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After the so-so Wolverine set, Amazon's back with another five-pack of dubious desirability.
Over the years Spider-Man has clashed with a vast rogues' gallery, consisting of villains both menacing and bizarre!
Yes, and we're now so far into that rogues' gallery, look at what's left to build a five-pack around. Let future historians recognize that Marvel Legends is one of the greatest toylines of all time, on par with GI Joe and Star Wars. But while the line as a whole may be tops, this Spidey is weird as hell. First of all, it's not any of the existing molds you'd expect - it is, rather, the teenager body. Why on Earth would you do that? Because this isn't 616 Peter Parker, this is Ultimate. He only wore the symbiote suit briefly, there, but it was while he was still a kid, and it was highlighted in purple, just like this toy. Neat! The paint's very crisp and we get a nice assortment of fighting/climbing/thwipping hands, though. Moving on.
The Maggia leader and corrupt magnate known as
Silvermane has sworn to destroy Spider-Man.
Hey, it's Silvermane! You remember Silvermane, from back when he was just an accessory in someone else's set. He was a mob boss who was so obssessed with staying in control that he staved off old age by installing himself into a robotic body. This is that same head, just removed from the radio-controlled car and restored to a human body. Not a new human body - this is the same one that was used for Ultron, and thus goes all the way back to Ultimate Beetle - but Silvermane is hardly the caliber of character who warrants new, unique molds. Heck, he'd literally never had any toy before that R/C car, which shows you in how much regard he's held. This particular combo of reused parts is a smart way of making the character, delivering something true to the comics in a way he deserves. His arms are new, molded to fit with the existing tech but better suit his look (why those and not the bug-feet?), and he has fists or hands open to hold his two handguns. The two-tone silver paint helps keep him looking interesting, as well.
Richard Deacon was a small-time criminal before he coerced a geneticist into combining his DNA with that of a fly, giving him
superhuman attributes and compound eyes.
Man, how dumb do you have to be to, in a world where one of the most famous heroes is a spider, believe you'll be a successful criminal as a fly? To be fair, it's not entirely his fault: despite what the bio implies, he had very little agency in his own creation. Already a thug to begin with, he was shot repeatedly by the police; he stumbled into the lab of Harlan Stillwell, brother of the guy J. Jonah Jameson had paid to create The Scorpion; this Stillwell was already experimenting on flies, so when Deacon threatened the doctor into saving his life, that's what he got. Let that be a lesson: crime does not pay, and always research your mad scientists before trusting them with your life.
Marvel's Human Fly feels like he was strongly influenced by the Silver Age Archie/MLJ character The Fly. Sure, there are only so many superhero
identities to go around, but both this one and the original have costumes of yellow and green; quite the coincidence, considering how many colors and combinations there are to choose from. Plus, Archie's Fly was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, was an insect-based hero whose secret identity was actually a teenager, and in his first issue he fought a guy in red and blue called the Spider. If all this weren't five years before Spider-Man was created, Marvel could have seen them in court!
Fly uses the most common ML body, because he's a common kind of guy. And because you can just paint on all his costume details. His head gets to be new, with the bulging red lenses in his mask,
and his mouth open wide. Is he screaming? Shouting? Preparing to spit acid? Whatever it is, it's good this total weirdo doesn't just have some plain, boring expression.
His wings are really nice! They're translucent blue, and slip into slots of the side of a new backpack piece that allows them to be posed sticking up or out to the sides. They're molded from translucent blue plastic, and a few sections have been molded with a rough texture, giving the wings a little more visual variety. Awesome stuff! The figure also includea a pair of alternate hands if you want him to hold anything.
An accident with his own experiment leaves former Oscorp scientist Mark Raxton with metal skin and explosive heat powers!
