Here we have the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in-hand. Right off the bat, there has been some debate over how well figure looks in natural lighting compared to the stock images provided by the company. Some say the figure got screwed over during production so it looks worse in-hand. Others say that the lighting is just plain bad on some earlier images. There's also been some people saying the toy is automatically trash solely because the shoulders look bad, though it's just how the figure was posed in a vanilla stances. The toy community can be shit at times, but it has been said that the figure lacks a matte finish to make it look less shiny and plasticky than it currently is. I don't know if I would add a coat, but that is something many suggested. That being said, how does the rest of the figure look? In all honesty, there are things this does better than the Figuart and there are other things this does worse. To clarify, the general proportions of the figure look good, but the main issue is that the diaper piece doesn't feel proportionate to the rest of the torso, making it stick out more than the average McFarlane figure (and keep in mind, that a lot of figures made sense for that design choice if it involved the trunks in their costumes). The rest of the figure still looks good in terms of deco, with the webbing being appropriately gunmetal as well as generally aligned properly. The aesthetics could be slightly tweaked, but it's better than people say it is. The prototype is still nicer though.
His head sculpt is still based on his look in No Way Home, but the silver for the lenses is at least more like how they appeared in 2 and 3. The webbing could be slightly better in terms of alignment than they currently appear, especially since MAFEX doesn't have much room for error for a premium company. If we can talk shit about Maximum Spider-Man doing that, then the same goes here since it's twice the price of that profit magnet. Anyways, we have a shitton of accessories to deal with, such as two alternate heads with a neck piece showcasing some exposed neck, a pair of thumbs up hands meant to hold a strand of web, a pair of pointing hands, a pair of two-finger pointing hands, a pair of web-thwipping hands, a pair of relaxed hands, a pair of more open relaxed hands, splayed-open hands, and magnetic versions of the wall-crawling hands as well as feet for Spider-Man to pose on magnets. We also get a mask for him to hold with his unmasked heads on display, the device used to cure the villains at the end of No Way Home, different display stand pieces, a handful of web accessories, and the portal typically associated with Doctor Strange.
The alternate heads are a weird in-between with his younger appearances in the Spider-Man trilogy as a whole and his older look in No Way Home, though the lack of stubble and his age not apparent in the face helps him fit in better as a regular Tobey without requiring custom heads. His closed smile is definitely his signature look and nobody else's.
The pic on the left goes great with him telling kids to not play on the streets, and the pic on the right goes well with him pointing and telling people "No, YOU the man!" or "Uh...you the woman?" if you don't have Andrew or Holland for him to do the meme with.
His articulation consists of a double ball neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, ball-jointed butterfly joints, bicep rotation, double-jointed elbows, rotation and hinges at the wrists, double ball joints for the upper and lower portions of the torso, drop-down hips, ball joints for the hips, thigh rotation, double-jointed knees, and ankles that can swivel, hinge, and pivot. He also has to articulation to help those wall-crawling poses.
For anyone wanting to display him on a magnetic wall, his magnetic hands and feet shall help with that.
The device used to cure the villains is nicely sculpted and detailed, but if you don't care about No Way Home, you could pretend it's something else. The portal effect is a nice touch for additional figure photography, especially as someone who wants to use it for crossover potential. The fade from translucent to opaque is well made.
And to top it all off, we have a handful of display base options to choose from, with an articulated neck at 3 hinges and two pegs, three different clamps, and a blank pole...I wish instructions were provided to be clear with which ones could be used for this figure. He also can be posed swinging with the longer web strand.
Like the Figuart, his hands can detach so the webbing strands could loop into the wrist pegs and simulate the effect of him thwipping.
For a comparison with his other modern Tobey figures, here we have the Hasbro Marvel Legends version and the Figuarts version on his left and right, respectively. I'm sure we all know what to expect from Hasblo, but let's see how the imports compare. I personally think that the Figuart has the nicer look since it doesn't look that plasticky, but I know many don't like the hip pieces that make the figure look broken up. Not only that, but the elbows being solid blue isn't the best look to the arms. I already mentioned the flaws on the MAFEX version, but I will say that if you want an idea on my overall opinion on the Figuart as well as general info on the accessories, click here.
The fact that I feel there are things better and worse on each import speaks to not just how the perfect Tobey could be made from both, but the fact that we still have 2 good figures regardless of their flaws. I loved the Figuart when I first got it, and I'm sure the same will go for MAFEX. They're similar in so many ways yet different in others. The increase of accessories also helped in justifying this figure's existence, too. Hell, I'm tempted to get other MAFEX figures, mostly Magneto and Daredevil.
Overall, we already know Hasbro sucked and the Figuart was really good, but MAFEX manages to be comparable to the competing import figure from 2 years ago. Not 100% perfect with the aesthetics, but I'm still happy to see how it turned out. And hey, I'd rather see consumers buy this instead of Maximum Spider-Man and Hulk combined. If you can get this figure at an import website, DO IT. Import tariffs, limited runs, and scalpers will not be kind to you if you miss out.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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