Marvel Legends Spider-Ham figure review

Spider-Ham might be Hasbro at its boldest — releasing what in years past would have easily been a bonus pack-in as a full-fledged solo offering. Of all the figures in the Monster Venom wave, Spider-Ham is the most controversial, but let’s see if this figure would have been better served as bacon.

Packaging:  After years of predominantly black package, the white and grey color scheme is very striking. Now I’m hoping Hasbro will do this more often with its various ML sublines.

Like we saw with the second Deadpool wave, Hasbro is making the side portraits full color. That really makes the package pop. I appreciate that Hasbro isn’t so wedded to the traditional style that they won’t mix it up so late in the run.

While the figure is small, the presentation certainly shows where your money is going as there’s very little free space. The bio is small, but neatly sums up the character.

Likeness:  The figure’s appearance seems more based on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon than the Spider-Verse saga so he’s a bit…porky (sorry).  Making him any smaller would have really made it hard for Hasbro to charge full price for him so I get the style choice. He’s got a web shooting hand and a wall crawling one.

My figure had some QC issues with dents and divots throughout in areas that should have been smooth. Not sure if this is a case of this particular one having a busted mold or if it’s a widespread issue.

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Scale:   Spider-Ham is not tall naturally and comes up to a standard Spider-Man figure’s waist. That’s about right no matter what style we got for this guy.

Paint:  Oddly Hasbro sculpted all the web lines, but didn’t paint them. I’m not sure which is more disappointing, but at least those with steady hands can add them in. Besides that very significant omission, the paint job is fine.

There’s no bleeding of the red or blue sections and the eye whites are nice and bright. But still, bad form for not completing the paint job Hasbro.

Articulation:  And here’s the controversial part. No matter what form of Spider-Man we get there’s certain expectations — fluid articulation being maybe the main one. Spider-Ham isn’t articulated at the hips or knees. This is a real let down as we’re not likely to get another Spider-Ham figure. The painted web lines are one thing, but cheating on articulation? Not good.

Spider-Ham has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• ankle

Accessories:  Here’s where Hasbro tries to make up some ground for the figure’s lackluster presentation. Spider-Ham comes with the torso of the Monster Venom Build-A-Figure. It’s pretty massive and is broken up into two parts, which I suppose provides some extra value.

Also included is the head of Pork Grind, Spider-Ham’s arch-enemy. This head fits on the Venom body. That’s a nice touch, but it will feel like a better bonus if the main figure was at the usual Marvel Legends standard.

Worth it?  At $20, Spider-Ham just doesn’t feel like the best value unless you were already planning on building Monster Venom.

Rating: 7 out of 10

It’s hard not to consider Spider-Ham a big disappointment. There are too many shortcuts on a one-off figure that it will only satisfy the most ‘hog-core’ fan.

Where to get it?  Target is on top of this wave stocking it pretty well in stores. The wave is also up at Hasbro Toy Shop and slowly working its way through secondary resellers on Amazon.com.