Chances are if you are on this site you have seen the third Captain America film ‘Civil War’ and probably own the blu ray. If not be warned possible spoilers ahead.
So with every summer blockbuster comes TOYS !, you may have noticed however a lack of a certain wallcrawler in the merchandise. He wasn’t completely absent. We got Pop Vinyls and eventually a Lego set. We did see a 2” micro figure previewed but I haven’t heard of it seeing a release.
For most collectors the attention is on the Marvel Legends. Here we have seen a Spider-man figure released but not in an individual packet form but a three pack with Cap and Iron man. I know a lot of collectors who were not happy about this. The Cap and Iron man are light repaints of their main Civil War figures with only Iron Man having any new accessories. I’m sure licensors would have been excited to use spider-man but I have to assume something is going on with the MCU Spider-man license. The only Spider-man figures we have seen have been in sets with other figures. I theorize Spider-man cannot be individually licensed from Captain America as the focal selling point. IE I cannot license Captain America Civil War for T-shirts and make Spider-man only shirts, but if he is on there with other characters than that’s ok. So it is very possible a three pack is the only way Hasbro could get this figure out so I’m not going to knock them for something that could actually be their hands tied.
The figure itself is “based” on the way he was portrayed by Tom Holland in the movie. Now I say based because it is not the outfit he wears in a movie. For those that do not know, it can take a long time for toy development. One and a half to two years from design to release. It is almost as long as it takes to make the movie. Add to that the late changes in movie production and closed sets; these figures are often based off early designs of the characters. What Spider-man is wearing here I imagine being a close to finished design for the movie. He has more observable black lines around parts of his outfit similar to ones on shoulders and boots in the movie. The chest spider is also more Ditkoesqe. The colours on the outfit are also darker. Once again this has disappointed people, as they do not have a screen accurate spider-man. This is a short-term problem as I am assured next year we will be flooded with screen accurate Spider-man figures when Homecoming is out.
Sculpt wise he is 100% brand new. At first I thought he might have shared legs with Ultimate Spider-man but no, this is a brand new buck. The webs are sculpted with a black wash for definition. He also has detailed of tech sculpted into his web shooters and lenses
Articulation wise he has Ball joint head, butterfly joint deltoids and pecks, ball joint shoulders, double jointed elbows, Swivel and cut wrists, ab crunch, waist swivel, ball joint hips, double jointed knees and swivel and cut ankles. Aka he is very poseable. Arguably the best thing about this figure is the poses you can get him into.
Paint on this figure is fairly good. He is darker than this MCU Spider-man should be but that could be the production art Hasbro was given. There are some nice black washes over the webs to make them stand out. One of mine on the neck was a little too much though. Also the elbow joint pegs are red where they should be blue and do make for a bit of an eye sore.
Accessory wise he comes with nothing. In the box he is posed with the Battle damaged Captain America shield but really this is Cap’s piece as battle damage is something that happens to the shield after cap gets the shield back off Peter in the movie. Would have been great to have given him swappable hands like other recent spider-man figures.
Battle Damaged Captain America from this set is nothing of note, we have gotten this buck since Winter soldier. It got remodelled for Age of Ultron into the figure we have here and repainted for civil war. This one looks like Steve fell over in a mud puddle. He does have a Steve Rogers alternate head but it’s the one we have had three times before that looks nothing like Chris Evans.
Battle Damaged Iron Man is highlight of the set for me. While a repaint of the Civil War Iron Man this figure succeeds where Cap failed. The figure is the best MCU Iron Man buck to date and the battle damaged scarring on his armour looks amazing. He seems like a new figure. He comes with a great deal of blast effects making him seemingly infinitely poseable. The true highpoint here is the great Robert Downey Junior alternate head sculpt.
(Which FYI looks amazing on the Chameleon buck)
So would I recommended people rush out and get this set for spider-man. No I wouldn’t. If you want a film spider-man figure save your money and get one of the single ones released. But if you really need your spidey fix or want to make a Tony Stark figure with a suit buck than yes this set is for you.
Cheers guys. Apologies on the delay on me getting these toy reviews out to you as real life things have stood in the way. I have nearly completed my Space knight Venom Wave reviews and should be out to you soon. For more Marvel Legends chatter please check out the team and I over at the Action Figure Blues podcast breakdown the latest X-men wave in episode 239#
