[Updated Guide (September 2016) here]
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.
----------------------------------------------------------
Comic Red/Blue (black) Spidey
Clamshell Spider-Man Classics (SMC) Series One Red/Blue McFarlane SpideyThis 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.
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).
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.
Fearsome Foes of Spidey boxset SpideyThis 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.
[Updated Guide (September 2016) here]
----------------------------------------------------------
Comic Black Spidey
Clamshell SMC Series One Black SpideyThis 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.
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.
[Updated Guide (September 2016) here]
----------------------------------------------------------
Updated 30 July 2008 - Fixed the dead links for the references (but not the pics I borrowed as watermark may have changed)
