Marvel Legends: Hobgoblin wave review

Let’s take a trip back to early 2015 to review the Hobgoblin wave of Hasbro’s Spider-Man Marvel Legends. This will be the first of my Crawlspace catch up reviews, and will be followed by The Rhino, Absorbing Man, Venom Spaceknight, and Sandman waves. I might also put one or two more comparison reviews out for the other two Marvel Select symbiote figures I have.

I could’ve started with the Amazing Spider-Man 2 wave, but I’m missing about half of those figures, and don’t have any interest in building Ultimate Green Goblin.

So let’s get started! Just like with previous reviews, we’ll be judging the characters based on their looks, accessories, and range of movement.

This wave includes Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Girl, Ultimate Spider Woman, Anti-Venom, and Daredevil. Each of them come with a piece to build the Phil Urich Hobgoblin.

First off, we have the main attraction: The Spider-Men!

Sculpt:

These figures share a new mold, and other than the torso maybe looking a little bit too long, I really have no complaints. The webs on Spider-Man are painted on instead of actually being raised or indented, something I’m very pleased with, and had been waiting for. And they really do look great. A nice bright red and blue really make Spidey stand out, though the joint pegs being red on the blue sides of his arms is kind of noticeable.

2099 looks equally great. I think the dark metallic blue is perfect for him, and his red skull symbol is painted very nicely on him, in pretty good detail. His little web cape also is pretty detailed, though you can’t move it around a whole lot. The open hands also look great on him, and fit his character pretty well.

Articulation:

This new mold works wonders for a Spider-Man figure. His head’s on a ball joint with a neck hinge, and his arms have a butterfly joint at the shoulders with a bicep swivel, double jointed elbows that can bend very far, and a wrist hinge and rotation. He’s got an ab crunch that I wish could go one more degree forward and back, and he’s got hip rotation, but it can kind of look silly from certain angles because of how narrow his body is. The hip joint on his legs allow for a lot of rotation, allowing both Spider-Men to get into some very acrobatic poses, followed by a nice double jointed knee and then some ankle pivots and swivels. I wish there was a calf swivel to go with it, just for those extra few poses he can’t quite reach.

All in all, I’m very happy with the range of motion I can get on these figures.

Accessories:

This is one of my favorite parts of the Spider-Man figure. He comes with 3 pairs of hands: open hands, web slinging hands, and fists. He also comes with a slice of pizza, which is the reason many fans have dubbed this figure “pizza Spider-Man”. It’s a nice touch that really lets you get creative with the figure. In addition to that, he also comes with an alternate head, with the mask pulled halfway up. Some people use it for poses where it looks like Spider-Man is eating the pizza, but I think it makes a very funny creepy face that you can use for all sorts of situations, like the picture above.

Miguel unfortunately comes with no accessories, other than the little web cape that you can put on or take off. I would’ve liked to see at least an alternate pair of fists or something.

Spider-Man:

Pros:

• Looks great
• Great articulation
• Really nice accessories

Cons:

• Could have a bit more articulation in some places

Grade: A

Spider-Man 2099:

Pros:

• Perfect paint job
• Great articulation

Cons:

• Could have a bit more articulation in some places
• Lack of accessories is disappointing

Grade: B+

And now let’s move onto the Spider-Women

Sculpt: 

I’m very happy we got these figures. I’ve always liked Mayday, and while I usually don’t care for most of the characters from the Ultimate Universe, Ultimate Jessica Drew is actually one of the people from that universe I actually enjoy, so it’s cool to for her to get a figure of her own. Both of these figure use the same body that the Anya Corazon figure used, and it fits them both pretty well. Mayday looks great, and Ben Reilly’s costume is perfectly painted onto her, even down to the individually painted fingers on her gloves.

Ultimate Spider-Woman’s hair looks really nice, though because it’s molded to look like it’s swaying in the wind, it’s gonna look weird from certain angles. I am a bit disappointed with her paint job though. Half of the white spider symbol isn’t clean, and the edge is very blurred, and it’s pretty noticeable when it’s just white on brown.

One of my bigger disappointments with these figures is that they have no accessories at all. It’s especially annoying for Spider-Girl because the only hands they give her are two web slinging hands. At least one different hand would’ve been nice.

