Toy Review: Kaiyodo Spider-Man Trading Figures

Spider-Man Action Vignette
Trading Figures

The blind box. There is nothing I hate more in the collecting world.

I hate blind packaging over convention exclusives. It’s way up there above bad distribution. Poor quality control doesn’t even hold a candle to the annoyance that is the blind box.

If you don’t know what a blind box is, let me explain. It’s basically a sealed package that is the same for all the figures in a particular wave or series. Sort of like the way they package collectible cards back in the day. All those foil wrappers have the exact same thing printed on the outside, so you have no idea what card you are actually getting. It could be an uber-rare card worth tens of dollars, or it could be a junk card that you already have 17 of. You never know until you open it.

The blind box usually can be found on what are called “trading” figures in Japan. These are normally small figures which kids would trade with friends. They’re sometimes called “gashapons”. It’s a good concept IF the figures you’re talking about little toys like the kind you find in those little vending machines in Chuck E. Cheese that are really cheap. However, there aren’t many cheap toys on today’s market.

Take for example Lego Minifigures. There are dozens of these things in each set, and each costs several hundered pesos (if they’re even available here). How many people in this country can really afford to buy several cases of these things in order to complete the set? Japanese trading figures are especially expensive, usually running about p300.00 each. If you want to complete the Final Fantasy Figure Arts collection, you’re looking at several thousand pesos for a tiny amount of plastic.

Thankfully, there are some trading figures that aren’t too expensive, and some stores that actually open boxes to determine what’s in each. Comic Alley in Megamall is one of these stores. They were selling the Kaiyodo Ultimate Spider-Man Action Vignette Trading Figures at only p150.00 each. That’s a steal, since I’ve checked online and they’re going for $10.00 to $13.00 a pop at various online retailers.

As you can see, this is exactly what you’d expect from a blind box. A vague front panel with some artwork, product photography of the various toys in the series on the side panels, and some arbitrary lip service to the characters on the back. In this case, there are 5 figures in the set; Spider-Man Web, Spider-Man On The Wall, Venom, Green Goblin and Spider-Man Alien Costume.

Kaiyodo, the makers of this particular line, are one of my favorite toy companies from Japan. I just love the way they design their figures, even if their articulation is kind of counter-intuitive. They are the ones that came out with the Dead or Alive and Tenjho Tenge series, both of which were made of awesome.

These figures seem to have improved on those. The quality of Spidey’s joints (the most articulated of the three I found) is much cleaner than that of the girls in the previous lines. The limbs don’t seem to fall off as easily, and the fit of the parts seems to be much better. The older toys seem to have been tooled a bit roughly, so parts don’t always fit together well and they tend to fall apart. It doesn’t help that these toys were made to be put together from a bag of parts. The only way you can fit some of them into the standard box is to dismember them.

Now there’s a marketing gimmick. For the next big slasher fic, someone ought to put out a toy line featuring all the victims, cut into parts and placed into a small baggie which fits inside a small 4″x2″x3″ box. I’d get them.

Green Goblin is my least favorite of the set. It’s not that it’s a particularly bad figure, but it’s a serious re-design of the character in the anime style. Like DC Direct’s Ame-Comi series, I’m not sure if the process was completely successful. I much prefer Marvel’s Bishoujo series which are just anime-ish interpretations of the characters rather than complete re-conceptulizations.

In this case, the classic look of Norman Osbourne was changed to look something like a gargoyle wrapped in a trench coat.

The figure is huge in comparison to the Spidey figure, nearly as big as Venom is. That is to say he’s about 3″ tall (despite the write-ups online that say they’re 4″ scale). I also take issue with the weird flow of his cloak. It doesn’t seem to follow any really motion path.

There are very few points of articulation, but that’s fine since these are trading figures which aren’t known for their joint count. I’m glad to have any at all. He’s got a swivel foot (the joint is half way down the foot - kind of like it’s cut in half across), an angled swivel at his hips, a swivel waist, a swivel shoulder (left one only), a swivel wrist (right one only), and a swivel neck.

Like I said, it’s all very confusing.

Venom is about the same in articulation. Swivel feet,swivel hips, swivel waist, oddly angled swivel shoulders and a swivel neck that allows his head to swing side to side.

What I really like about Venom though is that he has those awesome proportions that I’ve always wanted to see in the 6″ and 4″ lines. A huge chest and massive arms supported by relatively small legs. It’s totally unrealistic, but amazing to look at. Aside from the size, the sculpt is wonderful, with a proper slithery tongue and nice, sharp looking teeth. The addition of the limited articulation actually gives him a small selection of nice poses as well.

It’s really too bad that he’s too small to fit in with the 4″ crowd

Spider-Man is the real star of this set though, as it should be. He gets a number of bonus joints (knees and thigh cuts for one) as well as much more relavant base. While Goblin has a generic speed line thing, and Venom has a ground impact effect, old Webhead gets a… well, web.

It’s basically a very short webline that fits into his hand and is attached to a pretty powerful magnet. He’s perfect as a desk top toy if you have some metal built into your cubicle like I do.

Although Kaiyodo doesn’t do articulation like you’d normally expect, this little guy is pretty versatile considering. Because of that weird torso crunch and the odd angles that the swivels are cut in, he can really do some funky poses you’d only see in the McFarlane and Larsen days.

It’d be my Spider-Man of choice if only it was the same size as teh Marvel Universe line. As it is, he’s barely bigger than a Legends-sized Transformer.

Overall, I think this is an amazing buy for only p150.00 each. I’d probably pass on the Goblin if I had a do-over, but it’s nice to have the set. I really need to find out where I can score the Alien Costume Spidey and the one with the wall base (though I think the figure itself on that one is the same as the one I have).

I’m hoping that this means we’ll be seeing more toys from the Marvel liscense like this made by Kaiyodo. I’d love to see what they could do with the Incredible Hulk or the X-Men.