Packaging - Marvel Select: *** Hasbro: *** ½
I quite like Marvel Select’s packaging. It is sturdy and displays the figure and base nicely. On the side of the box, is a nice shot of Iron Spider-Man’s new mask. The bubble of the packing has a cool looking sticker with Iron Spidey’s new chest logo. However, its bulkiness detracts from it’s overall score.

Hasbro went with the standard card and bubble for the Spider-Man Origins toy line. It seems that they are drawing from both mediums that the webhead has appeared in for this line, as there are images from both the movies and comics on the card. The Origins logo is quite nice: a grey font with a faint web pattern upon it. In the center of the “O” there is a spider that is hanging from a web. A nice touch, I think. 

Sculpting - ***1/2 for both
Judging solely on the sculpt, both figures deserve this rating. However, I am extremely disappointed with Marvel Select. This figure is simply a repaint of another figure, Marvel Select’s Symbiote Spider-Man. This would have been a perfect score for the figure, but they forgot one thing. For the Symbiote Spider-Man, there are small rectangular engravings on the backs of the hands, allowing Spidey to have his classing white web-shooting patches. For the Iron Spider-Man, they neglected to remove the engravings. So, for no reason, Iron Spidey has 2 rectangles on his hands. Iron Spider-Man has raised eyes, and extremely well defined features. I loved the sculpt of the Symbiote Spider-Man, and still do on this figure.

The Spider-Man Origins sculpt is quite nice. I’m very impressed with Hasbro’s transition of the costume from comic to figure. He too has raised eyes but, unlike Marvel Select, his chest symbol, yellow boot portions, yellow wrist section, and Spider-Leg apparatus are all raised up off of the normal paint. In fact, the only yellow area that isn’t raised are the spider-legs painted onto his back. There is some fantastic muscular development and definition, particularly on the chest. The only area that is off is the neck. Looking at the figure straight on it looks normal, but from a side view, the neck is a little wider than it should be. Spidey even has 3 extra arms that are nicely sculpted. They plug right into the back of his suit. 

Paint - Marvel Select: ***1/2, Hasbro: **1/2
The paint job on the Marvel Select figure is passable. The symbol is painted well. Unlike the Hasbro version, this figure isn’t entirely metallic. The gold portions of the costume are metallic, but aren’t overly highlighted. There is some slight color running, but it isn’t noticeable unless you truly study the figure. 

The Hasbro, at first glance, looks very nice. However, his paint job leaves much to be desired. From the top down: his head is nicely painted. There are a few black dots that don’t belong there, but they’re quite hard to see. The chest emblem seems to be where Hasbro has dedicated most of its resources. The logo is very well painted, and even ripples along the rib cage. The shoulders are fine; all they are is a yellow band across each shoulder. The wrists are mediocre at best, however. The paint job is bumpy, and lacks any definition whatsoever. It seems as though someone took a brush and made a few sweeps around the wrist. The ankle braces are fine, there are a few bumps on their tops, on the backs of Spidey’s legs, but they’re nice nonetheless. The back is okay. The base that holds the Spider-attack legs is decently painted. The legs, however, are where I felt most let down. In the comics, these legs appear to be shining and golden. What we get is a decent shade of yellow. These just appear to be sculpted in color and popped onto his back. Just as with Spider-Man 2099, this figure has a nice “Supermetal Finish”. It gives the red on the figure a nice shine. There are, however, spots on the figure where this finish hasn’t been applied and the figure’s base color can be seen. On my figure these areas include: a small part of the neck, the spot on a few fingers where the fingers meet the hand, the left leg’s ball joint, the left elbow’s joint, and a small part of the backs of the knees.

Articulation - Marvel Select: ***, Hasbro: ***1/2
For what it is, the Marvel Select Figure has great articulation. It has a neck joint for up and down head movement, ball and socket shoulders, single joint elbows, wrist rotation, hip rotation, ball and socket legs, double joint knees, and ankle articulation so the feet can move up and down. For a display figure, there is a good amount of articulation. You can put Iron Spidey in several different poses on his base.

Hasbro’s offering is nicely articulated as well. He too has neck articulation for up and down movement, a ball and socket shoulder, two joints in the elbow, wrist articulation for up and down movement, four articulated fingers, chest articulation for bending up or down, ball and socket legs, two knee joints, and two areas of ankle articulation, one for up and down movement and another for side to side movement. The figure’s attack legs are fantastic. They’re mounted in balls and sockets in his back and have two joints per leg. The joints move forward and back, but the legs can be rotated and adjusted for perfect posing. The joints that were missing from this figure puzzled me: no wrist rotation, hip rotation, or ankle rotation. The lacking of these joints kept Hasbro from getting a perfect score from me.

Accessories - Marvel Select: ***1/2, Hasbro: **
Marvel Select reused the base from the Symbiote Spider-Man and it looks excellent. They repainted it from brown to a light gray. The sculpt is extraordinary. The base is a building corner that sports two gargoyles. They building corner is great, it has individual brick work, and even sports some scratches, chips, and dents from years of use. The gargoyles are superb, too! They’re simply well defined and excellent looking. For a base, you can’t get much better. 

And now, we see Hasbro’s offering. It’s a very rare, one of a kind, limited edition, red circle! With a sticker bearing the line’s logo. This isn’t quite what I thought of as a display base, but it’s passable.

Value - Marvel Select: **1/2, Hasbro: ***1/2
At twenty dollars, the Marvel Select figure is hard to value. It’s a collector’s item, to be sure. Plus it’s a limited edition of 5000. But still, it’s just an action figure. And for 20 dollars, it’s a little over priced. But, snag ‘em while you can, as they’re sure to go up in value.

The Iron Spider-Man by Hasbro is meant for play. It isn’t really meant to be displayed. And, with that in mind, it’s a great figure for $7.99.

Overall - Marvel Select: ***, Hasbro: ***1/2

SCORE RECAP:
Packaging - Marvel Select: *** Hasbro: *** ½
Sculpt - ***1/2 for both
Paint - Marvel Select: ***1/2, Hasbro: **1/2
Articulation - Marvel Select: ***, Hasbro: ***1/2
Accessories - Marvel Select: ***1/2, Hasbro: **
Value - Marvel Select: **1/2, Hasbro: ***1/2
Overall - Marvel Select: ***, Hasbro: ***1/2

Where to Buy -
Online is the only place I’ve seen this Marvel Select figure. 

I managed to get Hasbro’s Iron Spider-Man at Newbury Comics, but I’m sure he’ll be in the usual stores like Toys ‘R’ Us, Target, and Wal-Mart when the second wave of figures hits shelves.