Spider-Man 2 Subway Train Playset

For the uninitiated a little Spider-man history is in order:

A small unidentified flying object soars through earth’s atmosphere and crashes in the Kansas farmlands, rocketing its sole inhabitant, a child who is granted spider-like powers due to our yellow sun into the cold murky depths of the Atlantic ocean, he is discovered and unfrozen decades later by a wealthy unfertile couple. After his adoptive parents are gunned down on their way home from a play, the infant vows revenge, seeking to strike fear in the hearts of criminals by wearing a garishly colored costume that no earth based spider would be caught dead in. Living by the credo that with great power comes lots of girlie action, Spider-man is born!

Okay, maybe thats not how it goes, but it sure beats organic webshooters!*

*above opinion is not necessarily indicative of the fwoosh 😉

PACKAGING

Industrial: uh, I seem to recall it came in a box.

carl: Not going to hear many positives out of this one from me. I as a rule hate all packaging; it’s only there to keep me away from the goodies inside. And I especially hated the packaging in this case. If you’re like me and only cared about Mini Spidey then you can discard the train set. If you actually want the train set, make sure you have a blowtorch handy.

Jason_in_NC: It has been said that training in Industrial Design is needed to make toys.
However, training in Industrial Engineering is required for the rest of us to get the toys out of the boxes. I am pretty sure that, after getting SM and the train set out of this box, I am quite capable of breaking into Fort Knox. (Did not intend the rhyme there.)

SCULPTING

carl: I have to say Toy Biz did a good job. I’m not used to this much detail on 4” figures. I do however welcome it. I am curious to find out what scale this guy was sculpted at only because the loss of detail is pretty minimal. The only thing he has going against him are his funny looking hands. I think it would have been nice to have smaller magnets so they don’t take away from the overall look.

Jason_in_NC: Looks like a scanned and scaled down version of one of the Movie SM. He looks way too stiff to me, which is the same complaint I had with most of the 6” SM movie figs.

Industrial: What can I say, he’s spot on as far as movie Spidey’s looks go, raised silver webbing and authentic stuntman thunder thighs all packed into a 4” package. The gigantic magnets in his hands can be a little distracting though, almost like his Spidey sense is warning him of an impending game of patty cake.

PAINT

Jason_in_NC: Some slop around the mask webs. One eye looks larger than the other because of problems with the silver and black outline. Other than that, he’s fine.

Industrial: Looks good on mine, my favorite part is the correctly color molded discs in the ball jointed shoulders and thighs, so simple to do, yet so frequently forgotten. The webbing all looks good as well, making me fear some poor factory worker going blind working so meticulously at such a small scale.

carl: Pretty good overall, there are lots of little spots where the silver paint missed the webbing pattern. I remember having to look through a few Spidey’s at the store before I got one with a good enough paint job. The trouble spot seems to be the eyes. There were a number of them that had small screw-ups on the eye’s black outline.

ARTICULATION

carl: So close! This little guy has 19 points of articulation. Way more than the average 3.75” figure. But if you ask me he could still use 4 more. I can deal without the full ML treatment. Not asking for double elbows and knees but I think some wrist and thigh cuts would be awesome. I can easily add them myself and I probably will but it would be nice if they were standard.

Industrial: oh what could have been, between Takara’s Microman and Palisades Army of Darkness figures I have been spoiled with double jointed elbows and knees on figures of this scale. While Spidey has all the articulation of a GI Joe and more so ( IE: ankle and wrist hinges, which have only appeared on some more recent Joes ), I still wish they went the extra mile and gave this lil’ bugger double elbows, knees and some thigh swivels……..

Jason_in_NC: Ditto. Needed the double elbows/knees, ball hips, wrist cuts and an abdominal hinge of some kind too. Either a GI Joe-esque o-ring or a teeny tiny version of the abdominal hinge used on the 6” Toybiz figures. Give him some more articulation and I’ll be a lot happier with my purchase.

