The Marvel Legends Captain America: Civil War 3-pack was kind of a surprise announcement right before the movie actually released, so the inclusion of Spider-Man was exciting. I mean, look, it’s Spidey done by Marvel! But now after a couple of months of fine-tooth combing pictures of the figure itself, we know it’s not a perfect representation of the movie character. Even so, the figure is kinda cool. It’s Spidey, after all.
And if this review seems like it’s mostly focused on Spider-Man, well, it is. The Iron Man and Captain America are essentially re-releases from the Captain America Legends Giant-Man wave with a couple of changes, mostly in the deco department. But I’ll still make a run through those two quickly and then get to the biggest reason people probably want this set.
The packaging is nothing special if you have any of the recent multipacks like Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D. Box. Window. Graphics. No big whoop.
We’ll start with Iron Man. Now, Pabs reviewed this figure when it was originally released, and I did the same in a video review, so if you’re looking for an articulation breakdown, you need to go there. This figure is basically exactly the same with some added accessories and paint.
Some battle damage accomplished with a little black overspray and the red and golds are slightly darker. Not a huge difference, but I surprised myself by actually liking this version a little better than the original. I don’t know, I guess it’s because every time Tony debuts a new armor it’s futzed up within the first ten minutes of donning it. Seriously, every other hero wears a slight variation of the same costume movie to movie without so much as a tear (except Pietro, dang it), but Stark went through how many suits from Iron Man to Captain America: Civil War? Forty-six? Granted, there was a big jump in Iron Man 3, but at some point you have to wonder just how good Tony is at this whole superhero thing. Not that he can’t afford it …
The 3-Pack Iron Man doesn’t come with any extra hands like the first version, but he does come with extra blast attachments. The Cap Legends Iron Man came with two blues, and the box sets trumps it with two blues and two oranges. Why two different colors? Beats the hell out of me.
Four blues would have made sense. You could put on in each hand and each foot and had Iron Man in full flight mode. Which you can do if you have the first version. But the two oranges? Maybe repulsor blasts? Don’t get me wrong, both sets are cool and I’m grateful that effects are getting made at all, but gimme four of the same color.
Lastly we get a Tony Stark unmasked head.
It does look a bit small on the armor but then again, this figure is a little big. Big as in “about right size” which is nice to finally see. The Tony head also works on the Hasbro suited body.
I used Coulson because I’m an idiot and completely forgot about the Chameleon body. Tony’s head socket is big on the Coulson neck, but I’ve since been told that it fits the Chameleon neck fairly well. Probably doesn’t give you the no-neck look either like above.
Same deal with Captain America. Pabs did a written review of the original release, I did a video review. And technically, we can take this figure all the way back to the Captain America: The Winter Soldier release. Sure, the torso was updated with the next costume but it’s mostly the same.
Cap has less apparent battle damage than Iron Man, only really showing on the knees, left torso, and head. The blue of the costume is a hint lighter and the right arm on mine is warped from packing. But again, same figure.
Cap’s only accessory is a Steve Rogers head that we’ve already seen a couple of times.
It has never really looked like Evans and the newest iteration does nothing to change that. But absolutely great if you want to make a 6-inch G.I.Joe Duke!
And I say the head is Cap’s only accessory because his ever-present shield actually comes with Spider-Man.
Like Iron Man, I dig the damage on the shield. It’s adds some pizzazz. Some funk. In a perfect world it would have Black Panther’s scratch marks, but I find myself happy with just the random damage.
And then there is Spider-Man himself. When first announced I was ecstatic. Spider-Man is back with Marvel, and I’m getting a figure! He looks amazing! I saw the movie and was even more excited. Then the comparisons started. The spider on the chest is off. Proportions are off. This and that are slightly off. And then I got sad. But finally I received and opened the box and huzzah, I liked him again, even knowing the missteps of the figure. This isn’t an exact duplication of the movie costume, but I have to think that Hasbro only had concept art to work with when developing this action figure. Especially when it was announced right before the movie had even been released. So I think of this Spidey as “loosely based on Spider-Man’s appearance in Captain America: Civil War. And for the most part, I’m good with that. It’s like movie Ant-Man from the Ant-Man wave, except this is waaaay closer than that was. We have next year for Hasbro and probably some import companies to release a full-on movie Spidey.
The sculpt is super nice. I’m not the biggest fan of sculpted weblines, especially since it’s completely wrong for a movie figure, but they don’t bug me too much here. And yeah, the proportions are a little off but this totally works for a buff teenager type.
The articulation is all there except for the hips. Again. Much like Pizza Spidey they don’t spread out laterally very far. But there are many poses to be had even with that limitation. You can see a full articulation breakdown in my video review:
Basically, this Spider-Man is a fun figure. It’s not perfect but it does some things right. The butterfly shoulders are back and at this point I don’t want to see a Spidey without them ever again. They just work so well to replicate his agility and grace. Even better, these are engineered better than what we saw with past Spideys like Pizza and Superior. Less gap, more solid feeling.
But what we really need to see make a comeback, especially in Spider-Man figures, is toe joints. I know, I’ve been against them in the past. But I’ve seen the light now that the ToyBiz days are long past, brothers and sisters, and that light is S.H. Figuarts. When in the neutral position you wouldn’t even know a joint is there, and then when bent they are usually strong enough to hold the figure up. Most of the old-school ML toe joints were loose, gapped, and often made the foot a funky shape or elongated. Hasbro needs to nail it and at least put it into agile type characters. Nailing a decent crouch would be so much easier, along with a little more back movement to the head/neck. But that’s me rubbing a lamp again.
As I mentioned, Cap’s shield comes packed with Spidey.
That’s it for accessories. And that sucks. Maybe I’ve gotten spoiled with the last few releases of our friendly neighborhood wallcrawler, which have included extra hands, heads, and even food, but to not include at least another fist or “thwip” hand is downright criminal. And I won’t even get into my beloved splayed crawling hands. Nope, Spidey gets nothing here but another character’s oversized hubcap. Poor Spidey. Sad Robo.
Scale-wise, Spidey seems to fit in pretty well with other movie figures.
Yes, he looks small, but look at him in the battle line-up scene:
Pretty close. In fact, looking at both pics, it almost makes me think that it’s the head size throwing the proportions off. Maybe if it was a little smaller? Wishful thinking?
If for some reason you want a movie inspired costume on your comic shelf, that totally works too. It falls into that teenage range.
All in all, I can’t say the set is worth it for Spider-Man alone, but I do like the battle damage on Iron Man enough to have him replace the original and Cap’s shield goes to the first release. For some reason Cap’s battle dust does the opposite of Iron Man’s for me. I’ve grown away from this Cap figure for the most part, but if I had to choose one for the shelf it would be the first release. Well, actually, it would be the CA:TWS version I prefer most, but that’s not a horse in this race.
But Spider-Man? Spider-Man is hand candy. Maybe it’s because I really enjoyed watching him in Civil War and instantly fell in love with iteration, or maybe it’s the fact the figure is pretty nicely sculpted and articulated. No, it’s not perfect. But you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have a fairly kickass Spidey. And that’s a fact. Of life.
