SPIDER-MAN MOVIE figures

Manufacturer: Toybiz

Released in conjunction with the long-awaited Spider-man live action movie are Toybiz's 2 sets of Spider-man movie action figures. 

Although these have been out for months in the USA, they only finally arrived at my local (Singapore) retail this week, and to my surprise they had dropped the prices down to around Sing$12.90 (US$7). That may not be a big deal to anyone else but for someone who has had to live with Sing$19.90 (US$12) Star Wars, $18.90 (US$10) Spider-man classics and $19.90-$22.90 (US$12-14) Spawn, this was a bloody miracle! It's like 1990 retro pricing! At that price they're the cheapest action figures in my locality right now, save for some clearance items. I felt a rush that i haven't felt in years: the regular retail price actually felt GOOD and WORTHWHILE again. I think the last time I felt like that was when Star wars was still $9.90 (US$6) here, back in 1996.

I was so thrilled I picked up 3 items at their full retail value, something I haven't done in a long time: uberposable Spidey, Lamppost swinging Spidey, and Mary Jane. Heck, at those prices it seemed like a buy 2 get one free deal to me. So here's a review. Lots of pics ahead.

The heads for this series are supposedly Real-scan created (FYI, that's laser-scanning technology that allows an actor's head to be computer-sculpted on a smaller scale). You can't really say much about Spider-man coz of his mask, but it's pretty good nevertheless. MJ looks like a good sculpt, but the paint application makes her look like crap. More on that later. Of the whole line I think Norman Osborne came out the best in terms of actor's likenesses. 

Poser Spidey just rocks in all directions. It's essentially the same body as the previous super-poseable Spider-man Classics series, with an updated sculpt tat reflects the detailing from the movie costume. I never picked up any Spidey Classics coz of the prices and scale. But this was a movie based line and the larger scale's easier for me to swallow, since it doens't have to be compatible with Toybiz's old 5" stuff anymore. I've really been waiting to get my hands on this one, and it doesn't disappoint. There's just sooooo many poses he can assume, and all of them can be show/comic accurate. Plus it's got the new bicep cut, which the regular Spidey Classics here don't have. The paint app's relatively alright considering the detail in the suit. And its compatible with the X-movie figs. But really, this figure puts everything else TB has ever made to shame. THIS IS SPIDER-MAN. I highly recommend this figure to everyone!

MJ on the other hand, sucks. Her sculpt and posture don't lend themselves to much use apart from standing there, so she's practically a statue with useless joints. I'm most pissed at her not being able to pose in a way so that Spidey can carry her as he swings, a la Tarzan/Jane or Luke/Leia (See, my E-comic for more!!). It looks like he's carrying a blow-up doll. Yeech. Kirsten Dunst fans (of which I'm not one) might want it just coz it's Kirsten, but I feel the sculpt / paint app for the face stinks. She looks like a drag queen, with those drugged eyes and huge lashes. Refer again to the blow-up doll reference.

Her accessory's not bad, and it looks and works well on the whole. My small gripe is that the button, being on the front, means that you have to push it in the opposite direction that it's supposed to collaspe in, which feels odd. maybe it'll work better if I shoot a Goblin missle at it instead of releasing it manually, I dunno. Gotta wait to get a Goblin figure to try that out.

I thought I never needed another Spidey, but I went and bought the swinging Spidey too. FOR THE LAMP POST!! That is one sweet sweet lamp post, and it comes with so much stuff it looks like it was made by Kaiyodo! Traffic lights, walk signs, drain cover....even the bloody newspaper machine OPENS and has 3 copies of the bugle inside! And assembled, the thing is HUGE. It's about 12" or so from top to bottom, I think. Looks like a great prop. 

Yet even at that size it's not quite to scale....the news dispenser comes up to Spidey's crotch, which is way to small. And Spidey's head towers over the walk signs. It looks more like it's suited to a 4" scale or so.

Spidey's a so-so figure. It's not a bad pose, but the leg're one piece except for the ankles, and he can't be posed much. His web-shooting / crawling feature is kinda fun, but it looks a bit silly, and his lack of ball shoulders means his arms are always too close to his sides. But the webbing they gave this set is a very cool accessory. It works well either as a thread to hang Spidey from somewhere, or as a shooting stream.

Overall I'm pretty happy with these 2 Spideys. They're great, fun toys. I'm pretty pleased with the Spidey movie line on the whole, and it looks of much higher quality than the X-movie figures.  I've dumped swing spidey with the gargoyle head thing that came with poser Spidey, and used Poser spidey with the lamp post set. It looks pretty good if you can ignore the scale issues.

And with a little creativity you can get the lamp post to look just the right scale. ;-)

~22/04/02~

READ MY E-COMIC FEATURING THE SPIDEY FIGURES!