Spider-Man Marvel Legends Infinite Series: Black Cat, Amazing Spider-Man, Superior Spider-Man, Ultimate Green Goblin figure review

Its amazing how many Marvel Legends figures have hit in the last few months with complete series already into their variant waves and new ones ready to drop in tune to the slew of Marvel movies on the horizon. This is part two of the Marvel Legends Spider-Man series review and features Black Cat, Amazing Spider-Man, and Superior-Spider-Man (also known as SpOck because it's Doc Ock's mind in Peter Parker's body. Yeah, comic weirdness). The finished Build-A-Figure is the Ultimate Green Goblin and makes this review a bit longer than normal.

We'll start with the sculpts which are all brand new body molds with the exception of Black Cat's lower torso which the SDCC Moonstone/Satana share. Amazing Spider-Man (ASM) is a thin body with embossed webs instead of raised like the movie character. Other than the movie front/back symbols this will basically pass for your classic Spidey. He shares the special layered-plastic technique we covered before. That red and blue on his torso isn't paint, its bonded plastic. The webbing is cut in as thick lines instead of the normal thin lines leading to it looking a bit squarish. Spidey does have some rather large gaps in his hips and shoulders which allow his articulation to shine.

Black Cat's sculpt is voluptuous and full of detail with great looking fur sections and a face sculpt that's actually pretty. The hair sculpt is . Her small clawed hands look great as do her high heeled boots. It's interesting to see brand new legs and arms instead of just fur sections glued to the new female body sculpt. Superior Spider-Man (Spock) has a thinner more 'teenager' body that's all new as well. His fingertips have little grip-nubs on them and his headsculpt is a little more alien-looking than the normal Spiderman style. It appears the wrong size pins were used in his limbs as you can see the pronounced nubs sticking out of the sides. ASM fares a little better in the nub-department except you can see the red of them against the inside of the blue arms.

Articulation for ASM is downright fantastic. He can pose in almost any way you can imagine such as the classic leg-over-arm or squatting hunched. A new shoulder style has been adopted here, one with the entire shoulder free-floating on a single post instead of locked in top and bottom. This allows for him to reach straight up but leaves a large gap in the shoulder. The shoulder won't break off the post as it's thick pvc plastic but can become loose. Spock has the same shoulder style without the gap and it looks much better. Both Spider-men can cross their arms in front of them and even stand on one leg so there's some great balance in this mold.

Black Cat's articulation is decent enough but her elbows are severely hindered by the bicep sculpt and the fur cuffs, not even being able to get into a 90 degree angle unless you cut away some of the black plastic. This is due to the hinge-cup joint instead of a pin-hinge. Her torso range is excellent as are her legs, tho due to the angle of her high heeled boots her 45 deg ankle rocker isn't as useful as the other figures using this style. Black Cat's hair keeps her from looking up or down but side to side range is acceptable. Oddly enough her wrists are hinged sideways instead of up and down meaning she can't place her claws out towards anything. This was probably so she can wield the whip in a better fashion.

Paint applications for ASM are cleanly applied with most figures but check the eyes as they can be painted off-kilter. There's a nice black wash in his weblines and the layered plastic fills in the need to paint the torso. Spock's paint work is basic with a little red on primarily black plastic. The 'sloppy' lines on his face and chest are actually accurate to the comic where his costume now looks like it has true spider webs covering it in an asymmetrical style. However they're thick and some figures have missing or mis-alinged sections so check yours carefully before purchase. Black Cat's paint is nice with a clean face and great blue shadows in her fur and hair. Everything else is just black or white plastic.

Each figure comes with a few accessories. ASM and Spock have an extra pair of 'thwip' hands and parts to the Build-A-Figure. Spock's hands in general are huge and it shows with the thwip set. Black Cat has her claw-whip made from soft plastic and it looks quite neat. She also comes with the torso of the BAF. Now the reason to purchase all the figures in the set becomes clear, you can assemble the main accessory, a 9 inch tall Ultimate Green Goblin. He's based on the Avengers Walmart movie Hulk body with a reused torso and legs. He looks wicked with spikes all over his arms, horns, and those tattered Hulk pants. The fire effects are amazing looking and you'll be using them in all sorts of ways others than just clipping them to Goblin. Catch fire to everything!

