review by justin anderson

the desription: There are times, it seems, when one has to wonder just what goes on behind Toy Biz doors. For example, while the US generally gets the newer toy lines, Toy Biz chooses older toy molds, comes up with new packaging, and selles them to Canada and Europe as exclusives. At least, that's how it used to go. Now, while they continue to do this, KB and Toys R Us stores in the US have also begun to get these variants, usually for insane prices. This first happened with the 2-packs (Spidey/Hobgoblin, Venom/Carnage), and has happened again. This time, "Classics" is enhanced with another water shooting line.

the design: "Sea Snake Venom"? I have no idea what the name means. There are no snakes even associated with this toy. Venom is the same 5" Venom offered in other recent lines(at least twice in Spidey lines, and in Marvel vs Capcom).Large hands, and probably the best face sculpted for the character. The only difference in this and other offerings is the airbrushed blue highlights. It's still made of black plastic, however.

the backpack (?): It has WCW copyright markings. And Toy Biz made WCW merchandise. Question answered. The cannon originally came with wrestler Total Package from the WCW "Bash at the Beach" line(in fact, all 4 water cannons in this line were taken from that series). Though the belt was removed(probably last minute, since the package pictures show the belt, and references to it in the instructions were merely covered with white stickers). The mushroom pins holding the neck piece on were also replaced with standard round pegs, probably due to Venom's large head. Clearly, they had to put a LITTLE effort into their recycling.

the review: You'll have to really want the Venom figure included to warrant an $8 purchase. Which, if you don't have it, may be worth the money. But, the same figure is offered in better sets. *** of ***** just for the "gimmick" factor.

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