This is the third attempt at one of the Marvel Universe’s most unique villains, and the second under Hasbro’s tenure. It’s also the first time he has been an actual Build-a-Figure of an entire wave, although there were plans to have a larger Absorbing Man as the BAF of a ToyBiz wave that never made it past the concept art stage.
ToyBiz’s initial attempt at the Absorbing Man was decent for the time, but it pales in comparison to figures nowadays. Hasbro’s attempt was a decent one but suffered the horrible articulation choices of the time that took a lot of the fun out of toys. Does this current Absorbing Man negate any need for another Absorbing Man figure? Well, that depends a lot on your inner scale-nazi and how you like a character to be portrayed. More on that later.
Let’s get the good out of the way: purple pants with black stripes. He’s been portrayed with a number of different types of pants, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the purple pants with black stripes. This probably goes back to his appearance in the Secret Wars comic. With the ToyBiz figure dressed in orange pants and the previous Hasbro figure in black and white stripes, getting a good pair of purple and black for this one really pushes my buttons.
From a visual standpoint, this is a great-looking figure. He’s built on the little-used Terrax body with newly sculpted pant parts. For some reason this body was sculpted with ball hips, and they continue their usage here instead of upgrading him with the sleeker hips used on the Hyperion, Spidey, and Buckycap bodies. I prefer the newer style of hips, but at least these are pegged at 90 degrees instead of the awkward 45 degrees, so there’s no need to turn the figure into a Rubik’s cube to get him to poses easily. He’s also got brand new boots, and they’re well articulated even if the pants do obscure some of their movement. He’s got a solid center of gravity, so with very little manipulation his balance in action poses is a lot better than expected.
This body is undeniably powerful-looking and doesn’t feel bloated. It’s a larger body, so Absorbing Man will definitely tower over most of your figures.
He has several alternate arms to represent different absorptions. He has no “normal” right arm, instead having a partially metallic arm that looks as if he’s constantly absorbing the properties of his ball and chain. He comes with a second wooden right arm as if he just touched a tree.
For left hands, you have a choice of a normal left hand with a fist or a stone left hand, also with a fist. If you’re going to be using the stony left hand it also looks thematically unified to use his alternate head, which also is half-stoned (wait …), so it appears as if the effect is crawling up his body. Well, it skips his torso, but the general idea is there.
Absorbing Man has never been a man of small temper, so the second screaming head is suitably batcrap-insane. I’m glad we were given the option of a more neutral face as well, because being stuck in permanent scream mode as well as transformed mode would have been a bummer, but having them both is a nice touch.
The sculpting and paint effect on the arms is very nice, especially the metallic effect on his right-chain-holding arm. In fact, the effect is so nice that the plain gray plastic of the ball and chain is definitely lacking in comparison. This is the exact same ball and chain used with Thunderball (and packed in with Piledriver as well), and those were cast in a much better darker grey plastic that looked much more metallic, so I’m not sure why that wasn’t done here. The static chain is understandable but has never been my favorite thing ever. The good news is that if you managed to get both a Piledriver and a Thunderball, you undoubtedly have a second ball and chain cast in a much more pleasing and arm-matching tone, so you can give that to Absorby here.
Overall this is a nicely done Absorbing Man. My main issue — and the one that will undoubtedly cause eyes to roll — is due to my own scale-nazi issues, in that the body itself is a bit too large for my ideal for a “regular” Absorbing Man. You pretty much have to always use this body as him having absorbed something that made him larger, so he’s always “on,” which is fine if you’re into that kind of thing, but the same reason I don’t like screaming faces as being the only option is the reason I don’t like having him permanently oversized: I like to have a figure in a neutral state. I’d have the same problem if he were permanently sculpted as fully metallic or fully stone. It’s why I hated the partial brick/partial metal of Hasbro’s previous attempt, or even the old ’90s version in the Hulk wave that was half-metal/half normal. Even though this is actually a great figure and looks great doing his thing, I find myself still wanting a nice, neutral Absorbing Man of regular height without any transformed elements. Something that could stand next to a Titania (if she is ever made) and not dwarf her.
But again, if that doesn’t bother you and you’re not that anal about scale and the whole powered-up versus unpowered thing, this is the best Absorbing Man yet, and well worth putting together.
The Absorbing Man series featuring all the characters needed to put him together is in stock at Big Bad Toy Store. You can order a case with just the 7 figures needed to build Absorbing Man, or buy the case with an extra Ben Reilly Spider-Man for an extra five dollars
And the following links will allow you to read the individual reviews for Ben Reilly Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen, Morbius, Venom, Speed Demon, Beetle and Jack O’Lantern