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!

Doctor Octopus

Doctor Octopus

Hasbro Marvel Legends

 

Toy Biz set the standard for superhero figures, from the 5-inch scale in the 90s to the 6-inch scale in the 00s.  I try hard to resist replacing their figures on the shelf with modern attempts by Hasbro, but sometimes the improvements are too hard to pass up.  Like with Doc Ock here.  They have created something right-off-the-page perfect.  The size, the colors, the haircut...this one is tough to beat.  He's also one of Marvel's top-tier villains (alongside Dr. Doom and Magneto) so who am I to resist?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are some minor gripes.  In true "legends" style his glasses should be blue.  Also, the one area Toy Biz has him beat is the tentacles.  These are better "classics", but they aren't bendable.  You can detach them and swap them around, but your really only have 2 tentacle poses.  One of my favorite things about the bendy tentacles was that they could support the figure's weight so he could "walk" on them.  I think one set of these new tentacles is going for that, but you would need some sort of stand to make it work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doc is a totally new sculpt and takes up quite a bit of packaging.  I guess that's why he doesn't come with a build-a-figure part in the SP//dr wave (What the %&*@ is that ugly thing?! Pass!).  I picked him up along with Cloak and Dagger.  It's actually nice that SP//dr came along to give the wallet a break.  Hasbro has been putting out Legends waves at breakneck speed all year!  The news talks about these "dark times"...there's certainly not a cloud over the action figure market!