Iron Man and Spider Woman
Marvel Universe Comic Packs Secret Wars #7 Iron Man and Spider Woman is one of the latest installments in Hasbro’s popular Comic Packs like of their 3 ¾” scale figure 2-packs. This review sample was provided by Hasbro, and eagerly snapped up by me to bolster my Iron Man collection.
Included in this set is a reprinted copy of Marvel’s Secret Wars #7, as well as figures of Iron Man in his classic duds, and the second Spider Woman (Julia Carpenter) (who debuts in this issue). Secret Wars was the first event of its kind back in 1984, where the bulk of Marvel’s marquee heroes and villains were whisked away for a year do battle on a patchwork Battleworld, orchestrated by the mysterious Beyonder. Marvel’s various characters always existed roughly in the same universe, with some guest appearances here and there (as well as the Avengers, many of whom also had solo mags), but the company-wide crossover event was a brand new concept. Marvel worked with Mattel to make action figures to coincide with the event, and while the figures are primitive by today’s standards, they are still hunted by collectors as the first toy incarnation of many of the characters. Issue 7 is a great read, with one of the biggest fights between the heroes and the villains, as well as some great character drama, the introduction of Spider Woman, and some action between Dr. Doom and Galactus. The colors are vibrant and the printing is good in the reproduction, and the ads have been removed and replaced with a few Hasbro ads at the beginning and end of the book, so all of the comic pages are consecutive.
Getting to the toys, everything comes out of the blister pack surprisingly easily. There are no trademark evil Hasbro twisty-ties, and the figures are just tucked into grooves in the tray, and come out without any fuss. The hardest part is getting the blister off the card, since it is glued onto the card back, wraps around the card back, AND is then taped over the flaps on the back. Once we get past all those problems, the figures are all set to go.
We’ll Spider Woman first, mostly to get her done with. I initially had almost no interest in this half of the Comic Pack (even though she’s a useful figure for a Force Works lineup, leave a comment if you even know what that is!), but she is actually a surprisingly well made figure with a few flaws. Starting with the paint job, in an attempt to add some interest to previously bland figures black like the black costume Spider Man or Spider Woman here, Hasbro has upped their paint app game with some highlighting, with mixed success. There are grey and lighter blue sprays highlighting her sculpt fairly well, but they are inconsistent. The most noticeable bits are on the legs; one thigh has a big highlight while the other is devoid of that spray, which looks odd. The masking for the white is also really inconsistent. The complex spider logo which wraps around the sides and back of the figure is very clean and in the right place, but somehow the easy to mask borders between the black and the white on the arms and legs are totally fuzzy and off the mark, and there are a pair of overspray marks on the insides of the thighs. Even with the odd highlighting sprays, the whole figure would look 100% better of the arms and legs were masked better. The face and hair are unspectacular, but clean and get the job done.
Posability-wise, Spider Woman is pretty good, but misses the mark in a few key places. The standard ball jointed hips, shoulders are present, but there is no bicep or thigh swivel. Most of the Marvel Universe figures do not have a thigh swivel, but they do have either a bicep swivel or a similar-functioning extra swivel at the elbow. Missing this joint really limits posability, which is a shame, as the figure is otherwise good. Spider Woman can get into some great kneeling poses, and has a molded fist and open hand, which look great. She’s close to being a great figure, but not quite there.
Iron Man is, thankfully, a much better figure. Shellhead features all of the standard Marvel Universe articulation, including ball jointed shoulders, hips, neck, and torso, as well as double jointed knees and bicep swivels (still no thigh swivels). Iron Man can get into a variety of great poses, and has much better balance than Spider Woman. My only complaint on Iron Man is that the open hand only swivels and has no lateral movement, so you cannot get a convincing pose firing the palm-mounted repulsors. There is a newer re-pop of this figure with a new head and two repulsor-firing hands, but it’d be great to have has one of those hands here instead of just the open slack hand.
Paint-wise, Iron Man is much better than Spider Woman, mostly because there are very few actual paint applications. Most of Iron man’s color appears to come from the plastic mold color, with a nice bright golden yellow and cherry red. The red armor details on the arms and legs have the same black lining as the regular release, but they did not quite use enough paint on the eyes and mouth slits, so the black there is uneven. Compared to the single-figure Golden Avenger release, the Secret Wars figure is much brighter, as can be seen in the comparison shot (Secret Wars figure on the right). Iron Man sticklers will note that the man inside this suit of armor is not Tony Stark, but is actually Jim Rhodes. It’d be really cool to see a figure of the armor seen in the last few issues of Secret Wars after Reed Richards refits and repairs it, with a bulked up power pack and some more armor, but no figure of this has ever been made.
As a package deal, this set is really nice. I would not have bought Spider Woman on her own, but I am glad to have gotten her, and I think it is great to bring Secret Wars to a new generation of comic book fans. Both of the figures are a lot of fun, even if they are not perfect, and I’d recommend this set to fans of the Marvel Universe line, or fans interested in trying out this line.