Green Goblin's paint work is so-so with the spines a bit sloppily painted and no other tone of green for his skin, However the dark green works here and the flames add some color. The black flames don't really clip on like the arm flames but hang on his shoulders like a backpack of sorts. They'll fall off if you turn him upside down. Goblin's articulation is excellent, the same as Hulk's and with the new open-claws can slash at Spiderman convincingly.

So do these figures justify an out-of-pocket expense? Well, yes, especially since we haven't had a good classic Spider-Man filler or Black Cat in a long time. Superior Spider-Man could be a pass especially if you hate the new story arc but the body style is really nice and you'd be one part short of Green Goblin otherwise. Snag this set and all the other Marvel Legends Infinite series at our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store or head over to Amazon with your fingers crossed they're still at retail price. Now for some more pictures.

The Amazing Spiderman 2 Marvel Legends Infinite Series: Carnage, Electro, Beetle (Green Goblin BAF) action figure review

Remember when Marvel Legends was just Marvel Legends? Each year they get more and more titles tacked on to them. Recently it's a great excuse to attach Marvel Legends to a movie title and get retailers to order that series. While there's only two figures in this series from the movie, don't tell Big Retail that! Here we take a look at some of the bad guys, Marvel's Electro, Spawn of the Symbiotes, and Deadliest Foes. To save money the names 'Carnage and Beetle' aren't on there so they can share the same package as Boomerang and Toxin.

Normally I skip the packaging unless it's something special. Well folks, it's something special. We now have COLLECTOR FRIENDLY PACKAGING. Open either side flap and slide out the tray. There's no twisties either. Some cases have the side flaps taped while others are open. The packages themselves are excellent looking. The black background is matte but all print and pictures are a slightly raised gloss. It makes them look like real collectibles on the shelf. On the back is a quick bio and pictures of the other characters (Black Cat, Superior Spiderman, and Amazing Spiderman) that make up the wave.

We'll start with Carnage first. His sculpt is based on the current body (US Agent, Black Panther, Hawkeye, etc) with brand new lower arms and legs. These have tendril wisps sprouting from them and even the feet are new. Carnage's head and hands are classic looking and the claws are flexible enough to grasp objects. There is no raised sculpt on the body, the black lines are paint but that's how he appeared in the comic anyway.

Carnage's articulation is top notch and the range of it allows for dynamic leaping/slashing poses. Like the other figures reviewed here he can look almost straight up or down thanks to a vastly improved ball jointed head. Everyone has the new tilt ankles! His paint work is primarily cast read plastic with clean black squiggles. His face has the pink inner mouth and is equally cleanly applied. His accessories include a 'tendril backpack' that attaches to him or any of the other figures with a port on the back for strangling-spawning-action!

Electro is supposedly Jamie Fox's character in the new movie tho the headsculpt looks like a generic bald human and nothing like the actor. His body is a unique sculpt all the way around and has burnt/melted sections, I suppose from him gaining his powers in the movie perhaps. There's all sorts of ports on his suit and a neat collar. Electro's paint work is a cleanly applied light blue airbrushing to the black cast plastic and some rusty burnt color to the damaged sections. His clear blue head and hands are opalescent as well and look pretty neat.

Electro's articulation has plenty of range and only his ankles are slightly hindered from the forward/back motion because of his pants cuffs. Side to side they're great. He comes with the most accessories, an extra head with charged-eyes, two electric blast hands, and two fists. The fists are tiny, watch out or you'll loose them. They pop in and out snugly.

The Beetle is his current almost robotic-looking incarnation with another completely unique sculpt. He's slender with detailed bands along his red undersuit with a great headsculpt. On his forearms are raised blasters and his large two-toed feet make for easy posing. The Beetle's paint work is a bit more involved with separated silver sections and big yellow eyes. His wingpack sports a great looking green-to-yellow gradient to it as well.

The Build-a-Figure for this wave is Ultimate Green Goblin which is the Avengers Walmart exclusive Hulk body and upper legs. Everything else are new sculpts with a bumpy, scaly texture and broken horn tips. The paint is a little messy on the horned parts unfortunately. Here even the accessories have accessories! Goblin's arms come with awesome looking removable flames and Carnage comes with the head/black flame. These flame effects can be clipped on to other figures just for kicks or used for custom flame effects.

