Yes. Yes, this Spider-Man. This Spider-Man is a yes. Yes.
Spider-Man. Does whatever a Spider can. We have had a ton of Spider-Man figures. In that elusive hunt for a good Spidey figure, you have to weigh the pros and cons. Can it split? Can it bend? Can it crouch? Can it thwipp? Can it bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan?
Some Spidey figures are better at doing one thing than they are at the other. The previous Spider-man body that Hasbro made considerable use out of could do a lot well, but it was gangly and couldn’t do a split. But it had a lot of useful articulation and could Spider pretty good, so it all evened out.
Other companies did a Spider-Man, and they each had their strengths and weaknesses. I liked the Mezco Spidey despite the fact that it was wearing sneakers or something. I liked the Revoltech for the insanity of its posing despite it being stylized like most Revoltech figures are. I liked the Mafex even more than any others because it was super-articulated and more restrained in style. But the sculpted webs took it down a grade. I like painted webs. But the Mafex could move.
When Hasbro released their Beast figure last year, it had some articulation engineering that felt like it would fit right in with a Spider-Man figure. It had drop-down hips and an entirely different method of torso articulation. Then Hasbro came out with some Power rangers figures that made me do that Homer drool thing. So. Much. Poseamability. I needed a Spider-Man that could pose like that.
Then I got Hasbro’s Snake Eyes in hand and he was freakishly poseable. The desperate desire for a Spider-man that moved like him was palpable.
Then pictures of a brand new Spider-Man showed up, and I saw all that improved articulation here and there. It looked exactly like what I was looking for. The wait for it to show up felt like an eternity. Finally it hit my Pile of Loot and I clicked Ship faster than anyone had clicked Ship in their entire life.
Oh yes. I finally have that super-freaking articulated Spider-Man figure in hand, and it is exactly what the doctor ordered.
I’m going to start with what be my favorite part of the figure: the smaller eyes. Year after year we’ve had the larger Spider-Man eyes, as depicted initially by Todd McFarlane. Spidey after Spidey has had big eyes. The Mezco Spidey became one of my favorite depictions just due to the fact that he had smaller eyes. But now, finally, Hasbro has put out a Spider-Man with the smaller, pre-McFarlane eyes, and it is perfect. In addition, they gave him a second head with an even squintier expression. It never made too much sense when Spider-Man’s mask squinted, but since it’s a dude who walks on walls it doesn’t have to make sense.
The figure comes in a very basic red and blue, and I like it a lot. It’s got just the right vibration of colors that rub against each other in that bronze-agey comic booky way that gives me the same feelings that last year’s 80th anniversary offerings gave me. I feel like I’m getting some near-definitive takes on a lot of main characters and it’s kind of boggling my mind, like when you wonder why pancakes aren’t called “stackcakes”
The painted lines are nice and clean over that red. I know a lot of people like sculpted weblines, but they’ve never really felt “right” to me, especially if they’re indented into the sculpt. Painted lines make him look like he just popped out of a panel, which is apparently what I look for most of all in a figure.
For articulation, Spidey has all of the usual double elbows and knees, regular wrists and ankles. In addition, the “extra” articulation is:
Double ball jointed head, with a notch cut out of the back of the neck to allow him to look up farther than normal.
Butterfly shoulders.
Upper torso wobble joint combined with a lower torso crunch. The upper wobble allows a complete 360, along with deep crunches forward and to the side. He gets a huge amount of bend both forward and backward.
Drop down hips which allow him to kick his legs much further up. There are still restrictions due to the nature of the hips, but this point, combined with the deep bend of both of his torso joints allow him to get into far more accurate Spider-poses.
This body foregoes some of the slender depictions of Spider-Man in favor of a more muscular look. Spidey was thicker back in the bronze age, only getting progressively leaner under McFarlane, Larsen and then Bagley and onto later artists. I don’t mind the leaner depictions, but this physique is what I’ve been wanting in a Spider-Man figure. But that’s more dependent on what era you lean toward.
I know people are going to have a problem with the red pins on the blue background, so I’ll just get it out of the way: pinless would obviously fix that issue (and we will no doubt see that in a future Spidey) but for now, I don’t care even a little bit about the red pins. It’s not an issue for me. After about two seconds my brain adjusts and I don’t even “see” them anymore.
My only real complaint is that Spider-Man lacks a pair of multi-purpose wall-crawling hands. He comes with a pair of fists (great!) and a pair of thwippers (mandatory!) but the lack of a pair of wall-crawling hands impedes his ability to do that Spidey-crouch convincingly, or a number of other non punchyswingy actions. Again, a future Spider-Man figure will no doubt have a pair. I know some people are using previous Spider-Man hands with him, and I’m going to see if I have a spare pair to give him, but if I have to have a criticism, that’s it.
I also need to get some of those webs that I’ve seen people give him.
This Spider-Man is the best one to come out so far. It has scratched that “Great Spidey” itch that I’ve had percolating for a long long time. Even though I know that an even better Spider-Man will probably come out down the line (it always happens) I am completely satisfied with how awesome this one came out.
