Marvel Universe Comic Packs Secret Wars #7 Iron Man and Spider Woman
Review by Prometheum5
Marvel Universe Comic Packs Secret Wars #7 Iron Man and Spider Woman is one of the latest installments in Hasbro’s popular Comic Packs like of their 3 ¾” scale figure 2-packs. This review sample was provided by Hasbro, and eagerly snapped up by me to bolster my Iron Man collection.
Included in this set is a reprinted copy of Marvel’s Secret Wars #7, as well as figures of Iron Man in his classic duds, and the second Spider Woman (Julia Carpenter) (who debuts in this issue). Secret Wars was the first event of its kind back in 1984, where the bulk of Marvel’s marquee heroes and villains were whisked away for a year do battle on a patchwork Battleworld, orchestrated by the mysterious Beyonder. Marvel’s various characters always existed roughly in the same universe, with some guest appearances here and there (as well as the Avengers, many of whom also had solo mags), but the company-wide crossover event was a brand new concept. Marvel worked with Mattel to make action figures to coincide with the event, and while the figures are primitive by today’s standards, they are still hunted by collectors as the first toy incarnation of many of the characters. Issue 7 is a great read, with one of the biggest fights between the heroes and the villains, as well as some great character drama, the introduction of Spider Woman, and some action between Dr. Doom and Galactus. The colors are vibrant and the printing is good in the reproduction, and the ads have been removed and replaced with a few Hasbro ads at the beginning and end of the book, so all of the comic pages are consecutive.
Getting to the toys, everything comes out of the blister pack surprisingly easily. There are no trademark evil Hasbro twisty-ties, and the figures are just tucked into grooves in the tray, and come out without any fuss. The hardest part is getting the blister off the card, since it is glued onto the card back, wraps around the card back, AND is then taped over the flaps on the back. Once we get past all those problems, the figures are all set to go.
We’ll Spider Woman first, mostly to get her done with. I initially had almost no interest in this half of the Comic Pack (even though she’s a useful figure for a Force Works lineup, leave a comment if you even know what that is!), but she is actually a surprisingly well made figure with a few flaws. Starting with the paint job, in an attempt to add some interest to previously bland figures black like the black costume Spider Man or Spider Woman here, Hasbro has upped their paint app game with some highlighting, with mixed success. There are grey and lighter blue sprays highlighting her sculpt fairly well, but they are inconsistent. The most noticeable bits are on the legs; one thigh has a big highlight while the other is devoid of that spray, which looks odd. The masking for the white is also really inconsistent. The complex spider logo which wraps around the sides and back of the figure is very clean and in the right place, but somehow the easy to mask borders between the black and the white on the arms and legs are totally fuzzy and off the mark, and there are a pair of overspray marks on the insides of the thighs. Even with the odd highlighting sprays, the whole figure would look 100% better of the arms and legs were masked better. The face and hair are unspectacular, but clean and get the job done.
Posability-wise, Spider Woman is pretty good, but misses the mark in a few key places. The standard ball jointed hips, shoulders are present, but there is no bicep or thigh swivel. Most of the Marvel Universe figures do not have a thigh swivel, but they do have either a bicep swivel or a similar-functioning extra swivel at the elbow. Missing this joint really limits posability, which is a shame, as the figure is otherwise good. Spider Woman can get into some great kneeling poses, and has a molded fist and open hand, which look great. She’s close to being a great figure, but not quite there.
Iron Man is, thankfully, a much better figure. Shellhead features all of the standard Marvel Universe articulation, including ball jointed shoulders, hips, neck, and torso, as well as double jointed knees and bicep swivels (still no thigh swivels). Iron Man can get into a variety of great poses, and has much better balance than Spider Woman. My only complaint on Iron Man is that the open hand only swivels and has no lateral movement, so you cannot get a convincing pose firing the palm-mounted repulsors. There is a newer re-pop of this figure with a new head and two repulsor-firing hands, but it’d be great to have has one of those hands here instead of just the open slack hand.
