Aunt May and Doctor Octopus

 Aunt May and Doctor Octopus

Special Guest:  The Spot!

Hasbro - Marvel Legends

We've been given plenty Alfreds.  A handful of Commissioner Gordons.  Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White have made the cut.  In the same department, Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy, and J. Jonah Jameson.  Still, when it comes to great supporting character's in comics, one big name has eluded both the extensive Toy Biz days and early Hasbro.  No, Jarvis, sit down...I'm talking about Peter Parker's biggest fan, Aunt May!  

Toy Biz did make the strange choice to include Aunt May in their 8-inch cloth-clothed Mego throwback line.  The execution was...um...lacking, to be kind.  Granted, most depictions of the character up to that point made her look pretty decrepit.  That old catcher's mitt puss:

Spider-Man the Animated Series in 1994 gave Aunt May a much needed facelift.  And a blonde-ish dye job to maker her younger?  I don't mind this in comparison to the overboard approach with Marisa Tomei.  I know Marisa is pushing 60, but c'mon...who was Uncle Ben in that universe?  Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson?!

The animated look is a good medium if this is the only figure we are going to get of her.  Not too animated, there's an appropriate amount of wrinkles and lines on the face.  The outfit has an appealing amount of color, and is a step up from aprons and house shoes.   While she should have been packaged in an "Amazing Friends" boxed set, they did ensure she'd sell better than just being partnered with Ms Lion.

Animated Doctor Octopus is here as well!  I can't remember if the cartoon covered the "Doc Ock marries Aunt May to get at her newly inherited nuclear facility" plot, but I'm sure he at least menaced her a time or two.  

As a kid, I was always puzzled by the slightly muscular, accented approach to the character.  Digging into greater Spider-Man lore, one could assume this take was inspired by the the failed approach to bring web-head to the big screen in the late 80s/early 90s:  the one where James Cameron was to direct Arnold Schwarzenegger as Doctor Octopus.  I dig it, and would welcome a retool of Doc in his white suit (specifically thinking Erik Larsen's art) with this as a base.

One big area he has over the traditional, dumpy Marvel Legend figure, is the bendable tentacles.  He can mostly support his own weight if you want the tentacles to do the walking, and you can get better poses than before.

This set is a Hasbro Pulse exclusive.  This may be a 50/50 for most, but I was all in as soon as I saw the promo pictures.  Now, if you'll excuse me, my Aunt May figure is off to beat her 984 pies baked record as detailed on her Marvel Universe trading card:

Bonus!  A fairly obscure Spidey/Daredevil adversary, The Spot, makes his six-inch debut!  I don't mind that his animated form is weird and gangly since you cant see his face.  Just pretend that its a side effect of traveling through his interdimensional portals!

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

 Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends

Hasbro Marvel Legends

Took ‘em long enough!  The now defunct 3.75 in Marvel Universe figures teased me with a set like this way back when Toys R Us still lived and breathed.  2009, I think...a decade and some change?!  And we got two different versions of Dazzler before Firestar?!  Travesty!

Well, she’s here now, and she’s spectacular!  Bright colors?  Check.  High collar?  Check.  Flame effects?  Check.  And she has an extra head!  Granted, I’m not as excited by this one as the neutral head...the exposed forehead and “wings” on the mask don’t do it for me...but it’s still a bonus.

She has alternate hands for fire-casting, or closed fists for knuckle-dusting.  I need to look into the current-gen clear stands for characters like her.  I’m sure there are also many third party fire effects that would compliment this figure.  

I’m just as excited by the special, pack-in character:  Ms Lion!  Aunt May’s annoying cartoon dog has jumped into the third dimension with a more realistic look.  Mostly static, there is a ball joint on the head. It’s not like she needs articulated legs or anything.  An “ears up/growling” alternate head would have been nice, unless...unless they are saving that for the pack-in with an Aunt May figure!  

C’mon, Hasbro, Aunt May is way overdue.  Just check the stats on that Marvel Universe Card:  984 pies baked!  If that doesn’t put her in the heavy-hitter category, I don’t know what else will.  Maybe double-pack her with a wedding tux Doctor Octopus to make sure she sells?

Aunt May would complete the colorful camp that is Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.  I threw in a couple of new baddie pick-ups:  Doctor Doom and the Green Goblin.  They both appear in the show credits, along with full episodes here and there.  I also have a new, default Spider-Man, if you hadn’t already noticed.

