Review of the Spider-Man
Collector's Gallery Statue

Introduction

I was never a huge Marvel fan as a kid. Most of the characters seemed one dimensional to me, even at a young age...but there was one major exception. Spider-Man was da bomb, a nerdy kid like me who was part accidental superhero, part genius boy wonder, and all around smart ass.

I think the new character in the MCU comes the closest to meeting my expectations, and I look forward to his continuing adventures with the rest of the film gang. Unlike a character like Ant Man or Iron Man, who did not hold my interest in the comic books but I love in the MCU, Spider-Man is a consistent favorite across both mediums.

Gentle Giant is releasing a nifty new statue of the wall crawler as part of their Collector's Gallery series. This series covers Star Wars and Marvel right now, and the statues are in a 1/8 scale. Spider-Man is a limited edition of 2000, and will run you around $170 depending on the retailer.

Packaging - ***1/2
The outer box is pretty basic stuff, and the entire statue is one piece, nestled safely in hard foam egg shell trays. I didn't see the edition size or number anywhere on the box, but it is on the base of the statue, and of course it's on the cool baseball card style Certificate of Authenticity. I love these COA's, and they get a half star here just for including it.

Sculpting - ****
Spidey is hanging upside down from a street lamp. It's a pretty standard pose, but they've done an excellent job with proportion and style, allowing the final design to really pop on the shelf.

As I mentioned, this series is in a 1/8 or so scale, and this full statue stands 14 inches tall. The thick base replicates the street surface, and ensures that he won't topple in any direction. The pole isn't a modern size or style, but it does remind me of the 60's, hitting my nostalgia button.

The sculpt is sharp and well defined, with key areas (like the suit webbing) sculpted in, rather than simply painted. The musculature on his body is fairly realistic while maintaining a comic feel, and I love the slight cock to his head position, adding just the right amount of questioning attitude.

To ensure no excessive stress would be placed on the white webbing holding him from above or on the top of the pole, his back is also attached tightly to the street walk sign. It's not obvious from most angles though, creating the illusion that it is only the webbing holding him aloft.

Paint - ***1/2
This is a fairly large statue, so any blips or smudges along the edges between colors or any inconsistency in coverage or finish would be instantly noticeable in hand. I'm happy to report that there are almost zero such issues, with an exceptionally well done production paint job on the entire statue.

There's a very cool contrast between the dark, smudgy, dirty appearance of the pole, street surface, and cross walk sign and the clean, sharp appearance of his suit. This sets the two apart nicely, drawing your eye immediately to focus on Spidey.

Light Feature - ***1/2
Many of the Collector's Gallery statues run closer to $150, unless they are a large character, like the Hulk. The reason for the extra cost here is simple - they've included a light feature.

The battery compartment is on the bottom, easy enough to get to when swapping batteries, but out of the way visually. There's also an on/off switch on the bottom, so you can control the use of the lights overall.

But they were smart enough not to rely on that switch alone. You never want to pick up your statues over and over again - you're just asking for trouble.  They added a second switch on the side of the pole, camouflaged in the center of a sculpted panel. It's a genius design because it looks exactly like it belongs there, and doesn't stand out as something out of place.

The statue comes with the batteries already inserted. Flip the switch on the bottom, put the statue on your shelf, and any time you want to light him up, just push the button on the side. Both the street light and the cross walk light illuminate. That's not a problem, but I did take a half star away since both the walk and don't walk symbols light up at the same time.  Something to switch between the two would have been great, but of course would have added some additional cost.

Value - **1/2
Statues in approximately this scale include DC's Cover Girls or Bombshells series. They run $100 - $120, with a lot less complexity. Obviously, there's no light up feature, and even the overall designs are much less detailed. I'd be happier at $150, where I think this guy would be an average value, but you won't feel like you over paid at $160 or so.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing. There's no assembly, and you don't even have to insert the batteries right out of the box.

Overall - ***1/2
Gentle Giant's Collector's Gallery series is producing some very high quality, very well done statues across multiple licenses. It's a style and scale that fits in well with statues produced by other manufacturers, but the overall quality - particularly the paint quality - is a step above.

This particular Spider-Man has a very cool, very functional light feature going for it as well. It's probably not something they could sensibly incorporate into every character, but they saw the potential here and went for it. The execution is well thought out, something that is sadly lacking in most light features.

BTW, the next photo was posed with maximum caption potential in mind.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Light Feature - ***1/2
Value - **1/2
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth is also at $180, but has free shipping.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I don't have much based on the new movie yet, but you should check out the Hot Toys Spider-Man and Electro from the Amazing Spider-Man movie series. Hot Toys also did a Spider-Man and Green Goblin based on the last Raimi movie.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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