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Carnage
While breaking its host out of prison, a spawn of the sinister Venom symbiote bonded with
another human being - Eddie Brocks prison cell mate Cletus Kassady. A dangerous criminal, Kassady’s psychopathic tendencies
were amplified a thousand-fold when the bonding process transformed him into the nightmarish Carnage! Able to morph his limbs
into as many deadly shapes as his twisted mind can conjure, Carnage is living chaos - and certain doom for the Amazing Spider-Man!
The best part about
this figure is the paint apps. There is a good mixture of red and black all swirled together. It is one of the best Carnage
figures ever made, and comes with 3 arm attachments that simply pop onto his hands. There is also a pin included, which looks
pretty good in my opinion. When you turn his waist his right arm moves up, which I guess can pass for a poor action feature.
This is probably my favourite Villain figure from the line; it looks really good posed with other Spider-Man toys. Carnage
is articulated at the knees, hips, waist, shoulders, elbows, and head for a total of 10 points. I am fine with this much articulation,
it's not too much and not too little.
B
Smythe
Alistair
Smythe is the son of the scientist Spencer Smythe, who built the very first Spider Slayer, a robot whose sole purpose was
to destroy Spider-Man! After his father died, Alistair took over the family business... Creating new and deadlier Spider-Slayers,
in an attempt to take revenge upon the amazing wall-crawler, Spider-Man!
Smyth has no accessories aside from the pin. When you move a switch on his back his arms flail up and down like
he is punching someone. He does come with a ponytail, but I don't really consider it as an accessory. I don't really like
it because it does not look like a man's ponytail as it did in the show. Other than that the likeness is dead on; the best
attribute of this guy. Not much to say about this guy, he's nothing really to write home about but not really
terrible either. I think that Smythe was a pretty good bad guy in the show; he made some pretty tough enemies for Spider-Man
to fight. The Tri-Spider Slayer was made by him, and they made a toy of it to (review coming soon!). In short, a good action
figure for kids but unless you are a die hard collector I would pass this one up.
C
Web Shooter Spider-Man
Not all
of Spider-Man’s amazing powers come from the bite of a radioactive spider - some were created by Peter Parker himself.
Case in point, his astonishing web shooters! Using his scientific know-how, Parker created a device which, when filled with
a secret formula of his own design, could duplicate the super-strong web of a spider!
This was the first Spider-Man variant made in this line. When you press a button on his right shoulder a grey piece
of webbing shoots out. You move the webbing into the arm by pulling on a black string treaded through a small hole at the
top of Spider-Man's shoulder. As is the trend with most figures in this line, the only accessory is a pin. This Spider-Man
is articulated at the hips, knees, waist, left elbow, shoulders, and head. The spider logo on his chest seems a little small
to me, as it did on the Super Poseable Spider-Man figure. The action feature doesn't last very long, the right arm on
my figure split rather quickly. I don't like the sculpt on this figure as much as Super Poseable Spider-Man's. The head
seems a little odd. I think that most people would be more pleased with the Super Poseable Spider-Man than this one.
C-
Venom
Eddie Brock,
former newspaper reporter has joined with an evil, alien symbiote, giving him spider-like powers greater than those of Spider-Man
himself! Driven by a twisted sense of justice, Brock has become Venom, humanity’s Lethal Protector... and he’s
decided that humanity needs protection from Spider-Man!
I really like this figure, despite its cheesy action feature and not coming with any accessories. But let's
start at the beginning. Venom has eight points of articulation at the hips, knees, shoulders, and elbows. His jaws move up
and down like his is chomping something when you squeeze his legs together. The reason I like this action figure so much is
because of the awesome sculpting (which is 99.9% accurate to the cartoon) and the clean paint apps. The paint is nearly
perfect almost everywhere except for his face, where I noticed very slight bleeding. But it really isn't much to complain
about. This toy was pretty hard to find back in the day, but I found mine at a comic shop for $15. This seems pretty fair,
but you can probably find it even cheaper as my comic store is ridiculously over priced.
B+
Tombstone
As one of
the mob’s most crucial and dangerous enforcers, Lonnie Thompson Lincoln was a force to be reckoned with. So when a chemical
accident turned his skin rock hard and cold as the grave, he adopted the name Tombstone - an apt moniker for this strong, silent psychopath!
Only the might of the amazing Spider-Man has been able to plant this Tombstone
into the ground, stopping his reign of terror... but for how long?
Tombstone has ten points of articulation. He doesn't look much like he does in the T.V. show, but he still
looks okay. I don't really like the eye lashes on him, it looks like he used way too much mascara in my opinion. Other that
that the paint apps are pretty good except for a few black specks on his arms.When you press a button on his back he punches.
Tomstone comes with two arm gauntlets that pop onto his fists, a gun, and a pin. I like the look of him withought the arm
gauntlets better, but they aren't too bad. His right fist has a hole in it for the gun. Tombstone here seems to be a
delux figure, the later figures in this line seemed to have the oversized card and more accesories. I don't think that the
gauntlets were really necessary for this figure, but the gun probably was. Once again, I don't like how different he looks
from the cartoon; He should have been like the illustration on the package. Anyways, so far since he is the only Tombstone
figure made you don't have much choice if you are looking for one to put in your collection.
