Last month we first told you about Hasbro's new line of 4" Spider-Man Epic Heroes figures which cost around $10 each and do sport articulation that includes elbow and knee joints. The first wave of figures which have started to see release include Spider-Man, Iron Spider-Man, Miles Morales and Venom. There is also a Web-Blast Cycle that comes with a Spider-Man figure. See the images for those above.Well it looks like Hasbro might be all in on this line and will even be expanding it beyond just Spider-Man Marvel characters. Below is a checklist put out for this line by Hasbro's own Steve Evans. While the list only shows the figures from the before-mentioned first wave, you can see that it looks like they have at least 24 additional unknown figures in the works as well. Since each line of the checklist seems to be designated for a specific theme, the first line being for Spider-Man and the others being unknown, we can surmise that we will be seeing other characters for this line beyond just the Spider-Man ones. Out of the 24 additional figures it looks like 6 of them will also be Spider-Man based, and the other 18 for some other theme.I don't think these figures look as nice as Hasbro's original 4" Marvel Universe line, but at only $10 a figure they might be just what 4" fans have been looking for.
On 3/1/2023 at 2:41 AM, A_Spidey_Fan said:Seems like most are downing this line. I'm personally okay with it. Some characters may seem a bit shorter when compared to their pervious approx 4" versions, but they seem okay. These ones might actually be about 3.75".
Yeah, these are more meant to compete with Spin Master's 4" DC and League Of Legends Stuff, and the Jaswares 4" Fortnite stuff, but both those and these Marvel figures are still okay. I do think though the Spin Masters League Of Legends and Jaswares Fortnite stuff do have more joints than the Spin Masters DC and these Marvel figures though.
In regards to articulation, yeah, they aren't Super Articulated, but they are still well articulated. I think they have the right amount of joints to make them decently poseable enough. I think the only thing missing really is the waist joint, and probably the Swival bicep joints. Otherwise, still good enough for me at least.
From this wave, I might consider Miles, only because I don't have a 4" Miles(I have 4" of the other characters already). We'll see how the character selection goes down the road, but I wouldn't hold my breath of a huge character universe selection like how the pervious 4" Marvel Lines did it. If we are lucky, some characters may get this 4" treatment if they end up in a MCU movie or a future cartoon series.
Right now, besides some of the more well known Spidey Villains, various Marvel Villains I can see happen include Thanos, Loki, and Kang at least. Dr. Doom, even if he hasn't had a MCU version yet, I can also see, only because Hasbro has done a few Doom figures in the 6" Kiddly lines. If these had came out when the Black Widow movie came out, I'm sure we would of seen a classic inspired Taskmaster figure as well, but nowadays, can't say for sure.
In a unrelated noted, I do think if Hasbro decides to do 4" G.I. Joe in Mass Retail again, they might consider using these as the basis of it, though I would say their G.I. Joe would need waist joints, and ball jointed biceps at least.
Just wanted to add in that the only other thing missing is at least swival wrist joints at least as well, but I'm still okay with these. Seems like the normal Spidey might have a Boot Cuff Joint as well. In terms of designs, I'm curious if they'll back track and do some pervious MCU based ones, or if this will only focus on both Comic Book designs and designs based on more upcoming movies. I'm still looking forward to checking out some of these as some more characters(Granted, limited amount I would think at this time), designs, and/or decos come out.
Either way, these still seem like they have a good amount of articulation, and are not 5POA. I mean, they even had knee joints, something that some of those basic/cheaper/kiddy 6" lines didn't have. I was okay with basic leg joints, but having no knees was enough to tell myself not to even consider most of them(Though I did pick up a few at very cheap prices).
Again, if Hasbro decides to do 4" G.I. Joe in Mass Retail again, they would also need wrist joints, even if they are just swival.
In regards to ankle joints, I'm always concern that once those joints go, then the figure will no longer stand, even if they have figure stands for them, even more so for 4" figures. I would say the same for older 6" Marvel Legends figures from the ToyBiz era, as well as some early Hasbro(Most more recent Hasbro Marvel Legends seem to have ratchet ankle joints as far as I can tell, so I'm not as concern for those). So that's why I feel for these at least, I'm okay with no ankle joints.