It was in this space last year that I shared my fondness for the Scarlet Spider costume when I reviewed the Medicom MAFEX Scarlet Spider action figure. I don’t buy much from Medicom because their figures are really expensive for what they are, but I sometimes break my own rule when I think they’ve made something I might not get elsewhere. Silly me, because Scarlet Spider would be featured in the Across the Spider-Verse movie that summer which meant, of course, that the character was on Hasbro’s radar. And it made further sense we’d see him once again in the Marvel Legends line since Hasbro seems to be updating all of their Spider-Men with pin-less limbs and toe hinges. When this particular Scarlet Spider went up for preorder, I put in an order because, what the hell? – I can use another one. Now that I have it, what do I think and how does it compare to its much more expensive counterpart?
Since I do have that MAFEX edition, I figured we could do this review a little differently. It’s going to be more like a comparison because that sounds fun to me. Besides, this Scarlet Spider from Hasbro is pretty much par for the course when it comes to a Marvel Legends Spider-Man. And from just a quick glance, it doesn’t look like a piece of crap next to the figure that’s roughly 4x more expensive. I mean, we are comparing a $100+ action figure to a $25 one in the same scale so, really, the more expensive one should be the better figure without question. Rather, we’re asking the question of does the gap in price correlate 1:1 with a gap in quality between the two? And do the more subjective elements of the figures play much of a role as well?
Before we can dive into it, we should at least do a quick rundown on this new version of Scarlet Spider from Hasbro. It’s on the newer Spider-Man body which most refer to as the Renew Your Vows body since that’s the two-pack it first debuted in. It’s not that different from the previous retro card body as demonstrated by my symbiote Spider-Man in the image above (left). The articulation is essentially the same, but the figure has new arms which are pin-less and the knees have been made pin-less as well. And it has the added toe hinge. It’s the same body as the animated symbiote Spider-Man (above, right) which I reviewed awhile back, only this one has the overlay for the sweatshirt. It’s fine, though not without flaws. This Spider-Man still sucks at doing splits and Hasbro is so bad at implementing double-ball pegs in the neck that they had to hollow out a cavity on the back of the neck to give the figure more range. It gives the head a floaty quality, at times, and for some reason the head is rather hollow. From most angles, it will be fine, but there are others where it looks downright goofy. And Scarlet Spider is a character that can get into some odd positions so it may be more of a problem here than it would be on another character.
All that aside, I like the look of this one. The red is rather saturated and pretty close to an actual scarlet. The hoodie has a nice look to it as it’s a dark blue with the big spider logo. The hood isn’t functional, but are you really going to display him with it on even if it were? I like the texture to the hoodie and and Hasbro at least painted the drawstrings white. The rest of the figure is mostly bare plastic. The eyes are painted on, but not all that well. There’s some paint on the ankle pouches and belt and it’s fine, nothing worthy of praise, but also not worthy of scorn. The web shooters are floating pieces and can come off if you so desire while the ankle pouches appear to be glued into place. I very much enjoy that he has the classic hoodie, but I wish the eye shape was more in-line with the character’s earliest appearances.
The figure looks fine and I think the hoodie helps hide the small shoulders that plague a lot of Marvel Legends. It also helps to make the head look more appropriately sized. And it’s in the visual component where this figure will compare as well as it can to the MAFEX version. If we bring in that figure, it’s easy to see that the Legends figure is a bit bulkier. The hoodie is darker and has the bigger logo and the belt is more of a first appearance Scarlet Spider than the one Medicom went with. Both figures don’t “wow” in the paint department. While Medicom did apply some red shading to their figure, it’s barely noticeable. Their Scarlet Spider is also a brighter red and the soft goods hoodie is a lighter blue that even has a bit of a pearl finish. The smaller logo is not my preferred look as well, though Medicom did include my preferred eyes. The other heads included with that figure feature a more generic Spider-Man eye shape with one looking a little angry. They’re kind of worthless.
Am I giving Hasbro the nod in the looks department? Yes and no. I much prefer the art direction of the Hasbro figure. The bigger body, classic shirt and belt, but it does still have that not-so-great head. And I’m not just talking about the style of the portrait, but the lollipop effect it has going on. And while it has less articulation, the cuts present are more of an eyesore. The thigh twist looks awful if you use it and the same can be said of the waist twist and boot cuts. Meanwhile, the Medicom figure does a good job of hiding the joints even if there are a bunch of them. I guess that level of engineering is what we’re paying for?
That and the accessories! This aspect isn’t even a contest, because the Legends release blows. The only items included in the box are a set of fists, wall-crawling hands, and thwip hands. That’s it. No unmasked head, no webbing, no nothing. The Medicom release also lacks an unmasked portrait, but that’s pretty much the only thing it’s missing. You get all of the hands you could want: fists, thwip, grip, open, and even magnetic hands and feet to adhere the figure to a metal surface. There’s also a ton of web lines to mess around with and a stand. In fact, I’d say a hidden piece of value to these Medicom Spider-Man figures is that buying one can outfit about a half dozen so your Legends figures can partake in the webs. The only hindrance there is Hasbro almost never includes gripping hands with their Spider-Man action figures so you’re limited to the thwip effects or the ones that fit over a forearm.
Articulation is an area where the Medicom figure should be better, but also one where the Hasbro release should at least be able to compete. And for the most part, it’s true. Basically, anything the Legends figure can do the Medicom figure can as well and probably better. The joints are just smoother, possess more range, and are just all around engineered better. However, there’s not much the Medicom can do that the Hasbro one can’t as well. About the only thing I feel like the Medicom figure clearly does better is crouch and get into a low crawl. Both figures feature some annoying drop-down hips that really don’t enhance the range of the legs all that much. Both can’t do forward splits either, though the MAFEX can do the splits out to the side where as the Legends figure needs to rotate its legs forward a bit on the ball joint. The butterfly on the MAFEX figure also works better and it’s aided by the soft goods hoodie. I will say, I was surprised at how little the plastic hoodie of the Legends figure got in the way. You can still engage the diaphragm joint pretty easily and there’s enough room to take advantage of the butterfly joint. It’s just a butterfly joint that doesn’t offer a whole lot to begin with.
All right, so I think it’s pretty clear that the MAFEX Scarlet Spider does a lot more than the Legends one. We knew that though. What is less clear is if it’s superior by 75 bucks or so. And I think the answer there is “probably not.” Sort of like comparing a conventional sedan to a luxury model, yeah you’ll like the luxury model more, but you might prefer to keep the money it costs to upgrade over the standard model and spend it elsewhere. That’s just on a much bigger scale, but even here 75 bucks is nothing to sneeze at. That’s about what it costs to take my family of four out to eat at a decent restaurant, maybe before tip. It also can get someone three more Legends figures or maybe some third party web effects, stands, and some more stuff. I got the Medicom one first and I’m happy with it. I like the Legends release too, and I might even prefer the aesthetics of it over the Medicom one, but not enough to toss the MAFEX one on eBay or something. If I had neither and was thinking of getting just one, I’d probably be okay with the cheaper Marvel Legends release. There would be some temptation to go with the Cadillac, but pragmatism would probably win out.
That’s just me though. You may place more of a premium on articulation and “stuff” to the point where it’s much easier to just get the Medicom figure and be all set. I definitely didn’t need to get the Legends Scarlet Spider, but I justified it to myself because I’ll probably never buy another Scarlet Spider. Unless a really bad ass cel-shaded one surfaces from either company. Then we’ll be talking about this 90s relic for a third time.
We have more spider men to talk about if that’s your thing:
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