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Packaging - ***1/2
Nope, no packaging shot this time.
Sorry, but I tore them out before realizing that I hadn't shot one yet.
Hey, it's the same as the last few Marve Legends lines, so check out
one of the recent reviews
to see what it looks like in general.
This time you get specific info
on each of these characters, a
'Rosetta stone' on the back showing which Red Hulk piece comes with
which character, and some decent comic based graphics. There's also a
big "only at Target" sticker on the front in case you get confused.
The
packages are actually so good on this line, showing off the figures in
the best possible light, that I believed them to be excellent when I
picked them up off the shelf. Out of the package, my impression changed
drastically.
Sculpting
- ***1/2
However,
it's not the sculpts that were the object of my disappointment. That's
part of why they looked so good in the package - the sculpts are
actually pretty well done.
Wolverine looks like the muscled
up
midget of a superhero that he is. The musculature is overdone in all
the right ways, and he has a good gritted teeth expression that fits
the character well. He stands just about 5 1/2" tall fully upright.
Spider-man
is a bit taller, coming in closer to 6", and less muscled of
course. He's more svelte, but still has a very comic book style.
Spiral
has a great looking body, and I mean that in the least sexist way
possible. Unlike almost every Marvel Legend female, she doesn't have
gangly legs or arms, oddly shaped hips, or breasts bigger than her
head. She looks like a hot female superhero, something they usually
can't pull off in plastic form. She also stands just under 6" tall.
Some
folks may be put off by her hunchback, however. I can see how that
might crimp her style. The three arms are situated with one on top and
two below, in sort of a triangle pattern. That actually works fantastic
for the articulation, and she looks excellent from the front. But if
you look at her from the side you realize that she had to have some
extra width in her upper torso to hold that third arm back there. They
used the long hair to creatively hide it, but you still might find it
not to your liking. Me, I thought it was fine.
The hands on all three figures
are very well sculpted, and Spiral's are designed to work with the
accessories. I like Spider-man's in particular, as the sculpted poses
look terrific with just about any stance.
The plastic is on the cheap
side, particularly at the joints, but rather than attack them here for
it, I'll be bringing that up in the Articulation section.
Paint - Spider-man,
Spiral ***; Wolverine **1/2
Here's where things start to unravel. At first glance, the paint ops
seemed decent, but once I had them out, and gave them a more thorough
look, the issues appeared.
Now, some of this is only
visible under the harsh eye of the macro lens. This is particularly
true for Wolverine, but trust me - you can see plenty of issues with
the nekkid eye as well.
Wolverine has plenty of slop
around his face, particularly between the face and mask. The slop
around the nose is so bad that in person it almost looks like he
doesn't have a nose. The line between the mask and face is just about
straight across, with no visible blip for the nose, and while it's
clear in a photo that it's a poorly cut line, in person all you can
tell is that there seems to be no nose.
He also has some real
inconsistencies in the finish from one area of the black to another.
Some, like his shoulders, are very flat, while others, like his chest,
are very glossy.
The coverage on the yellow
strips is a bit hit or miss too, allowing the black to show through in
some places. I do like the way the hairs are painted on the arms, and I
also appreciate that there are more actual paint ops on this figure
than
usual for Hasbro, but that doesn't remove the issues.
Spiral is a bit better,
particularly the body. There's still a little slop around the silver
wrist bands, and some of the cut lines could be cleaner, but most of
the work there is normal mass market stuff.
She does have a few issues on
the face, including too much gloss (what's with the gloss coat?), some
slop around the eyes, and a big nasty rub mark on her nose. If you're
lucky, you won't have the rub mark, and the other issues tend to be
hidden by the helmet.
Spider-man has the cleanest work
overall. The cut lines between the white and black colors are fairly
clean, and there's only the occasional blip in the white symbol.
His biggest issue for me is a
more aesthetic one - I don't like the comic book blue highlights to the
black uniform. I would have much preferred a solid black look, like
Wolverine. The blue highlights are distracting, and a solid black
repaint on this guy would make him look so much better.
Articulation- Spiral ***1/2;
Spider-man **1/2; Wolverine **
And then we get to the category where I have some of my biggest issues
with the two boys.
Spiral is not a problem here.
She has the usual pin and post neck that all ML's have had, and with
the long hair covering her hunch back, it's a pretty limited joint. She
has ball jointed shoulders, double pin elbows, and cut wrists on all
six arms, and these are designed to work really well together. The
posing here is just about endless.
She also has a ball jointed
waist, ball jointed hips, pin and post knees, and pin and post ankles.
These joints all work great, and allow her to take some interesting leg
stances. The joints were tight, and the 'clicky' feature worked well.
The only thing holding her back from a perfect score is the cheap pins.
This soft plastic was a bigger
issue for Wolverine. He has the same neck joint, and he has the newer
ball joint plus swivel joint shoulders that allow for greater mobility.
The shoulder ball is also jointed on both sides, giving the upper arms
plenty of range of movement. He has the double pin elbows, cut wrists,
and a single pin for the four fingers.
There's also the ball jointed
torso with the cut waist, ball jointed hips (jointed on both sides of
the ball), double pin knees, cut calves, pin ankles, and finally, a
half foot pin joint. *whew*
So Wolverine has far more
articulation than Spiral, yet he scores far lower? That's because many
of the joints work badly.
The pins have issues on both
knees, being too short to fit fully through. This, combined with the
soft plastic of the legs, makes for bad knees. Mine are very loose, and
the left leg is just about ready to fall off.