Paint-wise, Iron Man is much better than Spider Woman, mostly because there are very few actual paint applications. Most of Iron man’s color appears to come from the plastic mold color, with a nice bright golden yellow and cherry red. The red armor details on the arms and legs have the same black lining as the regular release, but they did not quite use enough paint on the eyes and mouth slits, so the black there is uneven. Compared to the single-figure Golden Avenger release, the Secret Wars figure is much brighter, as can be seen in the comparison shot (Secret Wars figure on the right). Iron Man sticklers will note that the man inside this suit of armor is not Tony Stark, but is actually Jim Rhodes. It’d be really cool to see a figure of the armor seen in the last few issues of Secret Wars after Reed Richards refits and repairs it, with a bulked up power pack and some more armor, but no figure of this has ever been made.
As a package deal, this set is really nice. I would not have bought Spider Woman on her own, but I am glad to have gotten her, and I think it is great to bring Secret Wars to a new generation of comic book fans. Both of the figures are a lot of fun, even if they are not perfect, and I’d recommend this set to fans of the Marvel Universe line, or fans interested in trying out this line.
Posted 31 December, 2009 - 09:25 by Prometheum5 |
Comments
19 comments postedI know what Force Works is! :) Wasn't it War Machine, and not Iron Man, though?
80's era pro-active Iron Man formed Force Works when he wasn't satisfied with the Avengers' methods. The lineup was Scarlet Witch, Wonderman, US Agent, Cetury, Spider Woman, Iron Man, with Scarlet Witch field leader. This was after relations between Stark and Rhodes went south over that whole 'surprise, I lied about being dead and made you sad, and know I want my company back' thing.
That's not the original Spider-Woman.
No, Jessica Drew is the original Spider Woman in her red and yellow duds... black costume Spider Woman is Julia Carpenter (now Arachne in some team noone likes). Thanks for catching that. My knowledge of everyone besides Iron Man is sometimes lacking.
It's a shame we never got a Marvel Legends USAgent so that the team could even be sort of rounded out. I mean, there's no way in hell we're getting Century, Moonraker or Cybermancer at any scale, but USAgent is just a quick repaint. Then again, there's still room in the Marvel Universe line for him.
My Force Works display, before I took it down, consisted of Modular Armor Iron Man, Galactus Series War Machine, Series 7 Hawkeye, Series 8 Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man, Modok Series Spider-Woman II, and... Beta Ray Bill. It just felt right, and he's a decent stand-in for century.
Awesome. BRB sounds like an acceptable stand-in for Century.
I would actually almost expect a US Agent in the Marvel Universe line... he's been pretty prominent lately in Hank Pym (Wasp)'s Mighty Avengers team.
I can only hope for the crazy star-shaped shield he had during New Invaders. I'm pretty sure he doesn't use it anymore, but it's a good way to tell him apart from the other Caps in a dark room.
Cool review and great to see some comic stuff on the site! We've precious little of it, despite nearly all of us being comic fans at one point or another. (I'm discounting toys based on movies based on comics here... )
"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High
that's a good point. While I am myself a comic book nerd (formerly ravenous, now very casual), I've never felt compelled to buy any comic-based toys. I guess I am a toy robot nerd and a print comic book nerd. Toys of *people*, however cool, aren't my thing. I still appreciate the comic related content, though. Keep it up, Prometheum.
Doesn't Iron Man blur the line,though? I mean,when you say you only collect "robots",you don't just mean characters like C3PO,do you? I assume that since you frequent this site,you have some figures of mechs such as Mazinger Z,Big O,and so forth.
Aren't they just bigger "Iron Men" in a way?
I kind of consider Iron Man like the "missing link" between US and Japanese superheroes.
