Hasbro knows you want more female figures. The challenge, sometimes, is getting the buyers for the big chains, who don’t always know much about toy source material, to pay attention. They might–might–know what a Black Widow is now that she’s been in so many major movies, but if you want to sell popular new comics heroines like Kamala Khan or Gwenpool, slapping a Spider-Man logo on them is the way to get them in stores. (Unless they’re X-Men, and then you’ll be slapping a Deadpool logo on them.) Kamala came out in last year’s Spider-Man Marvel Legends line, packed in her own unique standalone box, and this year, Gwen’s getting the same treatment, though she’s more heavily packed as the only two-per-case figure.
Not unlike a DC Icons figure (but $5 cheaper on average), Gwen comes with a bonus “licking lips” head, extra hands, smartphone (that fits into a belt pouch, and swords which stash into her cute penguin backpack. That long pointy thing is a lizard tail, which we’ll get to.
Some of the bonus hands are specifically designed with “selfie” poses in mind.
She’s one of two women in the line, though the other is more explicitly spidery: Spider-Woman recently got a more streetwise costume makeover, and it has finally made it to toy form.
The sunglasses are removable; if you’re looking to customize Dove Cameron’s Ruby from Agents of SHIELD, this might not be a bad base figure.
Spider-Woman is accessory-less, and like most of the smaller female figures in Marvel Legends lines, comes with the large torso piece of the build-a-figure, who in this case is the Lizard. Let’s take a look:
He’s a mixed bag, this one: a fantastic sculpt with less-than-perfect engineering. The dinosaur head is awesome, and the body is detailed enough that he even has back deco under the labcoat where you’ll never see it:
But those double-jointed knees barely move at all, and when they do, it’s super-loosely and with only about a 15 degree range. As for the tail, having it articulated instead of bendy sounds good, until you realize the unnaturally angular execution.
The highlight of the line is the perfectly chosen Mysterio, whom they couldn’t have known would be announced as the next movie villain. But he looks right out of the comics image that many sites chose when running the casting announcement.
The “magic” effect is two clip-on pieces that attach to his boots and will almost certainly see some re-use. But the kicker is his true face, which is freakin’ disturbing for a kid’s toy (albeit totally normal for a biker gang tattoo).
The whole wave is on a bit of a purple and green kick, so we also get Prowler, who was briefly played by Donald Glover in the last film, and uses a generic base body here:
No purple on Lasher, but lots of green. Unlike the Iron Spider Avengers figure, which failed to reproduce the extra limbs from the movie, this guy has four extra appendages coming out of his back; aside from that, he uses the basic Spider-Man body.
Also using said body is Spider-Punk, who looks like the sort of figure Hasbro might have made up once upon a time, and is a great gag gift for any nerdy musician friends you may have, with denim jacket and sneakers. He’s an easier cosplay if the only Spidey outfit you can find is incomplete and store-bought.
He is canon, though–an alternate dimension rockin’ rebel in a world where Norman Osborn is president. And for once, Spider-Man’s “thwip” gesture hand actually is meant to be doing the devil horns.
The other Spidey variant is more drastic: Spider-Man noir, a ’30s Shadow-style pulp version of Peter Parker. The figure is cool, but his right ankle is off-center and looks a bit off, at least on mine (Yondu had the same issue).
As a bonus, you can pop off his head and substitute anyone else’s, so he can be Blade, Punisher, or even Star Lord in Matrix gear. If Keanu Reeves ever does a Marvel movie, this could start a custom Neo.
Gwenpool is still the must-have of the wave, and maybe this settles whether or not she’s a Spider-Man character or a Deadpool character–we’ll have to see what Fox and Sony think.
Is this a collect-them-all wave for you, or is picking and choosing the way to go?
Let me know in comments.
Images: Luke Y. Thompson
Luke Y. Thompson is Nerdist’s weekend editor and major toy scholar. Talk plastic points of articulation with him on Facebook or Twitter.
More comics and comics toys!
- Want to know more about Gwenpool? Here’s our original review.
- Hasbro’s last Marvel Legends wave was Deadpool-themed.
- And here’s a mighty big Daredevil figure.
