Big Time Spider-Man

November 11, 2013 | By More


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Well, I have to admit that I have not picked up a Spider-Man comic in years. It’s not that I don’t like the character, but you have to admit that after a while, the very nature of comics, with their never-ending story arcs, faux earth-shattering events and constant re-boots, made reading them a very hollow experience.
IMG_20131017_194239So, I have been comic-fasting for the better part of the last decade, content with the cinematic exploits of Marvel’s web slinger, waiting for a time when I could pick up a comic again and feel surprised by it.

 

However, a lot of things have happened to Spider-Man in these years. There was the whole “Civil War” run, and shortly after, the “Brand New Day” story arc that did away with a lot of the pre-existing continuity in Peter Parker’s life.

 

One of the consequences of having a single, young, educated Spider-Man was that he got a pretty nice job with a big technology lab, which starts the “Big Time” story arc.

 

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During this period of time, Spider-Man gains access to really advanced technology he incorporates into his suit, which bring me to the action figure I’ll be reviewing today.

 


Big Time Spider-Man
was released in the Marvel Legends line as part of the Arnim Zola wave, and he is depicted in a full black suit with bright green lines forming the spider symbol on his chest and running alongside his limbs.

 

The body mold used for this version of Spider-Man has been issued already to portray other characters with athletic but light physiques. The character-specific pieces in this figure are the basically the head and the left hand, while the rest of the costume is pretty flat, with no textures or extra details in it.

 

Being a Marvel Legends figure, you just know that articulation is nothing short of excellent, consisting of:

 

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• Hinged peg neck.

• Hinged chest.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Upper biceps swivel.

• Double hinged elbows.

• Pegged hinge wrists.

• Hinged torso.

• Swivel waist.

• Pegged hinge hips.

• Upper thigh swivels.

• Double hinged knees.

• Pegged hinge ankles.

• Rocker feet.

 

With Spidey’s clean-cut outline, all of the joints work flawlessly and some of the larger pieces have soft ratchets built in them that allow Spider-Man to hold many a dynamic pose.

 

IMG_20131017_224240Of course, when an action figure has this much range of movement, it is not always easy to keep aligned the patterns painted onto the costume, but on Big Time Spider-Man the design is sparse enough as to minimize the amount of fiddling required to obtain a decent look.

 

This does no mean that there is minimal pain operation on this version of Spidey, far to the contrary. Although Spidey is molded entirely in black plastic, the areas beneath the neon green patterns were airbrushed with dark green paint. This provides a neat gradient effect to simulate the light emanating from the neon patterns spilling onto the surrounding areas.

 

IMG_20131017_224925I must say that I actually like the effect very much, but the folks at Hasbro decided not to go all the way through to the back of the figure, where the lower back and shoulder blade areas were left unpainted, even though the center back does display the gradient effect.

 

Big Time Spider-Man comes without any accessory, not even one piece to complete Arnim Zola, which probably made sense considering this same mold was also released with a variant Future Foundation paint scheme.

 

So even though Big Time Spider-Man is not exactly a ground breaking release in terms of production values, I do find it to be a very interesting take on the black Spider-Man costume and I would certainly not hesitate to grab any other repaints of this mold.

 

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Errex Score: 89/100

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Category: Featured, Marvel, Toy Reviews

About the Author ()

I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.

Comments (1)

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  1. Engineernerd says:

    Love the poses with this guy, but if I was going to get a Spiderman it would have to be classic.

  2. hi there! Any suggestions where I might be able to purchase this action figure?

    Thanks,
    gavin