Marvel Legends Symbiote Spider-Man figure review

Comic book artists back in the 60s and 70s were truly gifted. We’re several decades removed from the debut of some characters yet those original costumes still can’t be topped. Sure, there’s a few tweaks here and there, but none get replaced for long. And while some costume variants are cool it took the Symbiote Spider-Man attire to truly reach an iconic status.

While most Spidey fans prefer the classic red and blue, as far as alternate costumes go the Symbiote attire is clearly the best in the biz. Hasbro already took a turn with the attire as part of its learning curve with the line early on. There was some funky articulation and a weird overdone airbrushed blue highlights to reflect the comic book look.

Now with a better handle on how to execute highly demanded figures, Hasbro gets a redo and gets the figure right this time. How good? You’ll want to make some shelf space for this one.

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Packaging:  Surprise! No dramatic changes here. The figure is neatly arranged to provide a clear view of the accessories and there’s nothing to free him from when opening it up. Symbiote Spidey doesn’t share packaging space so the side drawings and bio just feature him. Again, I’d love a better bio, but it is what it is.

Likeness:  Unlike other Spider-Man figures, there’s not a problem about the lack of sculpted lines or webbing. This is as simple a costume makeover gets.

This looks like it leaped off the cover of Secret Wars #8. Spider-Man has a lithe frame and looks ready for web-slinging whether on an alien world or in New York.

Scale:  Spider-Man isn’t the tallest hero so his figure doesn’t need to be eye level with Captain America and Hulk.

Paint:  The paint is minimal like the source material. What you’ll want to watch out for is the white paint coverage. It doesn’t always get a solid coating allowing for some bleed through.

I haven’t seen one without it to some degree but some look better than others. If you have a selection to choose from, look real close at the chest spider.

Articulation:  Like The Raft Spider-Man, I had a lot of fun playing around with this figure and experimenting with various poses. In a lot of cases, he’s restricted more by your imagination and pose patience than any lack of stability. I do wish he had just a bit more range in hitting a split.

Symbiote Spider-Man has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• bicep
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee (double-jointed)
• ankle

Accessories:  Symbiote Spidey doesn’t come with much by way of accessories. There’s an alternate set of web crawling hands, which is nice although a half masked Spidey portrait would have been cool too.

As part of the Build-a-Figure Sandman wave, Spidey gets two cool optional accessories. First is a sand mace and the other is a sand stone. I appreciate when Hasbro adds these BAF accessories. It wasn’t like folks were going to skip on this figure, but you didn’t have to have them to build Sandman.

Worth it?  I was fortunate enough to take advantage of that awesome Target sale where the figures were $12.99. But even at regular price, the Marvel Legends line is a fair value for the amount of articulation, accessories and BAF part.

Rating: 9.8 out of 10

With just a fraction better hip range and cleaner paint apps this would be perfect, but this is a really fun figure. This is one of those hard to put down ones and a figure Spidey fans definitely need in their collection.

Where to get it?  Target and Toys R Us are slowly trickling this line in. Symbiote Spidey is packed two per case so he should be easier to find than some other characters in this wave. Naturally, you can always grab him on Amazon.com or the full set on Entertainment Earth.com.