Monday, August 13, 2007

Toy Review - Spider-Man Unleashed 360°

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

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for this thorough review, nice to hear from you after quite a long hiatus. :) holding back on this cos of the scale. Saw it today, looked decent and glad that the individual finger articulation is back for this fig.

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  2. Shaun, thanks for all your kind words. Pardon me for not replying all your previous comments but I am indeed very honoured to have all your encouragements! Hope to do more reviews in future!

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  3. No worries, I personally enjoy reading fellow collectors' posts and pix about their fave toys.

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  4. Thanks for this helpfull review.
    There hasn't been any good ones till this.
    So do you have any reviews for the other unleashed 360s?
    I hear that Sandman can be combined with his base for some amazing poses!

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  5. Can you tell me how big is the figure? I know it's in 8 inch scale but I would want to know exactly if it's higher or lower than that.

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