Before being dramatically re-imagined for Far From Home, this is what Molten Man was: a plain man. Who was molten. ToyBiz did make a figure of this guy, as a ToyFare exclusive: that was a Silver Surfer body with a J. Jonah Jameson head (for the flattop), which was certainly an... economical approach to the character. Considering that the metallic alloy he was stealing was extracted from an organic meteor, I'm surprised no writer ever tried to connect him to Venom. You know, like Venom's species was black and vulnerable to fire, so its counterpart species was gold and could generate heat? That sort of thing. But between Knull's whole deal and the Poisons, I think that ship has sailed.
Hasbro is nothing if not consistent, so this fiery guy uses the same body as all the other fiery guys. He's molded entirely in gold, but it's a nice solid color, not the swirly stuff you might be afraid of. His head is a new mold, with a distinct grimace to give it some personality - being molten tends to mess with his head, but he's not an overly angry guy, just... uncomfortable.
To turn the heat up, the figure uncludes some extra flame pieces: the alternate hands with the fire sculpted on the back of them, but also the swirls and the bit to fit on the shoulders. The only costume detail is a simple belt around the figure's waist. He's like Silver Surfer. But different.
In one of those animated-tie-in Marvel Superhero Adventures books, Molten Man was a member of the Sinister Nineteen alongside that continuity's version of our final character.
Inspired by tales of costume [sic] adventurers on the East Coast, Arkansas trucker Buford Hollis takes up the mantle of Razorback, with mixed results.
Razorback is not a Spider-Man villain. He's not a villain at all. He did once steal a NASA rocket, but that was only so he could help his friend track down her old boyfriend, Ulysses Solomon Archer, a trucker with a metal brain that could pick up and transmit CB radio signals. Who had gone into space. Because he was recruited by aliens who thought truckers would be good spaceship pilots.
...was cocaine just free in the '80s or what?
Anyway, She-Hulk happened to be on the shuttle Razorback stole, and she managed to convince NASA to drop the charges and officially assign him as the test pilot, at which point he renamed the ship from the Starblazer to the Big Pig III. Then they met Xemnu and Rocket Raccoon. Yes, that was all one story arc.
Razorback, star of the show, is built on the big body, though with a new torso that... good lord, it's the "Battle for Asgaard" Odinson mold! Way to finally bust that out again, five years later!
[he obviously forgot it was used last year for Captain Britain, too --ed.] There are rings around his wrists to make it look like he's wearing short gloves, and his boots have three horizontal straps across the front - not a feature uses of this body has seen before. His utiliy belt is similar to Crossbones', but not the same: if doesn't have an overlapping buckle, and the flaps on the pouches don't come down as far.
And then, of course, we've got the head.
Razorback wears a fairly standard spandex costume, then tops it off with a fuzzy animal hood that makes him look like some weird college mascot. It has nothing to do with his powers or anything, it's just that he's from Arkansas, and who else are you going to cheer for there? He actually built it himself out of spare radio equipment, so obviously he's no dummy. Generally it just serves as a costume element, but the ridge on the back can be electrified to zap his opponents. The sculpt on this thing is excellent, managing to look like bunched-up, fuzzy, cloth despite being molded plastic.
Razorback has been replaced twice in the comics: first by the Skrulls during Secret Invasion, the second time by Roderick Kingsley renting out one of his old costumes to an unknown person (who later turned to crime, and was eventually kidnapped by Taskmaster and Black Ant for Kraven to hunt). They've all looked the same, though, so you can make this be whichever one you want. It's not like anyone is going to recognize that human face beneath the snout.
It was exciting when Hasbro revealed Razorback on one of their stupid live streams, but it's annoying the only way to get him is in a multi-pack. Honestly the same could be said for Molten Man and Silvermane, too. And the Fly, though he was more of an unexpected choice. So honestly, the only chump in this five-pack is the Spider-Man, and even he gets a little bit of a pass by virtue of being a version we've never had before. This set isn't worth the $125 suggested price, but fortunately, being an Amazon exclusive means the price will dip pretty low on the reg, so you should have an opportunity to grab it for a price you like.
-- 03/27/23
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