Spider-Hulk, Spider-Hulk, smashes whatever a gamma irradiated spider smashes!

First, let me apologize for not posting for the whole of March. I appreciate the three of you who are still reading. That said, I'm baaaaack!

And not only am I back, but I bring you today some fun pics of one of my Holy Grails that I finally added to my collection: Spider-Hulk!

Back in 2006, Toy Biz was reaching the end of their Spider-Man Classics line. They may have also been close to the end of their license with Marvel, which ended up (and still is) with Hasbro. I'm no Marvel expert, so don't quote me on that. What I do know is that one of the last Spider-Man Classics figures Toy Biz released was Spider-Hulk. I'm pretty sure, as the story goes, Peter Parker somehow gained the powers of The incredible Hulk for a hot minute (and this is not Bruce Banner/Hulk in Spider-PJs). I've not read this specific story in the comics, but I love that Toy Biz made an action figure of this...well...incredible moment!

I saw this figure at retail back in '06 and somehow talked myself out of it. I've regretted that decision ever since, and as is always the case in such situations, Spider-Hulk became a very hard-to-get figure, and has since held a ridiculously high resale value. I've kept my eyes peeled for him for over ten years, hoping to find an economical example, but I've never seen him going for a sane and excusable price...until now!

For some reason beyond my mere human intellect to interpret,  a couple months ago a Chinese ebay seller suddenly began selling loose Spider-Hulks. The auction end prices vary, but have been hovering around an average of $25 bucks for as long as I've been monitoring. Buying loose toys from China can be a risky venture, so I had to ask myself: was it worth tempting fate to get either a) a cheap bootleg, b) a Spider-Hulk with two left feet or c) nothing at all, in an attempt to get Spider-Hulk for a fraction of what he's gone for on the secondary market for the past ten years?

Well the answer was obviously 'yes.'

I'm glad to report that I bid, I won, and lo-and-behold, a couple weeks later a beautiful loose but perfect example of Spider-Hulk arrived at my doorstep! HUZZAH!!!

Of course there are a lot of questions this figure's existence raises. Did Toy Biz have a warehouse full of these gentlemen, just sitting in crates for a decade, waiting for someone to buy them up and liquidate them on eBay? Or did toy Biz themselves, or whatever manufacturer they contracted, find a crate ala the Lost Ark of the Covenant, and after they busted them open and their faces melted off, they decided to offer them up on eBay for us True Believers who never stopped looking and hoping and praying?  Or is he coated in lead paint and was held back from retail sale for safety reasons and I'm going to die soon?

Who cares. I HAVE SPIDER-HULK!.

One last thing: You too could own a Spider-Hulk: As of press time, they are still popping up on eBay and auctions are ending between $20 and $30 with free shipping. I can't guarantee your experience will be the same as mine, but I can guarantee that this is a great price for an otherwise hard to find figure. Search for SpiderHulk and search under 'free shipping', and you should find the auctions easily enough. Good luck!

Tornado Spin Doc Ock :: Spider-Man & Friends

The north of the border Father-Son blogging team at Fully Jointed Play Figures has been blogging this past week about their sweet Spider-Man & Friends figure collection. So far they have covered Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Lizard, and Hulk. I decided to join in the fun and post the only one from this series that currently exists in my collection: Doc Ock!

These preschool aimed Spider-Man & Friends figures were originally released back around the turn of the century. I had mistakenly thought they were by Playskool, but it turns out they were actually made by Toy Biz! Back then I had a few because I thought they were so cute: namely Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man and Spider-Girl.

Sadly I did not hold on to any of them and only recently stumbled on to this Doc Ock at the flea market. He's the only figure from this line that I currently own, but I hope to find a few more in good shape so there's someone around to thwart his evil plans!

Also, I just love how much this guy looks like Buster Poindexter:

'zat you, Spider-Man?

Ock was apparently released in a couple color variations. this version is 'Tornado Spin Doc Ock.' He comes with a detachable backpack with a wind-up button feature, that is supposed to make his arms spin. Mine works, but not too well. Fortunately he's an otherwise clean specimen and displays well. Since this line was geared towards pre-schoolers, it's difficult to find them in good shape second-hand.

The backpack is embossed with the...Ock Symbol...?

The Spider-Man & Friends toyline was a lot of fun and, if I am not mistaken, it set the superhero preschool trend. One that continues to thrive today in lines like Imaginext, Half Shell Heroes and Playskool Heroes. There were plenty of forgettable and corny figures, like snowboarding Spider-Man, but there were a lot of gems too!