The clicky aspect of his joints
seem far less useful. In the knees there's only one 'click' through the
full range of movement, and because the joints are so loose, it's
almost impossible to keep him standing at any other point. The pin
ankles are also very loose, making it tough to get him into a pose, and
once you do, tough to keep him there.
On a final note, the cut calf is
useful, but does look very odd in most poses. It causes the yellow line
in the boot to not line up, and the overall boot can look
funny since the upper 'wings' don't turn with the foot.
Spider-man is less articulated
than Wolverine, but more articulated than Spiral. He has the same neck,
as well as the highly articulated shoulders. There's also the double
pin elbows and knees, and these have the same pin issues as Wolverine.
There's an ab-crunch chest joint, cut waist, and cut calves, but he has
pin/post wrists instead of cut wrists.
The ball jointed hips are
jointed on both sides, there's a cut calf joint, and a cut ankle. I had
much more trouble with the leg articulation on Spidey than either of
the other two, and I can't quite figure out why.
Maybe I got a weird left
thigh...maybe there's something about the knee disc that is
malformed...maybe it was just put together incorrectly. Whatever the
case, the left leg does not work, and he was not able to take most of
the poses I assumed he could take, considering the level of
articulation. I was very frustrated with this figure by the time I'd
finished shooting the photos.
Accessories
- (with Hulk): Spiral ***; Wolverine, Spider-man **; (without
Hulk): Spiral **1/2; Spider-man, Wolverine Bupkis
This category is way, way too easy to describe.
Wolverine
comes with a Hulk arm. Spider-man comes with the other Hulk arm. That's
it. I suspect that even if you really, really wanted the Red Hulk,
you're going to feel a tad ripped off by this.
Spiral does much
better. She comes with the critical head of Hulk, but she also has two
loose swords and one that is sculpted into a scabbard. This scabbard
fits around her shoulders and torso with a long strap.
The
plastic is as soft as you can get on her swords - safety issues I'm
sure - but they do look decent in her hands, have unique sculpts, and
average paint jobs.
Along with her weapons, she also
has a
removable helmet. I'm counting it as an accessory since it is
removable, but trust me, you won't want to take it off. She has the
worst hat hair you'll ever see.
Fun Factor - Spiral
***1/2; Wolverine, Spider-man **
I
can tell you that just trying to pose these guys for photos was zero
fun. The loose cheap joints make them frustrating as Hell, and I know
that kids find that type of articulation frustrating as well. They love
army men because when the stand them up the STAND UP. No kid wants to
spend five minutes getting something to stand when they're just going
to knock it down again.
Spiral had less of these issues,
and
getting her to stand and stay standing was much easier. The arm
articulation adds a lot too, and the design works easily and well.
Value -
*1/2
And then we get to here. With the issues with paint, cheap plastic, and
articulation, the price point is simply way out of whack. Yes, they are
exclusives, but they are exclusive to one of the largest store chains
that carries any of the Marvel Legends figures. It's not like they'll
be all that hard to come by.
We
saw this $15 price point with the Foom wave, but that wave had two
advantages. First, most of the figures had some serious bulk, and if
they didn't they had an accessory or two. Some even had the bulk AND
the accessories. Second, they came with the very substantial pieces to
the even more substantial Foom BAF. Here you're getting a BAF similar
in size to the Grundy BAF that came with the $10 DCU figures.
Things To Watch Out For
-
When I saw these in the package, I was much more impressed than when I
had them out. The only thing you can really watch out for before buying
is the paint ops, but you may find other issues once you have them home.
Overall - Spiral ***;
Spider-man, Wolverine **
I've
heard people say that you can tell for yourself how good a figure is or
is not just by looking at it on the peg. These figures are a perfect
example of why that's not true. When I grabbed them off the peg, I was
initially very pleased. Sure I could tell there were some paint issues
on Wolvie, but otherwise they looked great.
Once I had them out
of the package, it was an exercise in frustration. The loose joints,
the cheap feel of the plastic, the difficulty getting them to pose...it
all just kept reminding me that I'd spent $15 EACH on these figures.
These are figures that you can get for $8 - $10 in other lines still
that are as good or better, and there are many, many specialty market
figures in the $15 range that are far better than any of these.
If
I were getting a BAF with this set that a) I really wanted (like Foom)
or b) was really huge (like Foom), then the price point would have been
a bit more tolerable, at least for me. But getting another Hulk, and
one that isn't all that impressive, doesn't do much to ease the sticker
shock. I might change my mind once I finally find the other three
figures and can complete him, but I doubt that greatly.
Now,
there's probably some confusion here, because this is pretty much the
exact same Wolverine Toybiz did in the ML line back quite a few waves
ago, and I loved it. Ah, but that was for half the money, with a better
paint job, and less trouble with the articulation. Cheaper plastic,
worse paint, and a HUGE price increase does not a happy camper make
Michael.
I do want
to make a special note here on Spiral. Had she been in the more
acceptable $10 - $12 range, she would have garnered another half star
overall. I really do like the body sculpt, and I think she's one of the
best female Marvel Legends figures we've gotten in a long time.
Score Recap:
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - Spider-man, Wolverine ***1/2; Spiral ***
Paint - Spider-man ***; Spiral **1/2; Wolverine **
Articulation - Spiral ***1/2; Spider-man **1/2; Wolverine **
Accessories
- (with Hulk): Spiral ***; Wolverine, Spider-man **;
(without Hulk): Spiral **1/2; Spider-man, Wolverine Bupkis
Fun Factor - Spiral ***1/2; Wolverine, Spider-man **
Value - *1/2
Overall - Spiral ***; Spider-man, Wolverine **
Where to Buy -
These are a Target exclusive - so that means your best bet is to hit
Target!
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