So what's the verdict here? These figures are nice, really nice. They're sturdy, everyone has fully updated articulation and range of movement. All the pvc plastic is firm, not rubbery as well. While they don't have amazing paint jobs what's there is clean and looks great. The ability to put the figures back in the boxes is something we've needed to truly make Marvel Legends a collectors line and is a welcome change. Snag this set at our Sponsor Big Bad Toy Store or head over to Amazon and see if you can catch them on sale but watch out, their Super Saver Shipping has been raised to $35 worth of product now. It's still a deal if you're buying them all tho.

Ultimate Spiderman 'Ultra Strike Spiderman' action figure review

There's a new Spiderman series out called Ultimate Spiderman which has different scales of figures including a 6" one. Be warned however that this is a kid-targeted line which features incorporated gimmicks and far less articulation than even past children's lines had. I was however surprised to find a "super poseable" Spiderman in this assortment and decided to see if he was worth the $12.99 price tag. However I needed to find one with a head first....

Whoops, someone on Hasbro's packaging design team is getting fired. Open-packaging may get kids to interact with the figure in stores leading towards a higher pitched scream and product-clutching-fingers when mom says no, but it's a nightmare for retailers. Sticky fingers, scratched paint, and in this case missing heads. Yes the ball jointed heads of these figures pop right off and you'll be seeing quite a few looking like this in Walmarts or other low security retail giants. That is except for Target which sends a shock troop of employees down the aisle if a child sneezes on a product. With only one paper twisty to hold them in I've seen two packages sans figures entirely.

Sculpting on Spiderman is simple, nostalgically classic which isn't to say it's without detail. The web lines are sharply defined and there's plenty of muscle detail. Spidey's eyes are perfect and there's no soft sculpts like we've seen in the line before this one. It's not a Marvel Legends style sculpt but rather looking like the cartoon character on which it's based and surprisingly like the old Animated Spiderman series which is why I picked up the figure in the first place.

Articulation isn't truly as 'super-poseable' as the package states but it does have more joints than the other figures in the assortment which have T-crotches and no elbows. This particular Spiderman has ball shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and those great 45 deg ball ankles. The lack of waist or ab crunch hurts the figure's posability and you'll have to carve away some of the crotch plastic to get him into a full 90 deg sitting position. The same can be done to the back of his legs to improve the range of motion there as the ball-in-cup joints don't have the greatest of range. Still he has better movement than the last Spiderman Classics series which you can still find in stores. He also has surprisingly good balance and can be posed on one foot like in the picture to the left. No wires or stand here folks.

Most of the paint work is done using the new plastic-layering technique. The red on his body, forearms, and legs is actually bonded to the blue plastic instead of being painted. The only part painted is the blue of his biceps, black lines, and eyes. While this doesn't give you any washes or highlights (this is a kid's line remember) the plastic layering is super precise and there's 0 bleed with the colors touching. I could get use to this technique if it was refined enough to do minute detail like a figure's eyes or symbols. Here it's used well but overall the figure is basically cast in color.

Accessories include a dart shooter that clips on to his arm but will instantly find itself in the fodder bin. Pull back on the dart and it weakly leaps from the shooter. Eh, at least it wasn't built into his arm right? The dart has a hole in it which I suppose was suppose to have a web-string tied on there but was ditched at the last moment. Most 'super-poseable' figures lack weapons to budget in the extra joints. Perhaps we could have gotten a waist cut or hinges if that dart shooter had been left on the design table.

So what's the verdict with Ultimate super-poseable Spidey here? He's not a terrible Spiderman but he's not Amazing Spiderman either. The $12.99 price tag is lower than the $20 we're used to paying. For the price cut you get cut paint apps and so-so articulation. He's scaled just fine to fit in with your Marvel legends and a customizer could get his joints working much better, maybe even give him that waist he's sorely lacking. He has a solid heasculpt as does the Nova in the series but you'll have to find one that hasn't been pilfered. You can find this Spiderman line everywhere and fiddle with his limbs to see if he's a fitting Animated Spiderman stand-in for your collection.

Amazing Spiderman & The Lizard Walmart exclusive 6"Movie figure review

Sony Pictures needed to film another Spiderman movie or the license would revert back to Marvel so we got a reboot of sorts, The Amazing Spiderman. There are two scales of figures, the smaller 3 3/4" figures are found everywhere but only Walmart cares the 'Legends' 6" size of Studio Series figures. In the first assortment is the movie Spiderman, The Lizard, and Ultimate Spiderman from the comics. Here we take a look at the movie characters. Amazing Spiderman and Lizard.

