When it was announced that Marvel Legends would be transitioning to character-specific waves that tie into Marvel’s movie properties, many fans took this to be a sign of the beginning of the end of Marvel Legends as we know it (again). After the release of the initial waves of both the Spider-Man and Captain America Infinite lines, however, it seems that this reintroduction of the line under a new banner may have been just what the line needed to regain its vitality and relevance.
The figures from the Spider-Man series have been particularly strong in execution, and just when it seemed fairly clear which figure is the strongest from the line (many say Black Cat, many say Carnage), along comes Spider-Girl to give the other contenders a true run for their money.
Spider-Girl is a “swap” figure, meaning in some, mostly later, case assortments she’s “swapped in” in place of Black Cat, with whom she shares the rather vague title of “Skyline Sirens.” Spider-Girl comes with the same enormous Green Goblin Build-a-Figure piece as Black Cat, but because of Spider-Girl’s smaller size, Green Goblin’s torso seems to be occupying most of the real estate in the package.
There are no accessories included, which is a bummer since many of the figures in this series have been packed with a generous amount of accessories. Even her title-mate came with a whip, but all we get here is the figure and the BAF piece. It’s safe to assume the “accessory budget,” or however it’s broken down, in this wave was largely allocated to Boomerang so he could come to us packing a bunch of boomerangs. Whatever the case may be, Spider-Girl comes to us with no extras so speak of.
This is a brand-new body we haven’t seen before (on a figure that’s actually made it to our hands, anyway), and, please forgive the hyperbole, but this is one of the better female bodies to be released in the Marvel Legends line yet. It even trumps the new Moonstone/Black Cat body in terms of fluid lines and overall execution. I wasn’t expecting much from this figure, so it surprises me just how impressed I am with it.
What’s great about this new body is that she really does look like a teenager. Her proportions are spot-on, and despite being decked-out in a skintight bodysuit, she doesn’t look overly sexualized, which is a common pitfall for any female superhero, from Black Widow to Ms. Marvel. She has an innocent look to her, which is something I appreciate very much.
Her paint applications are crisp and clean, and mine only had a very small flaw or two on her face. Of course, she’s mainly cast in a glossy black plastic with some white paint to provide the details of her costume, but what’s there is nearly perfect.
Her head sculpt is probably my favorite part of the figure. The combination of the very long ponytail and the pink color of her lips definitely suggest adolescence and energy. The look on her face also gives the impression of someone who’s having fun doing what she’s doing. She looks to bear a solid likeness to Anya Corazon, her comic counterpart, which should please fans of the character.
Her articulation and posability are on par with the strongest of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends offerings yet, and it’s a breeze to get her into almost any dynamic pose, and, best of all, she can actually hold those poses thanks to a great range of motion and a good center of gravity. She’s a ton of fun to pose. The only point of articulation that’s at all lacking is her ab crunch. It doesn’t have much by way of range of motion, but it doesn’t really limit her much either. It rotates just fine, but doesn’t move all that much otherwise.
The articulation breakdown is as follows:
- Ball-jointed head
- Pegged shoulders with a swivel joint
- Single-jointed swivel elbows
- Single-jointed swivel wrists
- Ball hips
- Thigh swivels
- Double-jointed knees
- Swivel calves
- Rocker ankles
The strengths of Spider-Girl’s sculpt and design are much more apparent when she’s posed next to other female action figures. Even Black Cat highlights just how strong an offering Spider-Girl is, and that’s saying something. Black Cat is a great figure, one of the best female action figures we’ve seen, but her weird, protruding hips hold her back from being truly great. And the funny thing is this wasn’t even something I noticed until I looked at the above comparison pic with Spider-Girl. Black Cat looks best from the waist up, but Spider-Girl looks awesome all around because her hip joints integrate into her lower torso so much more fluidly; it looks like a clean line, which is something the Black Cat body only achieves in certain poses.
I also appreciate that she’s visibly smaller in stature than the other female Marvel figures. It would be great to see this body used for other Marvel female characters like an ’80s Kitty Pryde, any of the female New Mutants, a classic Jubilee, or maybe even members of the classic X-Force team like Boom Boom.
This wave of the Spider-Man Infinite series is currently popping up at retail spots like Target and Toys R Us, but if my own experience is any indication of a larger trend, Spider-Girl is the most sought-after figure from this wave. Toxin and Boomerang may hang around on the pegs for a little while, but Spider-Girl has been vanishing as soon as the cases are opened. So it may take some legwork to track her down. She is absolutely worth the trouble, though, so hopefully you’ll get lucky like I did.
If you’d prefer to eschew the hunt, the wave can be purchased from Fwoosh Sponsors Big Bad Toy Store and Dorkside Toys, but in both cases it’s necessary to buy the wave in sets/cases in order to get her. Again, she’s worth the trouble, so I’d recommend going with whichever makes your life easier.
still on the hunt
Phenomenal figure. ¡Es verdad! For a myriad of reasons. Here in the last days of Black History month, we get a Latina super heroine! Thanks Hasbro. I look forward to seeing this continue with White Tiger,Cecilia Reyes, Retil,Alverez(PowerMan),Miles Morales(UltimateSpiderman) and others 😀
I was lucky enough to come across Spider-Girl at Target last week, and she is awesome. I was pleasantly surprised to find she had a balljoint-hinge neck like most male figures, instead of the simple balljoint like nearly all female ML’s. If she had a better ab joint and bicep swivels she’d be absolutely perfect, but she’s great as-is.