Marvel Legends Tarantula review – Retro card
Tarantula is one of those characters I always think should be higher up on the Spider-Man Rogue’s Gallery charts. He’s got a cool design, a spider-theme and he’s one of the few villains who can match Spidey on an athletic front.
Regardless the guy just makes the occasional random appearance, gets beat and doesn’t show up again for years. Yet I still think he’s a cool enough character that I’ve been anticipating him getting an updated Marvel Legends figure. Hasbro made one during the dark days of 2007 when they were still trying to figure out how to handle the line so he was overdue for a make good release.
After waiting longer than he probably needed — how’d The Fly get a modern figure first?? — Tarantula kicks in with a new figure in the Spider-Man Retro line. Let’s see if he was worth the wait.
Packaging: The Retro brand packaging for this is similar to the cartoon style packaging even if the figures aren’t all designed off the animated look.
As usual, we have the nice window to see the figure and any paint flaws — ideal in all cases, but especially with the color scheme involved with Tarantula.
On the back, we get a bio/sentence that actually does a good job explaining the character. It was a little surprising to see the lack of a cross sell.
Likeness: Tarantula would have been a very hard figure for Hasbro to mess up. Sometimes it’s good to just nail the layup and get the points.
They opted for the right body choice for him with the Sunfire mold, which isn’t too big and not too scrawny either. I love the head sculpt as it’s showing off a ton of personality with the smirk.
His brow is furrowed suggesting a ton of confidence as well. He’s typically shown with his sash flying around in the back. They seem a tad thick though. Tarantula also gets a newly sculpted piece — his boot spikes.
They spikes have the right amount of size and the sharp end actually looks like it would draw blood or do some major damage in a fight.
The one downside to the Sunfire mold is Tarantula still has pins and they’re done in the annoying fashion where the black pin stands out against the inner red arms.
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Paint: I’m gonna cut Hasbro a slight break with the costume paint. There’s enough panels with his mask being blue that it’s fine with that choice. In the comics, it’s more of a blue with black highlights, which does make a difference.
This figure’s stark blue looks a little off since it lacks the shading/highlighting. That’s also the case with the black through his costume.
It’s a highlighting deal as well though in the comics it’s mostly black with a few blue highlights. It’s enough to read as black through the body, but the blue is definitely the dominant color with the gloves and boot portions. Hasbro rarely does that kind of shading so it’s not a surprise though going with the all black mask probably would have alleviated this weird inconsistency.
That said, the line work is very crisp and clean. Maybe the line strip could go down slightly closer to the knee, but that’s being very picky. The white of his eye slots could have used one more hit of white paint, but the blue isn’t bleeding through. There’s some nice subtle work on Tarantula’s five o’clock shadow.
Scale: Tarantula is not a tall guy and he’s right around the same height as Spider-Man and Daredevil.
Articulation: Tarantula needs to go agile blow for blow with Spider-Man so the Sunfire mold is a terrific buck for him. I don’t know if I wouldn’t have preferred Hasbro use the newest Spider-Man mold for maximum articulation, but this one certainly gets the job done too.
He’s got enough range in the hips to be able to hit his slashing kick lunges and strikes. And his center of balance is good enough to hold the side kicks you might also incorporate with him.
Tarantula has:
- neck
- sash
- ball-jointed shoulders
- bicep
- elbow (double-jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double-jointed)
- ankle
Accessories: Tarantula gets ripped off in this category. Hasbro could have gone with the bare minimum and tossed in some outstretched grasping hands.
If I had my choice I would have gone with an alternate head with an intense head sculpt with a black head wrap for those who prefer that matching look.
Worth it? At $24.99, this was a no sale. Target has kicked in with its quarterly clearance so I grabbed Tarantula for $8. You’re not gonna hear a lot of complaints from me with a figure I grabbed for under $10. The lack of any kind of accessory is still a problem though.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Hasbro is too far into the pinless joint era to keep bringing figures out with the pins and the lack of accessories hurt. Otherwise, Tarantula is a strong figure and a great one for under $10.
Where to get it? Finding him at Target is clearly the best option. If that’s not on the table, go through my affiliates Amazon and Entertainment Earth.
As an Amazon and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.