Spider-Woman by Toy Biz

 Another recent gift from The Clawful Punch was this Toy Biz Spider-Woman action figure!

Now I profess to be quite the comic-book savant, but I admit I know little to nothing about Spider-Woman (except that she's pretty danged homina-homina-homina!)

This action figure is pretty basic as action figures were at the time, although she does have knee and elbow joints, which wasn't particularly common in those days of old. She came with a gun and web-shield, which Jboy included but I did not photograph.

I do like that fact that Spider-Woman's head and hair and torso are all a single sculpt. So many female action figures' head articulation is useless due to massive plastic chunks of hair. Toy Biz said 'screwit' and just made it all one piece, and that's laudable in this case.

Although I am not familiar with the character, I love Spider-Man and the Spider-Family and am so glad to have her in my collection. I have eyed the black and white costumed Toy Biz Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman in the past and might need to add her to the collection now that I have this one!

This Spider-Woman's real identity is that of Jessica Drew. She first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #32 (February 1977). She was created by Archie Goodwin and Marie Severin. Read more about her at Wikipedia.

What an Abomination!

I've posted about my Marvel Legends Abomination action figure before, but he's so cool I decided to take some more shots and post him again! There's just something about old A-Bomb that I love.

I've never been a huge Incredible Hulk fan, or a big Marvel Legends collector, but this guy has always been a favorite of mine. He's just so incredibly cool and resides in my collection still to this day even though so many other Hulk themed toys of mine have moved on to...wait for it...greener pastures.

He's just so massive and imposing and old-school monstery...
\

he sort of reminds me of a 'roided out Creature from the Black Lagoon!

All in all he's really quite...

'Shut up, human! Kalibak demands to know who this mutant cucumber thinks he is; this is Kalibak territory!'

As you can see, Toy Biz released some pretty massive figures in the Marvel Legends line proper, while DCUC reserved 'big' figures for their C and C pack in components...and yet they were still dwarfed by Marvel Legends!

'Who are you calling a dwarf?!?! Kalibak will put this pickle in his place!'
BAM!

SOCK!
'Oooh, it is on now, you overgrown gourd!'

Well, what do you think? Who would win in an all out brawl between Abomination and Kalibak?

The real Abomination isn't the toy...

I didn't collect a lot of Marvel Legends when they were available in stores, primarily because I am 'Team DC' and there were even fewer Marvel characters that I felt I had to have in my collection then than there are now. Which is still relatively few.

But the MLs I do have are undeniably superb toys. And if I had collected Marvel Legends back in the day I would surely hate Mattel and their product even more today, because there is NO DENYING that Marvel Legends put out a superior product to DC Universe Classics. FAR superior. In every way. Seriously, comparing Marvel Legends to DC Universe Classics is like comparing apples with dog doo.

To prove my point I submit Exhibit A to the good people of the jury - The Abomination:

The only thing that is an Abomination is this guy's name. First off: in Abomination's case, and not unique to Abomination, Marvel Legends released an extra large scaled figure as a standard release, part of the normal 'wave' or 'series' release and NOT a 'Collect and Connect' or BAF. Abomination is about the size of DCUC Gorilla Grodd who was a Collect & Connect, NOT a standard release figure! In fact, Abomination ALSO came with a BAF piece for his series! How they did this without MarvelLegendsCollector.com's exhorbidant shipping costs to offset production costs, or without charging upwards of 152 bucks for the big moe is anyone's guess.

Second, every piece of Abomination is unique to Abomination. Wait...what? Somewhere in Beverly Hills a Mattel exec just fell off his sterling silver toilet seat.

Really? Really. Really?

Really.

You won't find those green thighs on a repainted Banshee figure or those warty two-toed feet on a mis-proportioned Nightcrawler. No sir.

Unbelievable.

Did they even make any money on these things?

I bet Toy Biz execs drove pintos. Or took the bus to work.

Was Abomination hard to find? No harder than every dang DC Universe figure since the line started and still to this day and on and on forever and ever amen. In fact I will go on record and say Marvel Legends were always easier to find than DC Universe Classics.

I have a long memory and have been at this toy collecting game for too long, kids. I saw a lot of 'hard to find' Marvel Legends in stores, far more than I've seen of even your most standard of DCUC figures. I saw and own this guy, I saw Hulkbuster Iron-Man, I saw Juggernaut. I saw variant Iron-Man and Hulk with both bendy fingers and hinged fingers. I owned both green and grey 1st Appearance Hulks. I saw a lot of them, I just didn't collect them.