Sculpt for Spidey is really detailed and includes all the different textures of his suit, webline cuts, and musculature of an athletic human. The little web-shooters on his wrist are detailed and the elongated spider on his chest look great. The goggles appear to sit just a tad bit up too high but not terribly so. One hand is sculpted to grab and the other in the classic 'thwip' style. No waist cut makes the suit look very streamlined around the hips and overall Spidey looks great.

The Lizard's sculpt is covered in detail as well, crazy amounts of scales down to the tiniest ones on the legs, reptilian-like skin folds, creases, and the face is still creepy-human-like that we've seen. The Lizard's hips do seem oddly large but he is a big figure standing at over 7" tall. He has the fused right fingers and a long lizard tail that snaps on. It's not bendy however and is just there to help balance him.

Articulation for Spiderman includes hinged wrists that allow him to grip a vertical or horizontal pole/surface, 45 deg swivel ankles like the new MU figures, and great range in his torso joint. His hips could be better to allow for his legs to come up further to crouch tho. You could carve out a bit of hip socket plastic to help with this if you wanted. His neck has decent range to for Spiderman to look around.

The Lizard's articulation is even more extensive. His neck is ball jointed but he also has a sliding lower neck that allows him to look straight up. Cut wrists instead of hinged but excellent shoulder motion. He has the same double joints with hinges for his lower feet. They aren't tilt so you'll have to fiddle with him for a wide stance. A great torso hinge and tail swivel/hinge round out his articulation.

Paint apps for the Lizard include great airbrushed underbelly highlights and dark shading...except they forgot to paint his tail! It's cast in all green and looks a bit jarring so you may want to get our your paint brush. Spidey's paint work is clean with sharp lines. They tried a black wash to bring out the web detail but it was too thin and is virtually unnoticeable except where it pooled in places. Aside from those issues the colors and application is nice.

Plentiful accessories return in this series! The Lizard comes with three reptile cohorts all completely painted with washes and nice detail. Both figures come with the linking hex-stands that Studio Series and Marvel legends are including. Spiderman get three flexible weblines. They have loops on one end and hooks on the other so you can wrap them around figures or link together for webswinging. They're a neat pearlescent plastic.

So what's the verdict on these figures? They're 6" Legends scale at $15-$17 depending on your Walmart. Since they can only be found there you're off hunting for them but they are nice figures and Lizard is pretty huge. Your alternatives are the larger 7" Marvel Select figures that both our sponsors Past Generation Toys and Big Bad Toy Store have. Don't forget Miles Morales as Ultimate Spiderman is in the set too. He comes with a web-shield ala Marvel vs Capcom's Spiderman.

Marvel Legends 2012 Series 2 Big Time Spiderman, Arnim Zola, Madame Masque figure review

Hasbro's Marvel Legends series has retaken the shelves by storm and continues to sell out. With DC Universe on hiatus until 2013 the 6" scale superhero scale is dominated by Marvel at the moment. To finish up our review of series 2 we have Spiderman in his Future Foundation costume, Madame Masque, and Build-a-Figure Arnim Zola. Finding these figures on the pegs has been tough recently due to lack of restock and movie lines taking all the available space.

Madame Masque kicks off the review by being a very nice female figure using the Sharon Carter body. She features a brand new head and gloves as well as a belt. Her overall sculpt is great for a female and variations of this make up the bulk of the new Marvel Legends females. Her paint work is clean with light blue shading that looks great on the white and a bright gold mask being her trademark. Also gold colored is her gun which fits into her belt holster.

Madame Masque comes with another gun (which was promptly lost, sorry) and both are re-uses from the earlier Nick Fury/Hand Ninja 2-pack. Her articulation is excellent with the exception of not having tilt ankles. Her wrists do turn at the glove cuff. Future Foundation Spiderman is up next, this being the variant, or rather easier-to-find version than the Big Time green and black suit. His main body is Captain Marvel but has an all new head, lower arms, hands, lower legs and feet.

Spidey's paint work is black paint on white plastic without any shading or highlights but it absolutely works for him. The contrast is excellent and the lines are clean and crisp, mine had 0 slop. Spiderman's articulation is amazing. He has full tilt wrists, head that can look straight up, and 45 deg ankles that allow for tilt. Coupled with his already great range of motion you can get him into some great classic poses. He does not come with an Arnim Zola piece however and has no accessories.

