnews.com/database/index.php?itemid=164 (used to be MarvelToyCrazy)
http://marvellegends.net/

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Updated 30 July 2008 - Fixed the dead links for the references (but not the pics I borrowed as watermark may have changed)