Articulation:

The girls definitely cannot bend as much as their male counterparts, and it’s kind of a shame. They still have a ball joint and neck hinge on the head, but they lack both butterfly joints, bicep swivels, and even double jointed elbows. This only allows their elbows to bend about 90 degrees, but they have an elbow swivel instead, and at least they have a wrist hinge and swivel. Their torso is also very limited. It’s on a ball joint, but it can barely bend it any direction, and can only really be used for twisting. At least they have good leg joints, and even possess calf swivels, unlike the Spider-Men.

Spider-Girl:

Pros:

• Great paint apps
• It looks like she’s jumped right out of the comics

Cons

• Very limited articulation
• No accessories

Grade: C+

Ultimate Spider-Woman

Pros:

• She looks great, and the hair is a cool touch
• Probably the only figure we’re ever gonna get of her

Cons

• Very limited articulation
• No accessories

Grade: C

And finally, the miscellaneous section, for heroes, villains, and anti-heroes, (oh my!)

Sculpt:

Here we have Anti-Venom, Daredevil, and the inferior Hobgoblin. Sorry Phil, but Roderick Kingsley you are not.

For Daredevil and Anti-Venom, there’s not a whole lot new here. Anti-Venom reuses the Hyperion body with Toxin’s arms and hands. Luckily he at least has new feet that don’t include a sole like Toxin had. He’s got a new head that looks really nice though, and his little accessory is just some white spikes you can plug into his back. They cover up the very nicely painted black spider emblem. All the paint on him looks great, and is very smooth.

Daredevil uses the same old Bucky cap mold that Hasbro uses for a ton of their figures, but it fits him pretty nicely. My biggest complaint is that his jaw and chin are massive, and I’d prefer if the were a little smaller, but that’s just me being picky. He comes with two billy sticks that you can tuck in his pouch, or combine to make a staff. They’re made of a soft plastic, so they can kind of droop and bend super easily. They feel very cheap, and I don’t love them.

Hobgoblin is the Build a figure for the wave, and honestly, I barely care about the character, but the figure is a very good likeness of him. We’ve got all new molds here, and all his buckles and straps look great with his detailed sculpt and wings. Really nice textures here. He also comes with a flaming sword that is kind of bent to one side for me, a little pumpkin bomb, and a seperate sword hilt that can plug into his back.

Articulation:

Daredevil and Anti-Venom have almost the exact same amount of movement. Ball joint on the head with a neck joint, ball shoulders with bicep swivel,double jointed elbows, wrist hinge and swivel, ab crunch, waist swivel, ball joint hips, thigh swivel, double jointed knees, calf swivels, and ankle pivots and rockers. The usual stuff. Not a whole lotta complaints in this area, it’s pretty average Hasbro figure stuff. Anti-Venom can’t bend his limbs quite as far because of his big muscles, and I do think Daredevil would benefit from having butterfly joints like Spider-Man so that he can pull off some more acrobatic poses.

And now onto Hobby. Y’know all those nice things I said about the figure in the articulation part? Because that’s all the good things I can say about him. In theory, he should have all the same movement as someone like Daredevil (except the calf swivels), but he really doesn’t at all. His head can barely move at all because his hood is made of a very stiff plastic, so if you try to turn his head too much, it will just pop off. His wings don’t move at all, and are just an accessory on his backpack. His arms and torso movement are fine, as are the bottom half of his legs, but his hip joints suck, restricting a ton of movement. They’re not too bad themselves, but his little skirt is made of a super thick plastic, so you can’t move the legs much without the skirt pushing them back into place. Honestly, I don’t even care about this character that much and combined with his awful movement, I’ve already sold the figure. Would’ve preferred a different character for the Build a fig, someone like Lizard or Scorpion or something.

Anti-Venom:

Pros:

• Super nice paint job
• The most posable Anti-Venom figure around

Cons:

• Kind of just a copy paste of the Toxin figure

Grade: B

Daredevil:

Pros:

• A good update for Daredevil
• Body fits the character very well, and the colors are good

Cons:

• Billy sticks are very bendy and kind of lame

Grade: B

Hobgoblin:

Pros:

• Fantastic attention to detail
• Very nice molds

Cons:

• His movement sucks
• Kind of a waste of a build a fig

Grade: C

Overall, I’d say this was a pretty great wave. Gives a fantastic update for Spider-Man and includes a lot of fan favorite characters like Mayday, Anti-Venom, and 2099. The only figure I didn’t want was Hobgoblin, and only got him because I didn’t realize there’s some places online you can order the figures for cheaper without the build a fig part.

Here’s some pictures to leave you with. See you next time with the Rhino wave!