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Spider-man Mysterio

Drunken Fist is back with another great guest review.  Take it away, DF!

Another Spider-Man Classics wave, another short-packed villain. The victim this time is Mysterio, and awaaaaay we go...






Packaging - **1/2
It's the same blister card packaging we've all seen a million times. The picture of Spider-Man on the front of the card is a bit different, but it's basically the same bland, if inoffensive, graphics we've grown accustomed to. The cardback features the same blurb about how great Spider-Man is, and little black and white drawings show off the figure's features. This wave's ridiculous Spider-Man variants are displayed along the right edge of the card.

Sculpting - ***
Mysterio is one of those characters I never cared much for, but I've always liked his design. Visually, he's a pretty striking character. The sculpt captures old dome-head's look well, if not perfectly. There are lots of little details, from the texture of his green togs, to the pattern on his gauntlets. The 3 faces underneath the dome are also done pretty well- more on them in a moment. In the end, this isn't one of the best sculpts Toy Biz has released lately, but it's above average, and definitely fits in well with the rest of the Spider-Man classics and Marvel Legends figures.

Paint - *1/2
Unfortunately, the paint is much sloppier than normal. Toy Biz usually does a decent job with the paint apps, but this figure appears to have been painted with a turkey baster. The gold paint on the gauntlets has been applied very liberally, and the gold on the cape is also extremely sloppy. Some of the joints on the boots are unpainted, and the white shows up in stark contrast against the gold color used for the boots. The three heads under the dome are a bit better than the rest of the figure, but still sub-par. Lastly, there is a wash over the body to bring out the texture of the clothing, but it has been very poorly applied. There are several rather large areas where the wash is nowhere to be seen, so it is annoyingly inconsistent, and too heavy in other areas. I think I must have just gotten a bad figure, as I really don't want to believe that Toy Biz's quality control has gotten so poor that shabby work like this gets past them in mass amounts. I really hope that not all of the figures in this wave are painted so poorly. 

Articulation - ***1/2
The heads underneath the dome have a cut that lets them turn, but it is tied into the action feature. Other than that, this figure has most of the articulation we expect from these figures: ball-jointed shoulders and hips, cuts at the biceps, forearms, waist, and calves, double-jointed elbows and knees, a single hinge for the fingers and wrists, and a joint/hinge combo at the ankles. That's 31 points of articulation by my count, and that sits pretty well with me. 

Accessories - ***
Mysterio comes packaged with a cloud base and two missiles with weird bird heads on the ends of them. The missiles fire from the front of the base. Best of all, if you pose Mysterio on the base, he looks like he's riding a float in a parade. I suppose these are decent enough accessories, but most of us adults will just toss them in the junk box. 

Action Feature - ***
I have to give some credit here, even though I don't like action features much. Toy Biz really put forth some effort here, giving us a feature that fits in with Mysterio's whole "master of illusion" gimmick, and gives the kids something to mess with. Press the unnecessarily large button on the figure's back, and one of the 3 faces underneath the dome will spin to the front, illuminated by a ghostly bluish light. There's a human face, a weird alien fetus head, and a tongue-wagging demon face. If you press the button lightly, the light will come on without the face changing. I would have preferred a mirrored dome that we couldn't see into, but I suppose this works well enough, and I can certainly see the logic behind it. It doesn't effect the articulation, which is good, but there is a huge button sticking out of the figure's back through the cape, which is bad. Still, as action features go, this is one of the less intrusive and more entertaining ones I've seen recently. 

Fun Factor - ****
I'm gonna go out on a limb a bit here and give this one a perfect score here. There's just too much to this figure for kids not to enjoy it, whether or not they're familiar with the character. My nephew has no clue who Mysterio is, and he's been playing with the light-up faces and parade float missile launcher nonstop. I had to pry them away from him for a few minutes just to take these pictures. As I type this, he's facing Mysterio off with an underwear-clad Homer Simpson figure, and if that's not a recipe for fun, I don't know what is. 

Value - ***1/2
Like most Toy Biz figures, these retail for just under $6 at Wal-Mart, and it really is a great price. Here we have a well-sculpted figure with a large accessory and a fairly complicated action feature for about the same price you'd pay for one of those 1400 calorie burgers at Hardees. I know which one I'd rather spend my six bucks on. 

Overall - ***
I'm gonna assume the paint problems on mine are an isolated problem, and give this one a solid ***. It's a bargain-priced, visually striking figure, and lord knows villains are rare enough in the Spider-Man Classics line. Mysterio is also essential to anyone who is putting together the REAL Sinister Six, instead of the group released in the S6 box set last year. (Black Cat?!?! What the hell were they thinking?) The action feature is also relatively unobtrusive, which is a welcome change from such atrocities as the biting-action Morbius figure from a couple of years back. This one is a solid value, anyway you look at it. 

Score recap
Packaging - **1/2
Sculpting - ***
Paint - *1/2
Articulation -  ***1/2
Action Feature - ***
Accessories - ***
Fun Factor - ****
Value - ***1/2
Overall - ***

Things to Watch Out For:
If you have the opportunity, look over the figure carefully before you buy to make sure you get the best paint job. There were 2 of these figures at the store where I bought mine, and I didn't bother looking, and look what happened to me. Learn from my misfortune, lest it happen to you.

Where to buy: 
The Spider-Man Classics line is available pretty much everywhere, just about any major retailer you can name. Finding the SMC line is easy, but finding Mysterio will be bit tougher. Happy hunting!


Figure from the collection of Drunken Fist.

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