Just the right shade of classic red/blue.  He’s also got this more narrow-eyed alternate head that looks like he jumped right off the pages of the John Romita books.

Doom is a repaint from the recent Fantastic Four wave.  Classic colors, he sports a brighter, truer green.  He only has the “classic” head sculpt, which is fine by me...true Jack Kirby inspired awesomeness!  

He’s repacked with some textbooks (used by gray Beast, the Hellfire Club), green mystical energy effects, and some yellow booster jets.  The only new part is a cloth tunic piece that sits under the cape.  I like it more in-hand than I did in initial pictures, but it can be removed to suit one’s preference.  I wish he had an unmasked, burned headsculpt, or even a Doombot alternate head...but I’ll take Doom any way he’s offered.

Green Goblin does have an unmasked, Norman Osborn head.  This should fit fine on any on the many suit bodies in the Legends line if you want to go full civilian.  Like Doom, we get some brighter colors than previous releases.  

I believe the Goblin Glider is a new sculpt, but I could be wrong.  The only thing lacking here is maybe a pointed finger with energy shot.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention the eyes...I repainted them.  The original pupils were way too big.  Like, Mr. Burns’ “alien” too big.  I also gave him a black outline around the eyes to stand out better.

These figures should still be relatively easy to find, at least online.  Doom and Gobby should be must-haves for comic fans.  Firestar may not be a necessity for most but, aside from the obscure cartoon, who doesn’t need another X-Man (and to a lesser extent, New Warrior) on the roster?  I hope to see her in Legends again soon...this time, in a more modern costume.  Bring on a “Maximum Carnage” sub-line!  Spiderman sells, and it would be a window to get other missing characters like Shriek and Carrion in the mix!

Howard the Duck and SP//dr

Howard the Duck and SP//dr

Funko Pop and Hasbro

I'm not typing that weird Spider-bot's name again.  I wouldn't even have bothered with him if I had not liked "Into the Spider-verse" so much.  I certainly didn't bother with the Marvel Legends build-a-figure version...at least this version is cute!  And he comes with a tiny Peni Parker figure!  I decided to pair them with another tiny dude in a big robot.  Wait...Howard the Duck has a robot suit now?!

Yup!  At least in some sort of fighting video game.  Funko made a deluxe Pop with Howard bobblehead.  Gross...but had some custom potential for my old Toy Biz Howard.  TB Howard was feeling a bit shafted after Hasbro gave his pack-in buddy, the Silver Surfer, an upgrade.  After ripping the bobblehead out, some pretty heavy dremeling, some smoke, and some melted plastic, Howard can finally stand toe-to-toe with the other Marvel heroes and villains.  

The mech suit is a pretty solid hunk of plastic.  I might chop off the arms and add some sort of swivel joint, but for now, I'm glad Howard fits decently in the cockpit.  I guess he made a background appearance in Endgame...he should have had this awesome mech suit.

I wish I were able to hollow out a place for Peni Parker to actually fit inside the Spider-mech, but the plastic is hollow and might shatter or chip with cutting.  Oh well, she looks fine riding on top of him in a crouched, ape-like stance.  They are meant for the "kiddie/non-Marvel Legends" line so you don't get much articulation (swivels at shoulders, mid-arm, wrist, upper legs), but you do get a web-missile action feature! Peni has a ball jointed head and swivel arms. 

It's a decent enough figure, again, if you liked Spider-verse.  I got mine on clearance from Hasbro on Ebay for $11 shipped...not too shabby!  The deluxe Howard the Duck Pop was about $12, and worth that even if all I could mod was ripping a bobble-head out of it's seat for a display piece.  Rock!

Venom

Venom Wave

Marvel Legends

Hasbro

I'm a little late with these, but no later than Hasbro was ready with these figures to coincide with the Venom movie.  I got these about the same time it hit Redbox.  If you weren't already drowning in Deadpool figures, someone pulled the level on the chute marked "More Symbiotes."  Somebody defrost "Green Jelly!"

Carnage and his offspring are totally 90s comic garbage, but they are so colorful and toyetic.  I skipped Cletus the first time around, and I am glad I did so.  I would have missed out on his alternate "unmasked head."  The slimy tentril pieces really add to the very Bagley look...very good translation from page to figure.  You also get some alternate murder hands!