B-
Hydro-Man
Lots of accesories for Hydro-Man, a pump, a water shooting device, a ice thing that he stands in, and a pin.
When you insert the pump into the back of the water shooting thing he can shoot water. The ice thing has small wheels
on the bottom so that he can roll around. I like how they made the pin clear this time, it is a nice change. I don't care
for the sculp much, his chest and arms are way to big for my taste. The arms don't bother me as much because he can make them
bigger like he did in the show. Once again Toy Biz has done the whole "mascara thing" to his eyes like they did with Tombstone.
His translucent arms have white specks on them, which I think looks pretty good. Hydro-Man has eight points of articulation
at his head, waist, arms, hips, and knees. His large arms are really heavy so you can't pose them anywhere but at his sides.
As is the case with Tombstone, this is the only figure of this character made. Hopefully a new version will be made soon in
the Spider-Man classics line.
C+
Carnage Unleashed
While
breaking its host out of prison, a spawn of the sinister Venom symbiote bonded with another human being - Eddie Brock’s
prison cell mate Cletus Cassidy. A dangerous criminal, Cassidy’s psychopathic tendencies were amplified a thousand-fold
when the bonding process transformed him into the nightmarish Carnage! Able to morph his limbs into as many deadly shapes
as his twisted mind can conjure, Carnage is living chaos - and certain doom for the Amazing Spider-Man!
This Carnage is better than the first figure in almost every way. He has the same ten points as the other version,
at the knees, hips, waist, shoulders, elbows, and neck. Plenty of accessories for Carnage Unleashed: two symbiote attachments
that go on his hands, a removable mask, a bendable piece of symbiote, and a pin. You can't really see the bendable piece of
symbiote in the pic as it is wrapped around Carnage's waist; but trust me it is there. The paint on the removable mask doesn't
last very long as the soft rubber used is always bending. As is the case with many of the later Spider-Man TAS figures there
is the weird painting of eye lashes that looks more like mascara. Cassidy's head also looks a tad too small but
it is understandable as they may have had to make it smaller for the mask to fit over his head. Other than that Carnage's
sculpt is nearly perfect. His right hand is in a closed fist with two symbiote prongs sticking out of the top (Looks kind
of like a Predator's wrist blades extended). Carnage Unleashed is an awesome figure in my opinion, but some people prefer
the original version to this one.
B+
Hobgoblin
Hobgoblin has six points of articulation, which seems a little low. He has hip, knee, and arm joints.
His accessories include a glider and pumpkin bombs that he can throw. You can also include his removable cape an accessory.
I had no trouble throwing the pumpkin bomb, his action feature works surprisingly well in that his right arm swings down when
you release it from a raised position. I think that kids would have lots of fun with the glider, even I did. Hobgoblin's sculpt
is pretty average; I liked it except for the slightly off face. The cape included is just orange plastic, it is not painted
which I don't have any major problems with. Hobgoblin was probably one of the weaker figures from series one, I would highly
recommend the Spider-Man Classics version to this one.
C+
Tri-Spider-Slayer
This 3-in-1 6-wheeled vehicle combines the strength of its awesome
components into a massive missile-firing, pincer-crushing arthropodal colossus that’ll make the wall-crawler think more
than twice before picking a fight with his robotic rivals! All 3 mechanical arachnids move independently with free-rolling
wheels and all 3 lock together to form Spidey-loathing Super-Villain™ Smythe’s™ most brilliant and most
lethal creation: The TRI-SPIDER-SLAYER™!
Smythe made lots of things to attack Spider-Man, most of them were unsuccessful but the Tri-Spider-Slayer did pretty
well against him. Just like in the Animated Series cartoon there is a green scorpion on the bottom, a blue tarantula stacked
on top of the scorpion, and a black spider sitting in an indent on top of the blue tarantula. As for action features, the
scorpion's pincers move together when you pull back on its tail. When you release the tail a grey missile is flung down at
the ground, which actually looks better than it sounds. The blue tarantula's middle set of legs clamp together quickly when
you press an orange button on the back. When you press either of the two orange switches on the front of the blue tarantula
one of the two missiles will shoot out. And finally, the black spider sitting on top shoots water out of its mouth if you
press in its stomach; also when you pull the red switch on the very top of the black spider its legs close.
Mine seems quite durable; it has taken drops from shelves and been played with by children. Plus it is more than ten
years old and everything still works perfectly. I think that Toy Biz should have included a Spider-Man figure with this, it
probably would have sold much better as you don't need to buy anything else to play; but most kids probably already had a
Spider-Man toy when they got this. I remember this being extremely difficult to find and was definitely more expensive
than people were used to paying for toys. I honestly don't believe anyone would be able to find this anywhere, but if you
did manage to then I would say buy it! I am positive that you will not be disappointed.
A-
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