Spectacular Spider-man Figure Review

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Despite the fact that I have far too many collections started, I’ve taken it upon myself to find a new collection to start. I decided this seemingly on a whim and thought the new animated Spectacular Spider-man figures might be a good place to start. The new Spider-man toys are everywhere I go and despite originally not liking the redesigns of so many classic characters, something about them finally wore me down and won me over.

There are a ton of “regular” Spider-mans on the market for this line, so I did a little bit of research to find out which one is supposedly the best. I stumbled across this version of Spider-man which is earning the nickname of multi-jointed or super articulated Spider-man. Although I’m not a big fan of tons of articulation on certain figures, I feel Spider-man is the guy who definitely needs lot of articulation so this is the version I picked up. After playing around with him for a little while, I’m not sure if this line is for me or not.

Packaging:

If you’ve been to any store in the past year or so that sells toys you’ve probably seen these packages on the shelf. They feature Spider-man in the top corner in his animated form and the colors are bright and attractive. They just recently relaunched the figure line with this new subset of “SPIDER-CHARGED” figures which all feature a little plastic spider in the lower corner of the bubble. I’m not really sure what the point of this is other than to be able to re-release some old figures and some repaints, but I don’t really have a problem with that.

The back of the package shows off some of the other Spider-Charged guys and gives a little bio. It’s all pretty standard and fairly effective. This is actually the figure on the back, which is nice because the first few series actually featured prototype figures on the back that looked much different than the figure in the package. Never a good thing.

There are no twist ties or rubber bands, but Spider-man’s arms are a little warped in the package. Because of the flexible plastic used in the figure it isn’t as worrisome as some of the bigger figures that get warped, but it’s not exactly pleasing either.

Articulation:

If you’ve ever read any of my other reviews here you’ve probably heard me use the phrase “This guy ain’t Spider-man…” when I point out that so few figures need tons of articulation. In this case, it IS Spider-man so all of his articulation makes sense. I wish I could say that I love it, but I really don’t.

The articulation is good, but the added pivot joint in the shoulders is useless. The ball joint in the shoulders doesn’t work very well and Spider-man can’t put his arms at his sides. I have a real hard time making Spider-man just stand up posed normal. Granted, this is Spider-man so he probably shouldn’t just be standing around, but some of the posing issues did bother me.

However if you’re not a freak like me and don’t want Spider-man standing around normal, then this figure will probably tickle you pink. Spider-man can get into all sorts of poses, he can even cross his legs Indian style. I’m quite impressed with the level of posability even if he can’t put his arms at his sides.

I’m still getting the hang of posing him and I can’t figure out if all his poses look he’s playing air guitar or if I keep posing him like he’s playing air guitar. There are a ton of joints to be had here and some of them like the “ab crunch” joint don’t do much. However, he can definitely fit in a ton of positions and he’s got a decent sense of stability. Just look at that pose on one leg. The figure is made of an almost rubbery plastic which is both good and bad for the posing. Sometimes I found myself bending the plastic rather than the joint.

Sculpt:

I actually have seen very little of the new cartoon show, so much so that I still call it the “new” show and it’s been out for quite a while now. Still, I like to think this figure looks pretty accurate. There are a ton of similar Spider-mans in this line, with some looking more round and human while others have more square angles and look more animated. This one falls a bit inbetween.

Some of the joints are integrated a little clunky with ridges showing off. He reminds me a bit of the 70’s Japanese Spider-man for some reason, but I think that works in his benefit. The paint work is pretty crisp all around although I do have one tiny unpainted area on the center of his main spider symbol. A little Sharpie could fix that.

This figure definitely looks pretty good for the source material and he’s a solid sculpt of the figure. I do think some of the ones with less articulation do look a little better. That’s pretty much the case with any figure though. The less articulation, the better a figure looks. Part of my issue with the old ToyBiz Marvel Legends was that they’d often ruin a sculpt with too much articulation. That’s not necessarily the case here, but I might need a slightly less articulated Spider-man figure for me to truly judge if I like these figures or not.

For what he is though, he’s pretty solid.

Accessories:

Call me crazy, but I actually like all the stupid costumes and accessories that most of these Spectacular Spider-man figures come with. Usually it’s some sort of weird flight costume or scuba gear, but most of them look pretty cool. Sadly this Spider-man doesn’t come with any of that cool stuff.

He gets a “spider-charged” spider that’s a neat little 10¢ cent plastic spider. It looks a bit like a black widow, but it’s in Spider-man’s traditional red and blue. I don’t know exactly what you could do with this, but I’m sure I’d found a use as a kid. It definitely looks better than some of the other little spiders that are included with some of the other figures.

The rest of the accessories are pretty much crap. He comes with two web blasters, which are giant and oversized. Does Spider-man even use web blasters anymore? I figured Marvel completely retconned them after the movie. Honestly, I’d be fine if they did because although web blasters would occasionally give a plot point where Spider-man ran out of web, it makes more sense for him to have them naturally… Even if real spiders shoot webs out their butt.

The web blasts that are included look like Mr. Peanut… No kidding! So maybe they’re Planters blasters and not web blasters. I think you could use the actual blasters as bombs or something in a diorama though.

Additional Notes:

I haven’t watched much of the show, but part of me thinks I should. I hear good things and what I’ve seen is alright. I really liked the 90’s Animated Spider-man series. It was pretty sweet and I collected a ton of those figures. Interestingly it’s the last time I really collected Spider-man toys of any kind.

Value:

Peter Parker’s alter ego here was $11.99 at Toys R Us. I’m not really feeling that price point. These usually run about $10.99 most everywhere else. If the accessories included had been better I might not have felt the sting as bad, but given that this figure is somewhat rare I went ahead and bit the bullet on this guy. He’s more of a $7.99 kinda guy.

Score Recap:

Packaging – 7

Sculpting – 7

Articulation – 9

Accessories – Mr. Peanut Blasts, Web Blaster, Spider

Value – 6

Overall – 7 out of 10

I think I need a new rating system because I end up with 7 out of 10 more often than not. I guess it’s because so many figures have good some stuff and crappy other stuff. I wouldn’t say this figure is crappy, but I don’t love it. There are other 7 out 10’s that I like a lot better. I may or may not continue this line. I want to review a few villains I think first.



And the wind cried… Mar-y!

Anyone else collecting these guys? Should I continue? Love me? Hate me? Leave a comment below and I’ll totally read it.