Package Description
High school hotshot Eddie Brock was the closest thing Peter Parker had to an older brother, until Peter's rejected symbiote costume took Brock as its new host. The alien gave the now corrupted Brock all of Peter's spider-powers and knowledge of his secret identity. Together they became VENOM, the most feared adversary of The Spectacular SPIDER-MAN!
Appearance
Venom is short, squat, and stylized as his (supposed) appearance in the upcoming Spider-Man cartoon. His muscles are huge, and his stance brings all his muscles closer together to make him look even stronger. The figure is a stylized version of his early comic appearances, and does not look good next to Marvel Legends style figures because of it. The style is interesting, including lots of angles in the muscles and large hands and feet. I don’t know if his height compared to Peter is accurate from the show though. It would have been nice if he stood taller than Peter.
Venom is a dark blue painted on the black plastic. I think I would have preferred the black color as seen on the back of the packaging. It would also have made more sense because the symbiote Spider-Man in this line is a black color. The paint application is very sharp though, which I was impressed by considering some of the problems on HML figures. The figure is a little too shiny for my tastes, but considering this is meant to be more of a toy than a collectible it’s understandable.
There’s not a lot of details in the sculpt. There are muscle lines everywhere, and indentations for the eyes, but there’s really only one texture to the figure. The joint lines are hidden well in the angles of the figure, but he doesn’t have many joints to hide. Overall Venom is a nice looking figure, but very different from the Marvel figures I’ve grown used to with Marvel Legends. He looks good on display as long he’s not next to more realistically styled marvel figures, and looks great with other figures in this line. Venom is a figure with a lot of personality if posed right.
Articulation
Articulation is pretty limited. There are ball jointed shoulders, the head rotates, the waist rotates, and a “V” crotch for the legs. The head rotation is pretty useless because of the head tilt. There’s also a spring in the waist to keep it straight for an action feature. There’s nothing else to limit the range of motion.
Poseability
It is fairly hard to pose Venom because of the lack of articulation. I was able to figure out a couple good poses, but he could use a lot of improvement for fighting Spider-Man. The long arms also tend to get in the way of fighting poses, being to long to give a good punch. I also would prefer if he stood taller than Peter, especially since he’s still a kid in the animated series. Venom can do a few dynamic poses, but will probably end up just sitting on the shelf looking nasty.
Final Judgment: 6
Venom’s good points are a clean paint job, he’s an accurate representation of the character, and the figure has a lot of personality in the face and body stance. His main problem is that the articulation makes him hard to pose. Overall though, you get what you expect from this figure when looking at him in the box. While increased poseability would have been nice, it isn’t necessary for him to go into a Spectacular Spider-Man collection. Just don’t buy him expecting him to go with your Marvel Legends.
SCALE
10. My favorite possession.
9. My favorite action figure.
8. One of my favorite action figures.
7. An excellent action figure.
6. A good, but not exceptional action figure.
5. An adequate action figure.
4. Not worth the money I spent.
3. I'll give it to somebody's kid.
2. I'll give it to somebody's dog.
1. It's going to lose a fight with my car.
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