By Loran
When I saw these new Spider-man figures on the shelves, I was a bit confused. Was there some new cartoon out that I hadn’t heard of? Well, I guess Hasbro realized the power of Spidey and decided, “Hey, he’ll sell no matter what fiction is out there!” and went for a new line of 3 ¾” figures. I took a quick look at them and honestly liked what I saw. They used the same type of hips that the Iron Man and Wolverine figures did, which I like a LOT more than the stupid plastic t-bar hips that the Marvel Universe figures use.
Little did I realize, though, that was pretty much the only thing these figures have over the Iron Man and Wolverine ones.
Right here I have “Toxic Blast Venom” and… a Spider-man figure that I can’t recall the name of. I got these for free from Hasbro’s “Supercharge your Gift Card” promotion, and let’s just say these weren’t my first choices. I will give these figures credit for one thing-they look pretty nice. I’d dare say these look nicer than the Marvel Universe figures. They look just like the characters should; Spidey is nice and slim and Venom is huge and hulking. However… looks aren’t everything.
Like I’ve said before, the hips are nice. Some people don’t like the ball-hinge, but it works for me since it gives a good range of motion. Unlike the Iron Man 2 figures, these ones don’t come stuck right out of the package. So in terms of hip articulation, definite plus.
But… it seriously ends right there. For one, Spidey has no ankle joints, so getting him to stand is actually kind of difficult. Also, he lacks a double joint at knee like most of Hasbro’s other 3 ¾” figures. He does have a swivel point there, and there are no rivets which is pretty cool, but sometimes function is better than form.
Venom has it even worse. He doesn’t have any leg articulation whatsoever past the hips! What?! I could understand if the figure had some kind of stupid gimmick, but, nope. Maybe they had to cut some costs on articulation to make the larger figure, but Marvel Universe has been doing larger Hulk figures for awhile now and the Iron Man 2 line has figures like Iron Monger and Hulkbuster. But as if almost to add insult to injury, he has an extra joint in his arm-yes, he has two swivel points; one at the bicep and the other at the shoulder. What’s the point?!
Also, neither of these figures have a torso/waist joint. I honestly can’t see any reason why. Maybe it’s to get people to buy the Super Poseable Spidey figure instead, but shouldn’t ALL of your figures be “super poseable” at this point?!
Spidey’s only accessory is this weird zipline thing that’s supposed to make it look like he’s swinging between buildings or something. It… looks really weird, and I think some earlier figures did it better.
Venom’s accessories are actually kind of cool; a spring-loaded “toxic blast” launcher and an axe made out of spider web. The axe looks cool, but it looks weird no matter how you try to get him to hold it, and I think my missile launcher came broken…
Overall, I wouldn’t really recommend these two figures. Maybe the “super poseable” Spider-man figure is better, but this one is kinda crap. The only reason I can see someone buying these is if they want a 3 ¾” Venom. While he may not be very poseable, he does look very nice. As for Spidey, though, I’d recommend passing him up in favor of the many, many other Spider-man figures we have at FPNYC…
