Packaging - ****
This box was designed to go with the Spider-Man box, with a complementary design. Where Spidey had his red and black box completed with a nifty 3-D symbol on the front, the Goblin's box has a great black and green color theme and his mask on the front, once again a separate piece. That extra tactile feature is a big plus in my book.

The box itself is a more traditional shoe box style, and has several layers of plastic trays inside to hold the figure and accessories safe. There's no twisties, no bands, and nothing to damage or destroy to remove the figure.

There is also a basic set of instructions, and these have improved over time. They're still a little light, but you'll be able to understand most of what you need to do.

Sculpting - ***1/2
This is one of those sculpts that is extremely realistic, and almost...*almost* there when it comes to likeness.

The textured skin looks just as good as it always does, giving the portrait a life-like quality that just can't be beat. Add in some very finely stranded hair, and you get what looks like a real miniature person.

The figure comes with two heads - the standard James Franco version, and the masked version. One thing you can say about Goblin's mask that is all too often not the case for superheroes - you can't tell who he is with it on. I much prefer them using two head sculpts to get the masked and unmasked look, rather than trying to implement a removable mask.

The Franco version does look like him, especially in the nose and mouth. The eyebrow shape seems just a smidge off to me, but you'll still quickly recognize him. He's a guy who has very unique eyebrows, and these seem a tad too generic for the purpose.

But the main fault I find with the portrait is that it looks more like Franco today than Franco of 5 years ago. He was around 28 when they shot Spider-Man 3, and still had his boyish looks. Here he looks more like the age of the character in 127 Hours. This is a minor complaint, mind you, and you may think he looks plenty young enough here.

Paint - ****
Let's remember, this is Hot Toys. The surprise here isn't that the paint is perfect - that's the expectation. Anything short of that would be the real surprise.

The skin tone is as realistic as it gets, the edges of the eyes, eyebrows, lips and hair are all perfect, the shading is impeccable - it's everything you expect from a Hot Toys paint job.

There's not quite as much here in terms of quantity of detail as with some releases, but the work that is on the accessories is good as well, especially the hover board and bladed weapons. There's a little slop on the buckles of the boots, but it's quite minor.

Articulation - ****
It's a TrueType, one of the best sixth scale bodies on the market, and the costume does little to restrict it. The double jointed ball neck works great, the heads swapped smoothly, the hands swapped fairly easily, and I didn't have any trouble with breakage of the wrist or board pegs.

I did find it quite difficult to pose him in any really good flying positions, but that was not the fault of the body, but rather the display stand. Get the right stand, and you should be able to create some really cool in-flight poses.

Accessories - ***1/2
For a Hot Toys figure in the $150 range, he's surprisingly well equipped.

I already mentioned the second head as part of the previous sections, but it's worth noting here as well since it ups the score in this category too. I think going with the second portrait instead of a removable mask is much preferred, although it does cost Hot Toys more to do.

He has two additional hands, one right and one left, both in different gripping poses. The left will work great with the pumpkin bomb, while the right is better suited to the swords and knifes. The hands he comes wearing are closed fists. The hands swap pretty easily, but since there are only two extras and there are also two extra wrist pegs, I'd suggest just attaching those pegs to the hands. It's easier to swap when you remove the entire wrist from the arm, rather than working with the small post inside the hand, and you're less likely to break a wrist as well.

Speaking of the pumpkin bomb, there's one included with its modern sculpt and design. There's also one that is expanded, with deadly knife-like wings.

There are three small bladed attachments for his right forearm as well. The blades on these actually move up and down, and they attach by removing three small pieces of green plastic from the forearm straps and sliding these in place in their stead. It works well, and allows for both looks depending on your mood.

There are also three bladed weapons - a short knife that fits in the hip sheath perfectly, a mid-sized sword that fits in the back pack sheath perfectly, and a long sword that he can carry in his right hand. I love the designs of the blades and hilts, and these, along with their modern military style sheaths, are my favorite aspect of the overall figure.

Then there is his hoverboard, complete with light up feature. I'll dwell on the light up aspect in a category further down.

The board has an excellent sculpt, with lots of small detail work. The drive located on the bottom can rotate 360 degrees, allowing you to turn it however you feel it works best for the overall pose. 

There are two small, black posts that are threaded and actually screw into the board. These have balls on top, allowing the boots to attach at not one but two different places on the soles. In theory, it should work great.

In practice, it does work but not quite as well as I'd hoped. While the posts screw into the board, they also pull free easier than the balls do when they are attached to the feet. That means they tend to pull out when you are posing and manipulating the figure, which can be a bit frustrating.

Still, the board is a great looking addition, and I'm surprised it turned out so well at this price point.

