TOY REVIEW: Marvel Legends Infinite Series' The Amazing Spider-Man lives up to hype

As “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” swings into theaters this year, it also brings a wonderful webpack full of merchandise with it. 

 

Along with the usual swag, Hasbro has dedicated an entire wave of its popular 6”-scale Marvel Legends line (now the Marvel Legends Infinite Series) to the wall-crawler and his supporting cast.

 

Of course, no Spider-Man toy line would be complete without a basic Spider-Man figure. The problem with Spider-Man, however, is that he probably holds the record for “Super-Hero with the Most Number of Action Figures Made in His Likeness” (though Batman’s a pretty strong contender for that title, too). 

 

It’s pretty challenging to find reasons why you should own another Spider-Man figure, when there are literally hundreds already scattered around toy stores and hobby shops everywhere. This one, however – “The Amazing Spider-Man” – merits a closer look, as it’s one of the best 6” Spidey figures ever made.

 

Packaging 

 

Unlike the gigantic clamshells (and later on, carded bubble packaging) used in previous waves of Marvel Legends, the rebranded Marvel Legends Infinite Series favors smaller, more collector-friendly boxes.

 

On the front of the box “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is written across the top. The logo of the toyline appears at the bottom, with the name of the figure directly underneath it. The front also features a clear plastic window, which allows you to actually see the figure and its accessories before you buy it.

 

The back of the box features a large promotional image of the figure, which also shows just how much of it was changed during the transition from design to distribution. Most notably, the webbing on the promotional sample is embossed instead of engraved. Right next to the picture is a small blurb of text providing a short description of the character. I got my figure from a Canadian seller, so the packaging’s multilingual (and no, I don’t mean it has the ability to mock me for my spending habits in flawless French).

 

Below the blurbs and the promo image, we see a bunch of portraits depicting the other characters from this new toy series.

 

Sculpt and build 

 

From the proportions of the bulbous, big-eyed head, to the figure’s height, this is definitely Spider-Man, or at least a younger version of the Spider-Man we’re all familiar with. He’s not as lanky as the other Spideys previously released by ToyBiz (the company that used to handle Marvel Legends) and Hasbro, but he’s definitely not a muscle-bound powerhouse, either.

 

Further, the choice to go with engraved webbing (as opposed to raised detail) makes it much easier to look at this toy and pretend that it’s actually the Spider-Man from the comics. 

 

It’s a great apology for the rather terrible costume from the first Webb-directed Spider-Man film, and truth be told, it really gives you your money’s worth. You’d be able to justify buying it even if you don’t like movie merchandise, partly because it looks close enough to comics Spidey, and partly because it’s so fun to fiddle with (feel free to skip to the second-to-the-last part of this review if you need proof right this instant, or if you routinely failed marshmallow tests as a child).

 

There’s one persistent complaint about the sculpt that I keep hearing from other people, though – the chest looks weird. The pectoral articulation makes the chest look small, underdeveloped, and quite un-“super-heroic,” especially when the figure’s just standing straight. However, it’s easy to look past that when you take into consideration that the figure – and, well, the character – was practically designed to do anything but stand straight. 

 

It’s Spider-Man; he’s supposed to be in a variety of leaping, swinging, crawling, and crouching poses, not posturing arrogantly like Thor.

 

The paint job

 

The paint apps on this toy play a vital role in ensuring that it ends up looking like the Amazing Spider-Man and not the Amazing Spilled-A-Bucket-Of-Blood-Over-My-Head-Man.

 

Spider-Man’s costume consists of five different colors – red, blue, black, white, and bad luck. The one I have seems to be an accurate representation of all five of those.

 

Unfortunately, a couple of annoying errors stand in the way of this figure getting a perfect score in this category. The paint on his left eye is slightly misaligned, and while it may be hardly noticeable when you’re already too busy having fun with the figure, the raised detail on the eye betrays the fact that the mistake is there, staring you in the face and daring you to pick up a brush and fix it yourself.

 

The most glaring error here on my figure, however, is his chest logo – it’s horribly off-center. As in, the kind of off-center that ends up giving you a sixteen-legged spider. Not good at all.

 

Another minor quibble: that tiny serial number behind his left thigh is incredibly annoying. I’m tempted to grab some a bottle of blue acrylic paint and strike it out.

 

Articulation

 

This figure is also amazingly poseable. Clocking in at 34 points of articulation, Spider-Man has a swivel-and-hinge neck, lateral pectoral swivels, ball shoulders, bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows, wrist hinges/swivels, an abdominal crunch, a waist swivel, hips, thigh swivels, double-jointed knees, boot swivels, ankle hinges, and diagonal ankle swivels that function just like ankle rockers.

 

However, despite the remarkable amount of articulation on this figure, there are still quite a few notable omissions. For starters, Spidey doesn’t sport the individually articulated fingers that allow him to do punching, web-shooting, or even pointing poses (more on that later). This figure also doesn’t have toe joints – something that a Spider-Man figure needs in order to do great crouching and crawling poses. 

 

The figure also would have benefited from a ball-jointed torso in addition to his abdominal crunch and waist swivel, but that’s just gravy. Lastly, a double-jointed neck would have been great, just so Spidey could look up a bit higher.

 

Accesories 

 

Taking a cue from Japanese toy lines such as Microman, Revoltech, and Figma, this Spidey eschews individually articulated fingers in favor of swappable hands. He comes with two pairs of hands – fists and webshooting (or “thwipp-ing”) hands. They pop on and off the figure’s wrists with minimal effort, but are snug enough to stay in place without hampering their articulation. It would have been great if he came with open “crawling” palms, but life won’t exactly hand you everything, princess. Also, he doesn’t come with a stand, so I had to use one of my own for these pictures.

 

For the longest time, the Marvel Legends line has featured a BAF as a “bonus” figure you can assemble after collecting an entire wave. As mentioned earlier, the Ultimate version of the Green Goblin – essentially a flame-powered Hulk-type with bony protrusions on its head and arms – was chosen as this wave’s BAF, and Spider-Man comes with the ugly monstrosity’s left arm.

 

Fun factor

 

The best reason why this figure is worth buying? He can pretty much do whatever Spider-Man can.

 

Here’s a good experiment: pull up an image search for Spider-Man pictures (just be careful to not grow a Hitler mustache and a two-by-four haircut while doing it) and look for any pose you’d want this figure to imitate. I tried it, and I was very satisfied with the results. Of course, he can’t do every pose perfectly well, but what he can do is pretty impressive.

 

The articulation was brilliantly engineered – you could tell that years of experience and endless Spider-Man toys have made a significant impact on Hasbro’s designing decisions. Whether you’re the kind of collector who picks just one iconic, permanent pose or plays with toys on a boring Sunday afternoon, you’ll definitely be happy.

 

The bottomline?

 

This figure should be in every Spider-Man fan’s collection. It’s not out in the Philippines yet, but I assume it will be released here pretty soon. It’ll probably cost between P1,000-1,400. That’s an intelligent guess, by the way, not an official statement. — KDM, GMA News