Hot Toys Avengers: Infinity War Iron Spider figure review

At the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, we were teased with one of the more popular comic variant outfits with the MCU spin on the Iron Spider. It didn’t take much longer to deliver on that as we saw Spider-Man don the attire in Avengers: Infinity War.

With Spider-Man making all the headlines these days, I figured it made sense to take a look at the Hot Toys Avengers: Infinity War Iron Spider figure. Sony can take him back, but they can’t take the memories, right?

I’ve been not so patiently waiting on my Mark 50 Iron Man so I could re-enact the space team fighting Thanos. With most of them arrived now, it was time to get rolling. Let’s see if this is the greatest Spider-Man figure ever.

Packaging:  The Avengers: Infinity War packaging has been my favorite of the MCU presentations so far. Iron Spider uses a lot of deep reds and gold, which really shows up nicely against the embossed package elements.

As usual, slide the main package tray off and you’ll see the figure and accessories in the gold embossed inner packaging. If I had the space I would love to display all of the Infinity War figure boxes as they look very cool.

Likeness:  There’s something sleek about this costume/armor that really stands out. This is a really well done redesign as it captures all of the classic elements while incorporating slight touches that show more of the Iron Man influence. The paneling isn’t overdone and the bold reinterpretation of the spider logo really pops.

I definitely prefer this Peter Parker head sculpt over the Homecoming figure. The likeness is dead on for Tom Holland, but this time the eyes are painted straight instead of to the side.

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Scale:  Like the previous figure, Iron Spider is shorter than the standard figures. It definitely would not be cool to have him looking Iron Man eye to eye. Yes, he could be a little shorter still, but it’s enough to get the point across.

Paint:  Most of the paint elements is on the head sculpts and the raised armor elements like the gauntlets.

I don’t tend to worry about the paint work on Hot Toys figures since they’re always superb and the bright red used really helps to make the figure pop.

There were a few random points where the paint either scratched out or fell off during handling.

The Holland head shows Hot Toys at its best with the intricate skin speckling to capture that uneven appearance natural skin has in a realistic manner.

Uniform:  Iron Spider’s costume tends to bunch up when you move the torso to either side or raise the arms and legs in more dramatic positions.

Since this is more nanotech than cloth those folds are out of place creating a look that’s not quite screen accurate.

Those aesthetics aside the uniform itself looks terrific and doesn’t have a lot of bagginess.

Articulation:  The uniform is tight enough to give me a little pause when I started moving Iron Spider around. It was never so dramatic that it prevented me from getting a certain pose off — the regular Hot Toys’ body limitations were enough there — and let’s face it, these around Figuarts or Marvel Legends figure where hyper articulation is a must.

It is time to talk about one of my bigger gripes with the figure — the choice to go with a magnetic neck peg. The figure is intended to have the magnet at the bottom of the neck while a small plastic portion covers it. The instructions weren’t helpful enough to make sense of how that set up was since the magnet was already undone by the time I opened my figure.

I spent a good 20 minutes trying to lift the plastic portion back up after fitting it in place. Eventually, I gave up and just superglued the magnet on the top. It didn’t mess with the movement, but you kinda want your $250+ figure not to have a chump magnet.

 

Iron Spider has:

• neck
• shoulders
• elbow (double-jointed)
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• hip
• knee (double-jointed)
• ankle
• feet

Accessories:  Iron Spider has a ton of accessories that offer a variety of posing and display possibilities.

First up there’s 12 sets of hands with a pair of fists, relaxed, web shooting, web swinging, open hands and gesturing hands.

There’s also a mask that the figure can hold, but not wear. I don’t remember Peter taking off the Iron Spider mask instead of just having the nanotech reveal his face, but it’s another accessory.

Iron Spider has four strands of webs with two in attack hard-edged form and two in web slinging mode. There’s also a web spray piece you can use to plant on Thanos…or Star-Lord.

Like the Homecoming figure, this features a very fun ability to swap the eye plates, which helps convey different expressions. There’s no death mode eye plates, but I think the Homecoming ones should fit without any issue. Initially it’s going to take a little effort to get the default eye plates off. Use caution and a little patience and eventually swapping them won’t be a nerve rattling experience at all.

The biggest addition is the four spider arms. These are a nice addition to the figure. While they probably should be bigger — you won’t be able to fake the Iron Spider standing on the hind arms pose for example — they’re an adequate size for other poses.

I love their articulation and the ability to rotate them also allows for some fun display options. I think bunched in should allow for Iron Spider to keep them attached without being a display hog. If you want them off, the little plugs push back into the holes on Iron Spider’s back. It’s a simple design that really works well.

Finally, there’s another main head that includes an LED light-up feature. This is probably going to be the default head I use since the lighted up look was standard when Peter kept the mask on.

As usual, I spent way more time than I’d like fiddling and trying to delicately place the batteries in the head. Hot Toys really needs to figure out an easier mechanism for this feature. The lights are bright enough in regular light and would make for a fun light-up section with Star-Lord and Iron Man.

Worth it?  Iron Spider is $259. That’s a $30 increase from the standard Homecoming figure, but the arms and light up features help justify the price.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

I really like the Far From Home suit as an alternate attire, but after this Iron Spider figure, I’m not sure I definitely need another Hot Toys figure.

Where to get it?  With the Iron Man Mark 50 now available, I think the demand for Iron Spider is going to soar so you probably should get him now before he joins the Waitlist. You can order him now from LMF affiliate Sideshow Collectibles.