The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Marvel Legends Movie Figure Review

As I was walking around my local comic book store (Bedrock City Comics in Houston, TX  #shamelessplug) this week I was excited to see the latest Marvel Legends series from Hasbro.  Marvel Legends has gone through a few marketing directions since Hasbro took over the line from Toybiz (R.I.P.) and now I hear that the Legends will be used soley as movie tie-ins.  Being that Marvel movies rock my face off, I don't find this disturbing news in the least.  What IS a bit distrurbing is the $25 PRICE TAG! What the what?!?  When Legends started (around 2003, i think), they were only $7 a piece and you got a reprinted comic to go with it!  You MAY be able to find them cheaper in the big box stores as compared to a specialty comic shop, but usually Bedrock City has comparable prices.  Luckily I had a $25 gift card burning a hole in my wallet from Christmas. Even without the gift card, THIS figure is worth it.  I can't speak for the others in the set though.

Spider-man is my favorite comic book hero, and thus I have owned many Spidey figures in my lifetime.  In college I sported an "all Spidey" collection, but as the movies took off it became clear that I would never be able to keep up and I sold all but my favorites.  Lately, the high quality of my Marvel Collection has gotten so high that I didn't have any Spider-man figures that I felt were good enough to display with the rest of them.  They either were too skinny, had questionable paint jobs, had a weird sculpt, or just fell over too much.  I had one really good Spidey, but he's wearing his new b&w costume and I wanted a classic costume figure for my Avengers shelf.  I am happy to announce that I have found the Spidey that the hole in my collection was waiting for!

The Marvel Legends Amazing Spider-Man 2 action figure stand 6" tall, right in line with previous Legends.  Sometimes some characters (cough, Ironman, cough cough) come out looking under-sized.  Not so with Spidey.  Mr. Parker fits right in beside Cap and Hawkeye in my Avengers lineup.  Since my Hulk, IronMan, Nick Fury, Hawkeye, and Spidey are all based on movie likenesses, this is the closest I'll get to seeing Spidey in the movie crew until Sony's rights finally revert back to Disney/Marvel...and I'll probably be long dead from old age by then...but I digress.

Spidey has a crisp paint job, comic-accurate colors, great sculpt, amazing poseability, light texture on the blue parts of his costume, and best of all (if I had to pick one thing) big, shiny eyes!  I obviously love this figure, based on the amount of words I've typed, so let's move on to the pictures, eh?

The new Marvel Legends boxes are a cool, new clamshell type package with slick graphics and nice matte background/glossy detail print effect.

 

Spidey comes with a set of fists and a set of webbing-ready hands you can interchange as well as the right arm of an Ultimate Green Goblin Build-A-Figure.

As with all classy Spidey figures these days, his webs are etched into the sculpt with a light black inset.  This beats the pants of painting the lines onto a flat figure.  

Now I'm going to show off his amazing posing abilities, mostly while interacting with a bunch of my other figures, because Spidey's cool like that.

One of my few complaints is the red pegs in his elbow joints (see the pics above and below).  I know they wanted the red to show up on the outside of his arm, but could they not create pegs that were red on one side and blue on the other?  Or find a paint that wouldn't peel off with wear?  Oh well, that's a small problem on an otherwise excellent figure.

And he wouldn't be Spidey without some whitty banter.  Banter away, Spidey!

Here's a couple more shots of Spidey taking his place on my Avengers (& friends) shelf.

And last, but not least, the Space Ghost interview...

Collect-and-Connect Kilowog

This brute is the huge, Collect-and-Connect figure of the heroic Green Lantern, Kilowog, from the DC Universe Classics collection.  The C-n-C figures are sold in pieces inside individual figures in a series, so if you buy the whole set, you get a larger, exclusive figure to put together.  Since I couldn't bring myself to buy the 6 or 7 figures it would have taken to make Kilowog myself, I assumed I would never own this one, but a well-timed special at my local comic shop put him in my price range and I jumped on it!

As you can see, Kilowog is a big guy.  He's roughly the size of the Hulk, is physically very powerful due to the attributes inherent to his race, and he has a GL power ring.  This guy could be terrified, but luckily, he's one of the most heroic characters in the DC Comics universe.