Distribution for Marvel Legends was superior to DCUC.

Period.

Finally, I could commit bloody murder with this bastard.

He's a frickin' brick! He's solid and heavy and I've used power tools more flimsily constructed. But that may just be because the contractor I worked for was a cheapskate. But that's another story for another day...

Yet if I sneeze three rooms over from a DCUC figure it's likely to disintegrate into a cloud of fine toxic powder and blow away, coating the DCUC next to him with a penetrating, discoloring mist.

One more thing...Abomination even had a variant.

Unbelievable.

Did I mention the price was lower for these than DCUC? Okay, adjust for inflation yadda yadda, the economy was sure better five years ago when Abom was released; in any case I'll give Mattel the benefit of the doubt and say with adjustments price-points were the same. But Abomination is the size of Gorilla Grodd - a C&C! So where's the bigger value? Do you even have to ask?

Next time you see a guy with a cardboard sign begging for money, give it to him, He must have worked for Toy Biz. They had to have totally lost their shirts on these toys, right? I mean, Mattel can barely keep afloat, charging us upwards of $20 for the same figure seventythousand times, with merely different paint apps and a new headsculpt. A good sculptor can sculpt bodies at a rate of about fifty two per second, but sculpting heads? That takes DAYS!

Right?

Right?

Right.

End rant.

Play Mysterio For Me

If there were a country called Youlookstupidsylvania, this would be their King:

This is Mysterio. He looks like a moron. Ever see that show What Not to Wear?
This. Do not wear this. Ever. End of show.

He was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko did drugs. Mysterio is the proof.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love Mysterio. I love him precisely because he looks so amazingly idiotic. The salad bowl helmet, the lantern wrist bands, the green spandex, the purple cape, the metallic golden boots. What's not to love?

This figure came out in 2005 as part of the Spider-Man Classics figure line. He looks so goofy I couldn't pass him up. He came with a cloud/smoke-like base which fired a couple missiles, but I have those packed away. Their absence in no way detracts from his goofyness. He was also later released as part of the Spider-Man Origins figure line, without the cloud base and with a more metallic paint scheme.

Mysterio has tons of articulation, as is standard for these Marvel Legends/Toy Biz figures, but it's pretty pointless and excessive for his character. Like DCUC figures, it's also worthless because his plastic cape inhibits his range of motion.

But Mysterio has another trick up his sleeve:

When you push a button on his back, a light shines to reveal his face! Keen!

But wait, there's more:


Push the button again and his head rotates to reveal the face of a monster! Yipes!

Push it once more and his head rotates to show the face of an Alien! Egads!

Let's look at that action in the dark, shall we?

Grrr!

Klaatu, barda, nikto.


Would you like fries with that?

I Love Dick

Grayson.
Chunky B over at Eclectorama posted the Toybiz Flash today, and *gasp* had the audacity to say "I usually ditch Robin and Bats teams up with Flash."

How could he?!?! The Toybiz Robin is clearly superior to The Toybiz Flash in every way! Let's take a look a the facts.

First off, Robin has a COOL action feature, which allows him to do a karate chop! The Flash has epileptic seizures. Point: Robin.

The button to activate Robin's chop is hidden under his cape. The Flash has a wind up knob (or cancerous tumor) growing out of his back. And no cape to hide it. Bonus Point: Robin.

When not activated, Robin's karate chop feature reveals his friendly nature, as he reaches his hand out in friendship to fellow superheroes and citizens alike. The Flash has two balled-up fists and some anger issues to work out. Point: Robin.

Robin also has access to all of Batman's spiffy vehicles, including the Toybiz Batcycle from 1989. The Flash runs. For fun.

In the immortal words of Pat Buttram "Run for fun? What the hell kind of fun is that?"
Point: Robin.
Let's see the Flash do THAT!

Robin was in the circus. The Flash, I dunno if he even has a job, or hobbies. He runs for fun after all. Point: Robin.

Final tally: Robin: like, a bazillion points. Flash: Zero. No need to go on. So let's take a closer look at the 1989 Toybiz Batcycle. It has a kick stand!

When you push a button on the gas tank, the side panels flip down to make little wings. Why? Who knows, I don't think it's supposed to fly or anything.

The bike was designed to compliment the '89 Batmobile and it does a pretty good job. Simple, fluid lines and lots of black. I'm sure it's pretty fast too.

But not as fast as The Flash!

Okay okay, the Flash can have one point, just so he doesn't try and outrun his tears.