Toy Fair 2012: Hasbro's Marvel Legends
Hasbro certainly wasted no time between waves 1 and 2 of their Marvel Legends relaunch. While fans are still clamoring to catch up with their 6" addiction, the latest series of heroes and villains have begun popping in stores. Today, we're taking a look at the "All Star" figure for Wave 2: Spider-Man! While the regular version features his Tron-like duds from the Big Time storyline, this variant is sporting the costume Spidey wears when hanging around his teammates over at the Future Foundation. It's been a long time since we've been excited about owning a Spider-Man figure, so let's see if this newest version can break that streak!
Parker comes wrapped in the, now familiar, Marvel Legends packaging. The Ed McGuinness art on the front and back show Spidey in his black and green costume. Sadly, the final "Big Time" figure has an odd paint decision on his chest and isn't quite as simple as he should have been; hence us getting the FF version. While we know this is a variant figure, it would have been cool to see the artwork match the figure. Alas, we're sure a change like that ends up being far too costly in the long run.
The sculpt for this figure, like most Marvel Legends, has been partially seen before. As far as we can tell, the head, forearms, hands, pelvis, lower legs, and feet are all new while the plain body has been seen previously on everyone from Bullseye to Constrictor. It's proportioned well for the Wall Crawler, giving him the slender look that he's known for. Still, we won't be crying when this body gets retired. It's not that it's bad, in fact it's of the best super-articulated bodies out there-- we're just getting tired of seeing it so much! The pieces that are new, all look great including his head and left hand, which is posed in the trademark web-shooting gang sign.
When it comes to paint, it's a matter of black and white. The figure itself is molded in a matte white plastic with the black areas tampographed/stencilled on, other than the eyes which have been painted. Surprisingly, and to our amazement, all of the intricate lines and design work has come out looking like a million bucks! It wouldn't have taken much to mess Spider-Man up considering how easily a paint mistake would show on the these starkly contrasting colors; but, Hasbro totally pulled it off. As a nitpick, we think this figure would have benefited from some gray highlighting on the white to better bring out the details of the sculpt. Still, for the look of the F.F. costume: mission accomplished!
Articulation is very important for a Spider-Man figure since he is known for his contortionist-like poses and general freakish flexibility. Thanks in no small part to the incredible ankles, this figure delivers! This Wheat Cake-lovin' hero has a swivel/hinge neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, hinged pectorals, dual-hinged elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, hinged torso, swivel waist, swivel/hinge hips, swivel thighs, dual-hinged knees, and swivel/hinge "rocker" ankles. Oh, but those aren't just any ol' run of the mill rocker ankles! Nope, the ankles used for Spider-Man are the same ones first seen on Marvel Universe Cable, G.I. Joe Renegades Scarlett, Terrax (His review is coming soon, we promise!), and another Wave 2 figure: Bucky Cap! Basically, the peg for the feet fits in horizontally, almost like a foot in a shoe, in order for the foot to rotate and the figure to stand flat-footed in almost any stance. Those ankles, along with all of the joints being tight and holding their position, make up for the screwy ball-joint hips and give this Spidey figure a winning articulation model.
All in all, Marvel Legends is off to a pretty great start. While we would like to see more original sculpts in the line as a whole, figures like this Spider-Man show us that re-use can still work when done well. Marvel Legends Wave 2 is hitting stores now, so you can join the hunt, or just head over to Hasbro's official online store and hope to find them in stock.
Stay tuned to MTV Geek! for all your Hasbro and Marvel Legends coverage!
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