SMC12 - Superposeable Spider-Man with Wall Crawling Action

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 (?)

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