Though his appearance suggest big and dumb, don't let that fool you.  Kilowog was a top physicist on his home planet before being called into service by the Green Lantern Corps.

Though I thought the C-n-C Kilowog was out of my price range, I did manage to snag the slightly-more affordable version released a few years ago by DC Direct.  Though he stands almost a head taller than my other GL figures and has a pretty awesome sculpt as well, this Kilowog just wasn't big enough, in my opinion.  When I got the chance to upgrade, I went for it.

Now I'm going to show you just how BIG this guy is with a series of pics showing him compared to various other characters in my collection.  First off, is Big K's buddy from Earth, Hal Jordan.

My favorite thing about the Green Lanterns is the alien space cop aspect.  There are some REALLY weird Green Lanterns out there.  Below is Kilowog with the weirdest looking aliens in my Green Lantern Corp.  As you can see, only Stel is equal to Kilowog in stature.  It just so happens that those two big guys are the drill sergeants for new GL recruits.

Here's a collection of my favorite aliens in my toy collection.  Let's take stock here...we've got a buff space pig, a shiny naked dude, a space horse dressed like Thor, and a guy with his undies outside his pants.

This is a collection of the 6 biggest heroes in my collection.  Kilowog is tied with Stel for 2nd place.

Now let's see how the big guy stacks up against the competition.

Juggernaut is not the tallest villain on my shelf, but he's the beefiest.  Kilowog is a bit taller and is a pretty wide guy, but Juggernaut beats him in sheer mass.

Thanos is another big guy with powerful hand bling.  I would say I'd like to see these guys go at it, but Thanos's glove is definitely more powerful.

While Sinestro isn't big physically, he's the biggest threat the GL's have had to face over the years.  This is one I HAD to put together!

MODOK is Marvel's version of the C-n-C figure, pieced together after I bought 6 or so separate figures.  Though he's not even close to the biggest figure in my collection, he does have the largest head.

Just for fun, I took a quick shot of my GL shelf after I put the group back together after the photoshoot.  I have 4-5 more GLs in my storage box, but there's just no more room!  That's my favorite GL, Kyle, on the front/right.

And now...for your moment of zen.

Hellboy Figure by Mezco

It took a while to find one, but I finally got a good deal on ebay for the original Mezco Hellboy figure released in 2005.  Though 2005 isn't that long ago, these figures are pretty hard to find at less than $40/each.  I got him for $25 with a broken tail.  A little super glue and we were back in business!

The great thing about this line of figures is that Mezco managed to capture Mike Mignola's very distinct (and amazing) artwork in a 3d format.  The hard lines, the texture, the shadows...it's an amazing likeness to the artwork!

Check out the sculpted detail on his face, horns, and skin.  Those pock marks all over him are pencil/pen marks in the comic books.  It gives Mignola's artwork a great texture.

Below is a picture of the Hand of Doom itself.  Hellboy was supposed to use this hand to release the dragon, Ogdru Jahad, from it's prison in space and lead the army's of hell to conquer the Earth.  Luckily HB was raised in America and raised on pancakes, so all he wants to do is smoke his cigar and have a good time.

I like to end my posts with an interview between my newest figure and talk show legend, Space Ghost.  This time I couldn't choose which of Space Ghost's questions/comments to use, so I'm posting them both. 

MOTU Classics She-Ra!

FOR THE HONOR OF GRAYSKULL!!!

He-Man's sister, She-Ra, has long been on my to-buy list, but at $27/each for figures in the MOTU Classics line these days, I just had a hard time biting the bullet.  Luckily I found her in great condition for only $15 today at the Gulf Coast Toy Show in Deer Park, Tx! 

Mattel once again does the impossible, creating a female figure who is both strong-looking and feminine.  Few toy companies can pull this off!  

She comes with 2 head choices, her power sword, shield, & axe/hair brush.  The brush and extra head were pretty dorky, so I didn't even bother taking pics of them.  

After finding her at such a bargain, I was happy to finally reunite the "power twins".