Toy Review: SDCC 2010 Spider-Man

08/9/10

SDCC ‘10 Movie Spider-Man

Recently, the awesome guys at Cybertron Philippines began something that is beyond amazing for Philippine collectors with no means to visit the often dreamed about San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC). They started special group buys where members of the forums could get the exclusive Hasbro Marvel figures that were being sold at the infamous convention. I bought both my SDCC ‘10 Ages of Thunder Thor and the SDCC ‘10 Captain America, and today I’ll be looking at the last of the 3 4″ figures that was available:

The SDCC ‘10 Movie Spider-Man.

I already talked about how nice the boxes on the 2 Marvel Universe (MU) figures were. This one blows both those packages out of the water.

The figure comes packaged in a unique blister pack that is covered in a paperboard slipcase. The slipcase showcases beautiful poster artwork from the Spider-Man films (I honestly don’t know which of the movies it’s from) and is highlighted by silver foil accents. The back of the slipcase has an amazing foil design that features many of the webhead’s biggest villains. All I could say was, “wow.”

The blister is different because it’s a circular bubble. The plastic tray inside that holds the figure in place is actually free floating. If you spin the card around, the tray and figure move around as well, giving the illusion that Spidey’s hanging upside down. The whole concept is unbelievably good and executed very well.

I was actually sad that I’d have to ruin this amazingly thought out piece to remove the figure.

The cardback is a disappointment however. After the excellent job Hasbro did in creating the box and blister, you’d think they’d have put more work into the product photography.

Seriously! With the kind of articulation that this thing has (more on that later), you’d think they could do something more convincing than this. He’s Spider-Man for pete’s sake. He’s bendy. He does somersaults and backflips in mid-air. What’s he doing hanging there like a limp rag?

Oh, well. It’s a little thing that fades once you look at the bottom line. What is that bottom line?

THIS IS A GREAT FIGURE.

Let’s break it down.

1) Well sculpted.

He’s got embossed weblines all over him. At this scale that fact alone is utterly unbelievable. He’s also got the chainmail pattern that the movie costume had on the blue portions. Again the fact that this thing is so tiny makes this an amazing feat.

2) Well designed articulation

Of all the MU figures I own, this is by far the best articulation I’ve seen. Here’s the list:

Ball-hinge neck, swivel-hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, double-hinge elbows, swivel-hinge wrists, ball-jointed torso, swivel-hinge hips and swivel thighs, double-hinge knees, swivel boot tops, and swivel-hinge ankles.

Squeezing ALL of that into a figure only 4″ big is about the most impressive thing Hasbro has ever done.

3) Well accessorized

I don’t always count the number of accessories when I look over a figure. I sometimes count the QUALITY of the accessories. In this case, Spidey’s only got one: a webline.

This thing is amazing. I know I’ve used that word a lot but, really it is. It’s several times longer than anything we’ve seen before, has an unobtrusive loop at the end of it that fits over either hand, is sculpted with ridges and loops all along it’s length, and ends in a suction cup so you can hang your figure from a window or wall. Considering that this is not Batman or Punisher, it makes perfect sense to give him one great accessory that fits his canon.

I’ve only got one other Spidey from the MU line and that’s the one that came with the Spider-Friends boxset. I never bothered to get the others since I really hated the sculpt of the one in the mainline. He looked pinheaded and the articulation was nowhere near where a figure of Spider-Man has to be.

This one is much, much closer. If you forced me, I’d say add a second torso hinge below the ball-joint, where the old waist swivels used to be, in order for him to really get his legs up to his chest. That would be a great way to get him in a fetal position when he’s swinging.

But that’s only if you forced me. I’m a pretty big guy, so you’d need to get pretty creative to do that. I’m ticklish, if that helps.

No? Oh, well.

This SDCC Spider-Man really has replaced the MU one as my favorite 4″ scale Spider-Man and it beat out SDCC Captain America for my top spot for my own personal toy of the year. Though Cap has as much articulation, it’s not as well integrated as the joints here. Plus the little unnoticed detail that was added here screams for attention.

In fact, I liked this figure so much I bought a whole bunch of villains for him:

Along with the Kaiyodo Spidey, this is my Peter Parker of choice.