ACCESSORIES

Industrial: hmmm, I seem to recall a gigantic subway car with Doc Ock arms that immediately went into storage someplace………

Jason_in_NC: One of the great advantages to this smaller scale is the possibility of playsets. This one is a good try. It looks like a subway car. Leaves a little to be desired when opened, because one side of the car is then on the “floor” so that’s a little odd. The Tentacles to what they’re supposed too and they’re a fun gimmick, for a little while. But there’s only so much fun that can be had making Spider-Man avoid Ock’s tentacles. The tentacle action features are okay, but they give Ock these huge, bulky claws that take away from the otherwise good look. I think that future mini-Marvel figures would benefit from carry-n-play “suitcases” with room for both storage and playsets.

carl: Bleh, If you have little kids around they would probably dig the playset. I hated it though. It stayed in the box for a few weeks and I liked it fine that way but when I had to actually open it that is when it became my mortal enemy. The Ock arms are cool in their own, but it does feel like a bit of a waste without having a mini Ock for them to go with. Lots of buttons and switches, some floppy-mirror-thing. You’ll have to forgive me; I hated this thing so much by the time it was opened all I wanted to do was put it out of sight. It’s even worse when you consider that this thing is what causes the higher price point.

PLAYABILITY

Industrial: This is where the magnets that I was poking fun at earlier really come into play; I have loads of fun having Spidey defy gravity around my apartment ( and yet I still maintain a social life ). In my mind this is a figure that has been due for a long time, I remember wishing there were Marvel toys in this scale back when I was playing with my GI Joes in the sandbox ( now I just play with them in the bathtub like a real man).

carl: I do love this little guy. I can’t wait for more of the same. This is one of those figures that are great hanging from a key chain, sitting on an office PC or swinging from the rear-view-mirror. The magnets only add to that. He is kind of a go anywhere Spidey. He fits in your pocket and aside from that he’s a great figure in his own right. Be careful when you throw him at metal objects like I do. It’s probably my fault in some way but one of his foot magnets fell out. I can’t help it he’s just so throwable. I do give credit though, Toy Biz is venturing into new ground with figures like this but if this is what the have done for the first outing I’m really looking forward what is on the horizon.

Jason_in_NC: This figure and this scale “could” be fun. Needs more artic so it doesn’t look so stiff. Needs better playsets though this one still has some fun-factor. Agreed that this is a good first step. I see lots of potential and look forward to what Toybiz has in store for us.

IF FWOOSH RULED THE WORLD

Industrial: If it were up to me this figure would have a bit more articulation just to knock the playability up a notch. I really would’ve liked to see a movie Doc Ock at this scale, but my Spidey is too busy joining GI Joe and taking on the evil forces of Cobra to notice. All in all I really dig this scale and look forward to future endeavors from the fine folks at ToyBiz!

Jason_in_NC: If it was left up to me, this figure would come with a $20 dollar bill. I would have also liked hands better sculpted for the magnets. If his hands had been “cupped” over the magnet, he’d have looked more like he was crawling on his fingertips and less like he was looking for a good game of pattycake. This figure would have also had Microman level articulation and would have come with a wall-mountable skyscraper with skyline backdrop, a mini Aunt May, and a Mini Doc Ock, so that I …er… kids could reenact the scene from the movie where Ock kidnapped Aunt May and Peter had that really cool battle with Ock and they were falling down the skyscraper and Spider-Man was punching Ock and Ock’s tentacles were all over the place and Aunt May was hanging by her umbrella and….uh…you saw it.

carl: If it was left up to me he would have been based on the comic Spidey rather than the movie version. I know the movie version is going to be just as recognizable to most people but I prefer comic designs almost every time. I would also want smaller magnets in his hands. Don’t know how well that would work but I know the big hand magnets that he has now tend to throw his look off. Then some more articulation wrists and thighs that kind of thing. He would have also come packaged with a Doc Ock and no train set, maybe a mini Kirsten Dunst, so she could take over Cobra’s Legions.