Spider-Tracer: Spider Power, Series I

Welcome back, Spidey fans! For this month’s Spider-Tracer article, I thought we’d take a look at a very interesting wave of ToyBiz-produced Spider-Man figures from the late 90’s. There were two series of waves in this line, and today we’ll be looking at the first series, while next month will conclude with our look at the second series.

What’s interesting about these Spider-Power figures is that they were an early precursor to Spider-Man Classics, and later, the Marvel Legends line, both also created by ToyBiz. The first series had three Spider-Man variants and one villain. Look at the first wave of Spider-Man Classics and Marvel Legends, and you’ll no doubt notice a pattern. By the time these figures came out, the animated Spider-Man cartoon from 1994 was finishing up it’s original run, though it could still be found in reruns. This meant ToyBiz had to pull from other material to base their Spidey figures on, which meant a dive back into the comics. These figures were also experiencing a creep up in scale as opposed to the earlier ToyBiz Marvel figures, and more detailed sculpts. ToyBiz was also experimenting more with articulation, too. With all of that in mind, let’s take a look at the figures in question…

Spider-Sense Spider-Man

This classic-looking figure had a great sculpt for the web-lines on the costume, as well as two action features (with one being cooler than the other). First, Spidey came with a web-device of sorts that you could clasp him to, and, with a string, pull him up and down on it. If you guessed this was the not-so-cool action feature, move to the head of the class! His second action feature was a light-up feature for the eyes to simulate his (you guessed it again, no doubt) Spider-Sense! It was a very cool feature, and far more effective than the Spider-Sense figure from the animated series of figures. Not a bad figure by any means!

Triple-Threat Spider-Man

This figure was big and bulky, and had a very nice detailed sculpt for his armor. While I had this figure, and had a lot of fun with him, I couldn’t help but feel this would have made for a cool repaint with the silver and black color scheme of the Spider-Armor as seen in “Web of Spider-Man” #100. Oh, and Spidey comes with an odd backpack that shoots off three propellers when you use the pull string. Yeah, trust me, the figure was much cooler without this action feature. Fortunately, this wasn’t built into the figure.

Street Warrior Spider-Man

Here’s another figure I had out of the box back in the day along with Triple-Threat Spider-Man (I kept a majority of my figures mint-on card, but when there was a figure I really wanted, I bought two), and man was he awesome! Like his fellow Spidey figures, he had a very detailed sculpt. I loved the torn street clothes, since it showed that Spidey sometimes just doesn’t have enough time to change out of his civilian clothes to deal with a threat. I have to admit that running around as Spidey in a Daily Bugle jacket probably isn’t the best idea, whether because it makes it easier for people to figure out he’s Spider-Man, or because it’ll tick Jameson off enough to see Spidey wearing his brand that he’ll sic a Spider-Slayer on him in the next series (spoilers!). This figure also had one of the best action features. Wrap Spidey’s webs around a tire and section of brick wall, place the other ends of the webs in his hands, squeeze his legs together, and watch him batter his opponents with the street debris! The brick wall would crumble apart for a neat extra added effect, which, of course, could easily be reassembled for more villain bashing. I had a lot of love for this figure back in the day, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Hasbro make more battle-damaged versions of our heroes.

Slime Shaker Venom

This Venom had quite a bizarre action feature… Put this giant backpack on him (it plugs in, leaving a huge, unsightly hole in his back on his spider symbol), plug these green, slimy heads into it, pull the cord, he vibrates, and the slime heads shoot out with capture nets meant to trap ol’ Web-Head. Couple that with his goofy stance and gorilla-like arms (seriously, look at them…) and this figure leaves you wanting a much better Venom figure; I know I was disappointed. Also of note, is that the figure shown on the packaging sports a different head than what was used on the final product. That head would show up on later Venom figures, however.

And that’s it, gang! Let me know in the comments section below if you had any of these figures, and, if so, which one was your favorite? See you next month with the Series II follow up.