The Amazing Spider-Man

Could it be? Could there finally be a better Spider-Man than the ToyBiz Series 12 one? No matter what evil rises, the Amazing Spider-Man will summon the courage to defeat it; for with great power comes great responsibility. Against all expectations, The Amazing Spider-Man was actually a pretty good movie: Andrew Garfield was an appropriately nerdy Peter Parker (not the outdated 1960s stereotype, but a realistic modern outcast), and his Spider-Man was like an internet troll come to life; the villain was sympathetic yet threatening; the supporting cast was drawn deep from the lore of the comics, and were given good growth and development; most of all, there were enough changes made to the set-up that it actually seemed like there was a reason for the movie to be a reboot, not just a "we might as well" situation. So pretty much everything about it was good... except that idiot costume. We've said before that the new movie costume seemed to have been changed for no reason other than to say it had been changed - and that is never a good enough reason for a redesign. Clearly the movie folks have gotten on the same page, because for Amazing Spider-Man 2, they've gone back to the classic design (with a few small movie tweaks). Spidey has an all-new sculpt, with sculpted-in weblines and a slight scaly texture on the blue areas. The eyes are white, rather than the inexplicable gold from last time. In fact, the only nods to the old costume are the shape of the stretchy, elongated spider symbols on his back and chest - hardly enough to break the design. There really isn't anything about this toy that would prevent you from using it as a comicbook Spider-Man if you wanted to. The figure stands just about 6" tall, which is either because movie Spider-Man is still a teenager, or because Hasbro is finally getting serious about their purported 6" scale. No more giant Steve Rogerses FTW! Both of the figure's hands are curled into fists, but the set surprisingly includes a second set of swappable hands in the classic webshooting pose. Since this is technically meant to represent a live-action character, the fingers don't stick out perfectly straight: instead, they have a slight, natural bend to them. We approve! Of course, any Spider-Man toy worth its salt will have super-articulation, and this one delivers. He has swivel/hinge rocker ankles, swivel shins and thighs, swivel/hinge hips, swivel waist, hinged torso, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, lateral pec hinges, a hinged neck and a balljointed head.Every single joint on him moved freely as soon as he came out of the tray, with no need to freeze or boil him. You can put him in any spider-rific pose you can imagine. In fact, this figure comes closer than any other to pulling off the ultimate test of a Spider-Man toy: we call it "the 301." Since this movie line is also technically a Marvel Legends line, it has a Build-A-Figure. Wonder what piece Spider-Man comes with? It's the right arm. The right arm of Ultimate Green Goblin (unless the movie is just straight-up ganking his design). It's a big arm, with a pebbly texture, large spikes on the shoulder and elbow, and a separate piece of fire that fits around the wrist. "Superposeable Spider-Man" may still have the edge as the best Spidey toy ever, but not by much - and it's gotten crazy expensive on the secondary market, while this one is only $15 at Target. If you don't care about the movie, if you don't care about the BAF... it doesn't matter. This is still, no pun intended, a superior Spider-Man. -- 01/13/14

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