LOL I know what Force Works is,I believe their cartoon is still available on Comcast On Demand. I didn't think any of you guys were big comic fans. I'm sort of a medium fan myself,I buy maybe one trade paperback/graphic novel a month,I never buy the monthly issues.
One thing you forgot to mention is the great value you get for your money with these figure 2 packs. A single packed Marvel 3.75 inch figure is like 8-10 dollars depending on where you shop,but a 2 pack is only 12-15 dollars! Plus,in some cases,the 2 pack version of the figure may be more desirable,like the Hulk who had a much better head in the two pack version. Or in this case,you can use this figure as Rhodey in your lineup,and one of the modern looking Iron Man figures as Tony.
Thanks,, that's a really good point. I forgot how much the single MU figures cost... mostly because I usually end up paying the dumb-person price from BBTS when I miss them! 2 figures and a comic for 1.5x the price of one figure is definitely a good deal.
IMO the single figures are WAY overpriced. It wasn't all that long ago that Marvel Legends were 10 bucks.
Speaking of ML,I originally wasn't going to bother with these little guys since I had MLs of pretty much every character I wanted and didn't want to "rebuy" any.
Of course,you guys know how well that works. :)
Well, I just got back from Target with the new Electro, so what do I know? I was initially turned off, but I actually like the new smaller line... I can get more figures in less space, and they've already made some totally off the wall characters that never warranted Marvel Legends. That and, within three waves of figures I already have 6 or 7 new Iron Man figures. I'm aiming to be complete on Iron Man figures, so based on attrition, the MU line works for me.
Another cool thing about the line is that if you've been keeping up with Dark Avengers,some of these characters could work as members of the new Avengers lineup. Black costume Spider-Man might be a little smaller than DA Spider-Man,but it's good enough,especially since 3.75 inch figures are so small anyway. The classic costume Ms. Marvel is a perfect DA Ms. Marvel,and the brown costume Wolverine doesn't have the same claws as DA Wolverine,but it would work in a pinch.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about,Tony Stark has been fired as director of homeland security and replaced by Norman Osborn who wears an Iron Man suit with a Captain America shield and calls himself Iron Patriot. None of the heroes would work for him,so he just dressed villians up as popular heroes and formed his own Avengers.
I **love** 3 3/4-inch toys. It's my vice. I've had over the years almost every 3 3/4-inch figure line and in specific I love the playsets.
I was so sad in the 90's when I had to sell my Mego Pocket Heroes collection to pay the bills, and the Marvel Legends I had 5 years ago just looked big and ugly. Where were my favorite comic heroes in the scale of my youth?
I was so excited to see this line announced, and so disappointed when they came out. On average an individual figure sells for $10 at retail in the US. $5 is just barely fair for these. They come with nothing! no stand, nothing! The paint is horrible! ...And that's if you can *find* them. Here on the East Coast, you were lucky if there were any single carded figures on the shelves for most of 2009.
So when my friend's son got into them, and I was picking the Secret Wars sets for him for Christmas, I figured I'd drop $14 and try one out myself. I was pleasantly surprised overall (except for the paint)- they remind me a lot of 2000s Microman, but made out of much better plastic. They're still too much at retail, so I won't buy into that.
I'll do what I do for Star Wars and now the GI JOE 25th Anniversary figures: wait a year and buy them all for $2 or less a piece.
Yeah,considering they cost more than G.I. Joes,who come with TONS of gear and a stand,they should at least come with some sort of stand or base.
I only own like 7 or 8 of these figures,and I probably won't get any more unless it's a character I can't resist.
Err...shouldn't this be a Marvel 3-pk toy set? I mean what good is Iron Man and Spider-Woman without Scarlet Witch? I mean c'mon, this is Tony we're talking about. Just look at those three.
-R78
There was a Century figure in the Toy Biz 5 inch Iron Man line- so he could fill out a Force Works display, if someone didn't care about the scale.
(the canceled US Agent became Astral Armor Professor X in a later line, but a customizer could probably take care of it with some hard work).