The build-a-figure in the set is the twisted geneticist Doctor Arnim Zola and somewhat of an obscure character when it comes to BAF choices. His body is an all new sculpt and it looks great with flowing sleeves, banded legs, the sensor-head and main head in the TV-type apparatus for his chest. His hands are sculpted nice, one open gesturing right palm and a gripping left one to hold his remote device.

Articulation for Zola is also great, full range of motion on every part of him such as hinged wrists, 45 tilt ankles, waist, even ball hips. Hasbro could have skimped seeing as Zola doesn't do much fighting in the comics himself but went all out. His paint is crisp and clean, gold detailing nicely applied but doesn't have any shading or highlights. His human face looks neat (a sticker it appears) under the clear plastic and completes his bizarre appearance. Is he worth collecting all 6 figures? It may depend on how familiar you are with the character.

So what's the verdict? These are some excellent figures. Spiderman is the big winner here with great styling design, articulation, and paint work that's notoriously hard to pull off cleanly. Masque has a variant, Madame Hydra that's much harder to find as that case has the Big Time spidey that's commanding big bucks on the aftermarket. The figures can be found at our sponsors Past Generation Toys and Big Bad Toy Store at preorder which means you won't miss out on them. Try to find them in the stores and you may only find a Drax or Dakken left as Spiderman and Masque are snatched up quick.

Marvel Universe Scarlet Spider figure Review

Spiderman has gone through a lot of changes over the years, none so controversial as the whole clone thing that read like a bad soap opera. But one good thing to come out of it was the Scarlet Spider costume design, a red suit with a blue hoodie. Here we have SS in 3 3/4" scale in the Marvel Universe series. I really wish they'd make one 6" scale because this figures shows how well they could do it.

Scarlet Spider has great articulation since he sports an updated MU body that has the better torso and cut hips. Still no rocker ankles and only single joint elbows so far but it's still the better MU body and works great here. You can get SS into the spiderman poses you need and still have him look great. His head is on a decent ball joint as well.

Sculpting on his hoodie and costume accessories are excellent. They're all removable too if you pop his different joints off carefully, with the exception of the hoodie. You could remove that too if you peeled the glue from the side seam however. Basic body sculpt and paint is on par with the current MU offerings, a great wash on the hoodie and sharp details on the eyes. The spider symbol is nicely done as well.

If you like the Scarlet Spider design then hit up Past Generations Toys because he's selling out everywhere. They also have harder to find characters like X-23 and Steve Rogers. With Marvel Universe exploring a whole lot of characters you can add Scarlet Spidey to your collection as the first decent version of him we've ever had. Just watch out for clones and Jackals. They end up making a mess of things.

Spiderman 4" series Stretch Strike Venom action figure review

The newest 4" Spiderman series is floating around and contains what looks like the best Venom figure in years, Stretch Strike Venom. First thing you'll notice is that he isn't black like in the comics but a dark gray-brownish color with metallic purple highlights. It's not nearly as garish as it sounds in hand but that's what Testors Acryl semigloss black paint is for.

Venom's sculpting is excellent, lots of musculature and tendrily detail. Unlike most figures he's solid PVC so he has some heft and the back tendrils flex. The facial sculpt is sharp just like the teeth and the tongue isn't over the top. I really like the long arms and no-nail clawtips are sculpted. Head and hands, the most important part of a figure.

The articulation is acceptable and better than most figures in the series. Ball head, shoulders, and hips. He's missing a waist, ankle, and unfortunately wrists but that still doesn't hinder him much from getting into some awesome poses. This really surprised me. The range of motion is really good too allowing for everything to move regardless of his stocky form.

Speaking of surprises his action feature isn't all that horrible. It's a blast that attaches to his hand and resembles symbiote moray eel. It's made of a stretchy silicon and can be wrapped around, also jointed at where it attaches to the firmer plastic end that goes on his hand. The sculpt is sharp, this could have worked for an alternate head it's so nice, the gaping mouth and vicious teeth. What's the downside? Finding this guy. Right now he's being scalped by the neackbeard population for upwards of $40. Hopefully the assortment will find its way into more stores but with older Spiderman figs still clogging the pegs who knows.

Right now only Amazon has him.