Hasbro has been putting out toy lines based on Marvels animated lines since last year. For whatever reason the figures don’t seem to have as much care or quality as the regular Marvel Universe or Movie related lines. The latest is for Spider-Man and the results are mixed.
First up is the incredibly hard to find Rhino. The figure is short packed in the case as all of the villains of this line. The good news is that it appears he will be in the next three cases so eventually he will be easier to find.
Rhino is one of those characters who is a loser to put it mildly. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe lists Rhino as having strength of 50 tons. Meanwhile Spider-man has strength of 10 tons essentially saying that Rhino can’t beat a guy who he is 5 times as strong as.
My earliest recollection of Rhino in a comic book is him fighting Silver Surfer when the Surfer visited Earth. Eventually the Surfer got tired of Rhino’s pestering and just grabbed him by the horn one handed and stopped him in mid-charge.
Rhino’s sculpt is good, plenty of detail and rough textures. His articulation is the main issue though. He has no articulation from the hips down. He really could have benefited from ankle articulation at least. For a figure called “Charging Rhino” he defiantly is a bit hard to pose in a charging stance.
One surprise on his articulation is the bicep swivel. It’s very well hidden and I didn’t even notice it until I started posing him for these pictures. Still I think at the least knee and ankle articulation should have been added. He also would have benefitted from wrist articulation as well. For whatever reason Hasbro has been content to somewhat limit the articulation on larger figures in the MU and related lines (Hulk, Thing, ect). The only answers we have to this unusual phenomenon is that they are trying to give the appropriate articulation based on character (at least in MU, more on that later). But it just seems the big guys, while somewhat would be limited, deserve more than what they are getting. The new MU Juggernaut looks like a step up so I suppose we will see soon.
Back to Rhino, his armor is easily removable, in fact it’s s bit too easy to remove. Several times it would pop off while shooting. While the forearm and knee armor is not that big a deal I really liked the shoulder armor with its spikes. I think it’s a shame the armor pops off just by looking at it cause the figure looks cooler with it on and really toy tech has reached a point that something like that should be easy to deal with.
So the final judgment on Rhino, he is a good figure and worth owning but has a ton of room for improvements. I figure one day we will get a fixed one but really he is such an obscure kind of character it’s likely that it will be years before we see another, so grab this one if you find it, he is worth it for now.
Moving on to the brightest Stealth Ninja in the history of action figures, Stealth Ninja Spider-Man. I got this figures cause he is just plain silly and I have an affinity for silly action figures. But even on the level of silly this figure falls way short.
FThe major issue here (just like in Wolverine and the X-Men and Iron Man animated lines) is articulation, or the lack there of. Ninja Spidey has swivels and ball joints on his hips and shoulders and that is it (well of course the neckball too). What kills me is there are a ton of apologists out there right now making fun of DCIH figures like Deathstroke and praising this. I just don’t get it. OK enough on that or I will turn this into something it isn’t.
The cool part of the figure is the sword. In fact I gave the sword to Deathstroke. But a sword does not make a figure unfortunately. This figure just falls way short of the goal line only due to articulation. He would be a fun and silly figure otherwise cause let’s face it, Spider-Man with a sword and Samurai gear is something to chuckle at. Unless you are like me and have love of silly action figures I would avoid this one. It does personify all the things I think Hasbro is doing wrong with the Animated lines.
Next up Glider Spidey (Black Costume).
The good on this figure is the paintjob. It’s the very familiar black costume design but slightly different in application. What you get is something familiar but totally different at the same time. His downside is his articulation of course. He has enough, elbows, shoulders, neck, hip and knees. Still I think it’s kind of Ironic that a Spider-Man figure has less articulation than most current Star Wars figures released at the same time. Wrist and ankle articulation combined with some torso articulation would have made this figure near perfect. It’s good, almost great, but not quite there.
TThe glider is interesting though, it almost harks back to Batman in a way. The design on the back is kind of cool too, something you can’t see in the package but it defiantly denotes the glider as being Spider-Man.
Overall I say it’s a very worthwhile figure, not perfect but good and defiantly different.
So that is it, my verdict on the Spider-Man animated line overall is very hit and miss, and it kind of tough to figure out which category each figure fits into.
