Ultra.Poseable Spider-Man (Movie Series)
Even though Spider-Man toys are not uncommon at toy aisles, most of what I see isn’t too exciting either. The first wave of action figures released for the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man movie didn’t deviate at all from the design approach we had seen since the Fiercest Foes of Spider-Man line started a couple of years ago, consisting on mostly made-up costumes with outlandish color pallettes.
However, for wave two in the TASM line, Hasbro included some really cool action figures, like the Lizard and this Ultra-Poseable Spider-Man.
Spidey wears a new costume for the movie and the action figure does a very good job at replicating it, which means there is an insane amount of textures sculpted everywhere. If anything, the new costume design looks a little too busy shrunken down to 4-inch scale, compared to the cleaner look from the Raimi films, but that’s just my opinion.
The thing that threw me off a bit was the odd body proportion. Spidey has something of a slight hunch, a rather small head and way too long legs. The hunched look isn’t all that bothersome, since so many previously released Spider-Man action figures had had it that it has actually become a character trait.
The small head is actually the right size according to the upper torso proportions, but the legs are simply too long and spindly for a non-animated version of the character. Oddly enough, the effect is not as jarring whenever Spider-Man is in a dynamic pose, but standing at attention he looks very awkward.
And speaking of poses, this Ultra-Poseable Spider-Man has a lot of articulation designed just for that purpose, starting with:
• Hinged swivel neck.
• Hinged peg shoulders.
• Upper biceps swivels.
• Double jointed elbows.
• Hinged peg wrists.
• Floating torso.
• Hinged peg hips.
• Upper thigh swivels.
• Double jointed knees.
• Hinged peg ankles.
• Swivel feet.
That is an amount of joints I had not seen used for a 4-inch action figure since the days of the Marvel Superhero Showdown line by Toy Biz. The design feels much more sturdy than those and the material quality of the new Spider-Man seems to be also improved.
Since the selling point for this Spider-Man is his level of articulation, Hasbro spared us from another over-sized accessory, which is fine by me.
Spider-Man seems to have some of the pieces molded in red plastic and some others are molded in blue plastic, with solid blocks of each color painted over the other to obtain the costume pattern. While the blue paint applied over the red plastic has good coverage and matches the hue of the blue plastic, the red bits painted over blue plastic have a harder time hiding the underlying color, as evidenced by the red spider logo at the back and the red lines running alongside the thighs. Still, the application is surprisingly neat for a mass-market item and the look is completed with bright silver soles and light metallic blue eyelenses.
In the end, I’m having trouble recommending this figure based on his aesthetic value alone. It is an extremely well crafted toy that for some reason ended up looking odd, so you might prefer a less articulated, better-proportioned Spider-Man than this one, but I don’t regret having this one in my collection at all.
Errex Score: 85/100
Category: Featured, Marvel, Other Film, Toy Reviews
About the Author (Author Profile)
I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.Subscribe
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Wow, I counted 24 PoA that’s pretty sweet! It’s amazing the difference in the last 2 pics of the review, the side by side with the MU Spidey looks really bad, but the action shot with the Lizard looks just fine. Great review!
Similar to the Lizard, I think the design is influencing my feelings on the figure. I just think there is too much blue.
The ones I’ve seen so far have had some sloppy black on the spider emblem, as well.
I grabbed this figure in case I never saw it again and so far I haven’t. Happy I did though, I have no nitpicks, I think it’s a good Spiderman figure especially over the MU versions IMO.