review by justin anderson

the desription: The Man-Spider is the largest toy of the wave, overshadowing the bulky Venom figure.

the articulation: the figure is ball jointed at the neck and each of the six shoulders, with normal joints at the waist and each hip. Ten total joints.

the design: The figure is sculpted with a single pose in mind, evident by the waist being permanently twisted. This isn't really a problem, as while the body is turned in the sculpt, you can still pose it rather freely. The costume is intact on the torso, with remnants of his sleeves and boots, and a ring around the neck for the remainder of the mask. The only human details are the jaw and a few fingers on the two normal arms. I would have preferred these not be included, but they didn't overdo it, at least. The figure stands around seven inches tall to the head in its highest stance.

The toy comes with a large base, representing a stream. In a change for Toy Biz, the base features a squashed snake molded into one of the footprints, and a skeletal hand reaching from the stream, the skull under the water. The water itself is an attached piece of transparent plastic, so the underwater details can be seen. A peg sticks up from each of the footprints. A stump sticks out from the water for the lower arm to rest on for a hunched over pose.

the review: My only complaint is a somewhat careless application of the blue paint. It doesn't always go to the red edges, and the legs show paint over the fur patches on the legs. This could be dependent on the production run, though.

It's a heavy improvement to the Man-Spider from the Animated series line, and I'd have to label it a ***** of ***** figure. Especially for $6 retail, seeing as how McFarlane would put a figure this size in a box and ask $15 for it (Spawn series 19's Jyakku figure is actually no bigger than the Man-Spider, and it retails from between $13-$20)

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