Carnage was the tops for accessories in this wave.  No frills for Scream, unfortunately.  I guess you have to have a built in gimmick like Lasher.  Still, she looks great.  Always a fan of the colors.  We're still a couple of symbiotes short of "Separation Anxiety."

The Venom figure is the least exciting of the bunch, mostly because its a slight re-release/retool.  However, it could be considered a completely different figure, Pork Grind:  Spider-Ham's arch nemesis.  If that wasn't enough for a rebuy, you do get a great McFarlane-esque Eddie Brock head and some "unmasking" symbiote shoulder attachment.  Also, the Venom head (open mouth, no tongue) is new, so more variation for a favorite character.

Spider-Ham is getting a lot of flack because of his lack of articulation, especially in his lower half.  Yeah, it is lacking there and maybe he should have been a bonus pack-in elsewhere.  (Ah, the good old Toy Biz days.)  He is basically a pack-in for the largest piece of Monster Venom.  I still really like the overall figure.  If I did not want the full Venom, Spider-Ham would still be hard to resist picking up.  I had to throw Spider-man Noir into the pictures with him!

Poison was an odd choice, one that I could have skipped as he is an alternate timeline/universe version of Spider-man.  Wait...I take that back...after seeing the best picture of 2018, "Into the Spider-Verse," I definitely need any and all Spider-man variations!  While not all that familiar with the comic, he does look nice.  Very clean, Iron Man-like armor.  An unmasked head would have been made it better...thanks, Cosmic Spidey!

"Monster" Venom, while not as big as I had expected, is pretty massive.  Veins galore!  And the metallic purple really makes him unique to the others on the shelf.  Though I must say, if I had not wanted all the figures in this wave, he would be an easy pass.  Sorry, but Eddie Brock is Venom, and Mac Gargan is Scorpion.  Period.  And if Mac must be Venom for a bit, I prefer the scorpion tail as part of his look.

The last figure in this wave, Typhoid Mary, I am saving for a Daredevil review.  Or at least the next Spider-man wave, which is due any day now.  More to come on that soon!

Spider-Mobile

Spider-Mobile

Disney Toybox

As much as I hate to admit it, Disney still manages to surprise me now and then (without having to subvert expectations).  I really have no need for yet another style and scale of some of my favorite properties (until they manage to get their shit together with Indiana Jones), so the Toybox line is lacking for me in that department.  But then along comes a spider...buggy...and I needed it....badly!  It’s pretty comic accurate, goofy, colorful, comes with a Spider-Man figure, and is only $30.  And best of all...you can fudge it just enough to work with six-inch figures!

The Spidey-decaled wheel roll and are almost a thick rubber.  It’s pretty rare to get a vehicle like this that doesn’t have hollow plastic tires nowadays.  It can seat 2 figures and probably a few tag-alongs (watch out for hop-ons) in the back.  There are some foot pegs for figures to stand on the trunk.  Oh, and the trunk pops open for some storage.  This feature, along with 2 sound and light activated buttons on the hood, was a complete surprise.  The packaging did little more than show off the vehicle and left the features out.  Weird.  I scared the hell out of myself in pushing one of the buttons by accident and hearing the rather loud ignition sound fire up.  The headlights accompanying the sound are also pretty bright.  One button cycles through several “car” sounds, while the other has some of your expected Spidey catchphrases. “Friendly neighborhood” yada yada yada.  

I almost forgot about the action feature!  There is a hook and winch on the back that you can pull out and attach to things.  There is a button for quick retraction action.  Unnecessary, but another welcome bonus to this instant buy.

I dogged the Toybox figures at the start, but having one in hand, I have to say that they are quite nice.  I wasn’t expecting so much articulation for a kid-aimed line.  I might just pick up a few of these after all, especially the true Disney properties like Mickey and pals.

The only gripes I can muster about this toy is that the web detailing might look more accurate in black and the blue is more powder than royal blue.  That’s it.  So, if you’re a Marvel Legends collector, snap this up.  It’s too good to hold out hope that Hasbro will make one for the Legendary Riders line and if they do, it will cost far more.  Seriously, the most surprising toy from Disney compatible with my collections since the Star Tours Speeder.

As an added bonus to this review, I recently picked up a Hot Wheels Spider-Mobile to go with my ever-growing collection of tv/movie/comic/novelty cars.  Along with Spider-Ham and H.E.R.B.I.E., it seems to be the year for obscure comic references in the toy aisles!