Toys / Comics to Toys / Marvel Legends

1st Appearance Spider-Man

By Hervé St-Louis
January 8, 2011 - 23:18

For some reason, it was difficult for Toybiz now known as Marvel Toys to make a decent Spider-man action figure that fit with the rest of the Marvel Legends action figure line. Sure, they made Spider-man Classic action figures, but those were best known for all those villains you couldn't find rather than Spider-man himself.

The First Appearance Spider-man action figure is an attempt to capture the look of the character when he was drawn by co-creator Steve Ditko. But Toybiz did not do first appearance action figure like arch-nemesis DCDirect. Toybiz has always focused more on the posability and action figure than the sculpt of its action figures. The only design element that make this action figure a Steve Ditko inspired toy is the character's head with the narrow eyelids. Besides that, this Spider-man could be a great generic Spider-man action figure. Well, in my collection, he is my de facto Marvel Legends Spider-man action figure and I have no need for another one. The narrow eyelids are not that different.

The sculpt is great however. Spider-man feels small and even adolescent-like in body size. And that works great. He's really go a compact musculature. The one thing I don't like about this toy is the fishnet they glued to his wrists and the back of his neck. It's just silly looking although it never really gets in the way of the action figure's arm motion.

I stopped counting the articulations on this toy because I'm no longer sure if some count as double. For example are the shoulder joints which allow for two different type of motion count as two or one? Suffice to say, the toy has double articulations at the knees and elbows.

The toy can easily break if too much pressure is exerted. For example, be careful when folding Spider-man's fingers. Each can rotate individually but they don't look too solid. Also, The fingers are not much curved, so they look kinda lame.

This action figure, of course came with the chest part of the larger sentinel action figure part of the Series 10 Sentinel series action figures from 2005. Toybiz does not make Marvel Legends action figures anymore and because Spider-man came with the Sentinel's chest piece, of course this toy is sought after by all collectors. I'd say it's probably worth over $60 in its original package.

Rating: 9.5 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12