There is no standard display base, but there is a large base with clear post and black clamp, complete with Goblin name plate, that you can use for flying poses. It doesn't work great, but it does work. I can't get the clamp tight enough on the clear rod to work with extreme poses, and even if I could, the fact that the clamp can't turn side to side greatly hinders it's usefulness. I would recommend getting something more like a Whippy Superpose for sixth scale if you want to get some really good flying poses. Or at the very least, you could substitute the rotate-able clip from a Whippy for the black clip already supplied.

I also got a chance to play that fun game "guess the accessory". There's a small clear stand included, and it took me far longer than it should (a reflection on me) to figure out what to do with it. It works as a small stand to hold up just the board a little off the ground, Marty McFly style. Not really sure it's all that useful in its present state, but given some intelligent design, I bet you could incorporate it into a homemade stand that would allow for a cool pose or two.

Outfit - ****
Do you know the definition of 'mixed emotions'? That's when your mother-in-law drives your brand new car off a cliff. Or when you love a costume that you hate.

That comes into play for me with this outfit. I hate the costume. I hate the design. I hate the goofy snowboarding theme. Everything about this costume is what's wrong with re-imagining a classic outfit with modern styles that will be out of style before the movie hits the theater. You could almost see the brass sitting around a table coming up with this one - "ooo, I hear X Games are big with the young people, and Goblin rides some sort of a snowboard looking thing - let's make him look like a snowboarder! Genius!". Ugh.

And yet, I have these mixed emotions, because I have to admit that Hot Toys took what they had to work with and hit a home run. The costume looks great, with detailed ski boots, snow pants complete with calf zippers, a very cool upper body vest/harness that holds the mid-sized sword and provides some basic body protection, elbows pads that look great in their bright green mockery of all that is sane, and a shirt of sorts that has the woven, patterned look of the movie down pat.

The tailoring is great - everything fits tight and snug, but none of it restricts the body in any major way. I'm loving the Hot Toys version of this costume far more than I ever loved the on screen version, and the cognitive dissonance this is creating is going to have to get rationalized away for me to remain sane. Assuming of course that ship hasn't already sailed.

Light Feature - ***1/2
The board lights up, thanks to three small watch style batteries (included, thankfully). The drive for the board is held together with a screw, and the batteries rest inside. Turn the drive to one side, and you'll see a very tiny and unobtrusive on/off switch.

There are several small LED's that light up. There are two on either half of the board on top, as well as a couple that light up the clear circles under his feet. They work pretty well, although they don't seem quite as bright as some others we've gotten from Hot Toys. It may also be a battery issue, as I've found more often than not that the batteries they supply are fairly weak and need to be replaced early on.

Fun Factor - ***
Other than the dangers of breaking the board (mentioned below), this is actually a decent toy. He won't hold up to back yard play, but he will handle any sort of basic handling and posing, and there's no rubber on the suit that would cause me any long term worries.

Value - ***
With a light up sled and a fair number of extras, this is one of the better Hot Toys values released recently. In fact, it's getting rarer and rarer to get any Hot Toys figure down around $150, and I expect that not to change in the near future. While some retailers are still trying to get around $170, many are dropping this much lower, likely due to lower demand right now.

Things to Watch Out For -
Be extremely careful with the little posts/balls for the feet. They are really only supported on the board by three little plastic spokes and some thin plastic covers, so pressing down on the feet too hard while posing and attaching the figure could result in breakage.

Overall - ***1/2
It's nice to get a companion villain for Spidey, even if it is my least favorite over the three movies. His dad would have been cool, and Doc Ock would be smokin', but as they say...it is what it is.

Somehow Hot Toys manages to make a dopey movie character into a surprisingly sweet action figure, due to the attention to detail in the costume and accessories. Add in the lower than usual price tag, and you get an above average release of a rather average character.

Score Recap:
Packaging - ****
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ****
Accessories - ***1/2
Outfit - ****
Light Up Feature - ***1/2
Fun Factor - ***
Value - ***
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy -
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Super Power Collectibles has a great deal at $152.

- Things From Another World has him at just $153.

- Alter Ego Comics has him at $153 too.

- Fanboy Collectibles has it at $155.

- Big Bad Toy Store has it at $155.

- Sideshow has him for $170.

- Urban Collector has him at $170 as well.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I covered the companion Spider-Man from Hot Toys earlier, and other Goblins include:

- the only other toy of the New Goblin I reviewed was the cool Room Guards by Thinkway.

- one of my favorite old school Goblins is the Green Goblin from the 9" clothed Spider-man Origins series.

- Marvel Legends had their share of Goblins, including this cool Green Goblin.

- when the comics killed off the Green Goblin, the came back with the Hobgoblin, done up ML style here. He was also done up as a mini-bust.

- not to be outdone, the Green Goblin also had a very cool mini-bust.

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