Wave 12 of ToyBiz’s Spider-Man line is best known for its inclusion of the Superposeable Wall-Crawling Spider-Man figure. Considered by many collectors to be the “ultimate” version of the wall-crawling hero in 6-inch form, its outrageous popularity (and aftermarket price) easily overshadowed the other figures in the wave. There was Dual-Swing Spider-Man with a John Romita Sr.-styled head, a modern take on long-time foe the Lizard, and a re-release of fan-favorite Venom. Oh yeah, and this ugly son of a beach.
The Sandman is another amazing villain from a series that seemed dedicated to them. Granted, at the time collectors had to sift through a lot of unwanted Web-Heads to find the bad guys, but today it’s hard to think of a major Spider-villain that wasn’t produced during the line’s four-year run. (Other than Kingpin, who appeared in ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends, and Chameleon, who we’re still waiting for!)
Sandman gets an absolutely killer sculpt courtesy of Phil Ramirez. Just consider the above picture for a moment — it doesn’t just look like Sandman, it is Sandman. It’s an amazing translation from the comic page, not only featuring key visual details like the character’s weird cornrow hairdo and lantern jaw, but capturing the villain’s attitude as well. After years of being a loser, Flint Marko now has power, and nothing or no one is going to stand in his way.
The figure his packed with so much detail it comes off less like texture and more like an Ornette Coleman solo transcribed into braille. The “cloth” areas of the figure feature a deep pitting to replicate the character’s sandy texture, while the neck, head, and hands are fleshlike to the point of including veins and wrinkles. It’s an odd combination, but the figure looks so great you don’t really think about it.
ToyBiz included four attachment arms to replicate Sandy’s shape-shifting powers. There’s a morning star, a clamp, an ax, and a grasping hand. Surprisingly, these are not bendy — the plastic is as stiff as the rest of the figure. This makes the attachments trickier to work with than might be expected, and the weight of the plastic can make holding certain poses difficult. Also, the passage of time has made swapping the pieces out harder than it once was, so if you have this figure, you may want to warm the attachments in water for a minute or so to soften the plastic.
Sandman’s paint is decent enough. The figure looks good from a distance, but up close a few issues become clear. For a start, the painted neck doesn’t match the plastic used for the head. It’s heavy application to cover the green plastic used for the torso resulted in some coverage issues, most noticeably around the collar.
The black striping on the shirt is thinly applied, allowing the plastic to show through. On another figure this would be pretty unforgivable, but it’s possible ToyBiz went this route in tandem with the porous sculpt to further simulate Sandman’s shaping-changing powers. Or it could just be a faded shirt — after all, he has been wearing it since 1963.
At over 7-inches tall, Sandman continued the line’s trend of oversizing the bad guys. I’d hate to play the shape-changing card three times in a row, but it’s as good an excuse as any for this figure’s towering over the tallest Spider-Man figure.
On the articulation front, Sandy is loaded. There’s a ball-jointed head, a disc neck, ball-jointed shoulders, bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows, with a mid wrist-swivel above hinged wrists and fingers. The torso is hinged above a swivel waist, while ball-jointed hips support double-jointed knees, rocker ankles, and hinged toes. The attachments snap onto the wrist-pegs. The claw features a hinge that allows Sandman to “grab” his foe.
Despite of a few minor nits, Sandman is a terrific figure. He looks great just standing on a shelf or in one of the countless poses his generous articulation allows. For a change, the obligatory “action feature” turned out to be a useful addition, as opposed to a hindrance. The extra arms boost both the play and display value, making it a great figure for kids and collectors alike. It’s also one of the nicest sculpts to come out of a line known for them, so there’s that. And hey, what else could display on your Rogues Gallery shelf? That plastic dog-turd from Spider-Man 3? Not you, True Believer. No way.
I think we can agree we’ll never see a figure of this like again. If Hasbro issued Sandman tomorrow, he’d be a new head on the Wrecking Crew body. This figure is a dedicated sculpt used only once. Like the commercial says, the differences are astounding.
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