Hasbro Marvel Legends Infinite Marvel's Venom Series review
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If you're waiting for more TMNT reveiws, sorry. Because in addition to the mountain of Ninja Turtle toys, the summer has also seen the release of
a small army of new Marvel Legends releases. Seriously, in just a couple of months Hasbro has released four complete series of figures, another
large exclusive set at San Diego Comic Con and about half a dozen random store exclusives. So I'm going to be doing a few Marvel Legends reveiws
as I dig out all of the other new figures from under Hasbro's new offerings. And first up is a new series of Spider-Man themed figures. I haven't
been reading the recent Spider-man comics. But I know that recent events have seen a number of characters given the same basic powers as Spider-man.
And this series gives us a number of those characters. First we get the Ultimate Universe versions of Spider-Man including the original
Peter Parker version and Miles Morales. We also get Silk and an alternate version of Spider-Girl. And then to add to your rogues gallery, we also
get new versions of Electro and Hobgoblin.
Packaging - Hobgoblin & Electro 7/10, others 5/10The packaging design hasn't changed in the last few years. I like the design. But I still think the older, brighter design which used actual comic images was more appropriate for the non-movie figures. But the bigger issue is the lack of any character information. Making two characters share a card/box and then making the text multi-lingual leaves basically no room to actually tell you anything about the characters. That's not a big issue for Electro or Hobgoblin since they are classic characters who have been around for decades. But people may not be familiar with the Ultimate universe versions of Spider-man or Silk. And I had to go digging online to figure out where this version of Spider-girl came from. I've said it before in past reviews, but it would be so easy and useful to either provide that information on the packaging or a QR code the would lead to a character bio on Marvel's website. It's also worth noting that I have multiple accessories that came loose in the packaging which generally hasn't been an issue in the past. But that could just be random bad luck on my part.
Sculpting - Electro 6/10, Hobgoblin 10/10, Others 7/10Since five of the six characters in this series have simple body suits for their costumes, there isn't a lot of detail work on these figures. That doesn't make them bad. Both Ultimate Spider-Man figures share a slim, slightly shorter body that is perfect for a young teen character. And the alternate, unmasked head sculpts seem like they are spot on to the characters. Silk and Spider-Girl also turned out well. Though they too lack any sculpted detail other than their heads. Electro does get some sculpted detail in the form of the electrical bolts coming from his fingers. But those were just reused from the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie Electro figure. But then you come to Hobgoblin who is fully sculpted and looks terrrific. I particularly like the textured detail for the arm and leg chainmail armor. Actually, there's nothing I dislike about this figure.
Paint - Hobgoblin 7/10, Others 9/10Talking about the paint work on Hasbro's Marvel Legends figures has become a lot less interesting than it used to be. The paint work on five of these six figures is excellent. And given the complexity of the webbing for most of the outfits, there was a lot of opportunities for problems. The one figure that does have a problem is Hobgoblin. They gave his cape and hood a nice paint wash that does a great job of highlighting the sculpted detail. But the body, gloves and boots don't match. And then the color of the plastic for the gloves and boots seems a shade darker than the body. So you wind up with three different colors on an outfit that should all match.
Articulation - 9/10There's not a lot to be said about the articulation for the Marvel Legends that you don't already know. As usual, the male figures have more than thirty points of articulation each. The female figures give up a couple of points of articulation compared to their male counterparts. But the difference is minor. And I don't have any quality control issues either. There's still room for them to go above and beyond such as bringing back some of the old articulation that has been dropped such as toe joints. So I won't say they are perfect. But they have set a very high bar as their base line and they deserve credit for it.
Accessories - Spider-girl NA, Electro 3/10, Silk 5/10, Spider-Mans 6/10, Hobgoblin 7/10Spider-Girl is the only figure in this series to not have any additional accessories beyond the build-a-figure part. That's disappointing when all of the others have something. But it's not like there is something that she should have that was left out. All of the other figures at least come with an alternate head. Electro comes with his more traditional masked head. But they didn't give him a normal set of hands. That just seems lazy and a bit cheap. Silk comes with a head without the bandana mask as well as a seperate bandana to hang around her neck. Both versions of Ultimate Spider-Man come with unmasked heads and a total of three sets of hands each: fists, web slinging and with the fingers spread out for wall crawling. It would be nice if they included a more creative extra or two. I see a lot of people displaying Spider-Man figures hanging from walls or the underside of shelves. So how about a small sculpted webbing display support? These aren't bad. But people had so much fun with the slice of pizza from the Hobgoblin series that it would be great to see more accessories with some personality like that. And speaking of Hobgoblin, this version comes with an alternate head with his tongue sticking out, his glider and a translucent pumpkin bomb. The bomb is recycled from the Hobgoblin BAF. The extra head is nice with the wilder, tongue hanging out look. But the glider is mediocre at best. It's small, not very detailed, and has holes in it under the foot straps. There have been so many other goblin gliders, why go out of the way to make another and put so little effort into it?
Build A Figure - VenomThe Build A Figure for this series is Venom as he appeared in the Guardians of the Galaxy comic. I didn't read that comic. But from the images I've seen, this Venom figure looks like he stepped right out of the comic. He seems a bit dull compared to past incarnations of Venom. Sure he's big and a bit bulky. And he has some sculpted detail where appropriate. But at first glance you could easily mistake him for a generic body. The white paint work on him turned out well, except for one spot on my figure where the painted got a fingerprint on the edge. If I were a fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy comic I would probably be thrilled to add this version of Venom to my collection. But as it is, without that connection to the character, the figure is pretty bland.
Value - 8/10Overall this is a pretty solid series of figures. You get four completely new characters in the two Spider-Man figures, Silk and Spider-Girl. And even Electro and Hobgoblin who have had previous ML figures are decent updates and neither has had a Marvel Legends release in quite some time. (not counting the modern Hobgoblin Build A Figure from last year) None of the figures are significant stand-outs. All six are really solid offerings. Oddly for the Marvel Legends line, the Build A Figure is probably the least impressive figure of the lot. But he's still a nice addition to my growing collection of Venoms. (Seriously, aside from a few headliners likeSpider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man and Captain America I don't think any character has as many Legends figures as Venom.)
Happy Hunting:Hasbro seems to be releasing new series of Marvel Legends Infinite figures twice a year. And the Venom series is one of four coming out for the second half of 2016. They have been shipping for a few weeks through specialty and online stores which is where I bought mine. But it could take more time for them to pop up in regular retail stores since many won't stock them until they clear out any remaining Abosrbing Man Series figures.
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