Transformers Studio Series Titan Class Grimlock review

The Studio Series line finally has its first ever Titan Class figure, and it is thankfully an Age of Extinction Dinobot instead of a smaller HasLab Unicron. Yes, after nearly a decade since the Leader Class Grimlock was left without his own team of Legendary Warriors, Hasbro is redeeming themselves by making the next four Titan spots moving forward as larger scale versions of these beasts. For over a decade, their scale was only of the standard Deluxe and Voyager affair, with Grimlock at least having 2 Leaders that still weren't big enough unless you had a Legends or Core scale figure. Even then, the attempts of gift sets featuring either the AOE molds with Titan Master sized Optimus and Bumblebee or the old Legends repaints Walmart included with random Dino molds didn't do much. Now that we have a big Grimlock to not only make the most out of the size class, but to also stall plans for a smaller Unicron, knowing Hasbro really wanted to prevent the HasLab from losing value while also resisting the urge to add to the 1986 circlejerk tour. Let's see if the year long wait is worth every penny!

Here we have Grimlock in his dinosaur mode. The beast mode generally matches the CG model though we have a couple of oddities specific to the figure: firstly, the jaw doesn't close all the way due to the engineering. You can kind of pose it where it's closed just vaguely, but you won't get it as well as either Leader we got in the past. On the flip side, he has a tongue visible, though I wish the horns were able to stick out a little more since they appear to be undersized and almost feel like a response to when Bayverse haters whined that Grimlock had horns despite this being an alien robot thus not needing to comply with paleontology accuracy. Other than the jaw, the arms are on ball joints while the forearms can rotate, bend at the elbows, and the little claws swivel. The legs can only move at the legs and at the ankles. I get the hips are locked in place during transformation, but we have a much larger size for this figure, so why do we have this thing with less articulation than the other figures we got in the past of this character? As for the tail, I know that it is meant to turn into the weapon while the spikeball is stuck within the rear, but was it hard to have the tail work a different way where it didn't turn into the weapon and instead helped make the armor flaps on the back? Maybe that way it can integrate some articulation, at least tail wagging since the only other figure with that feature is the Masterpiece version from nearly 20 years ago. I know some will say "it's a mainline release, were you expecting it to be like third party quality?", and at the size class as well as demographic we are going for, YES. Something more than just his current range of articulation considering the real estate on this canvas is much larger than either Leader figure. Hell, even Titans Return Trypticon had more articulation than this in the legs, and at least the tail can hinge. That's not me hating on a Bayverse figure; Trypticon came out a decade ago and had more going on in dino mode! So as it stands, the beast mode mostly looks good, but functionality could be better than what's already present. Even a fire effect could help with display options, and I wouldn't mind if they reused the TLK Leader Megatron one.

For a size comparison, the old Leader is so dwarved by the Titan that it blends in so easily with the sheer size. I appreciate that the Titan isn't an upscale of the Leader, yet I feel like the deco between the two isn't that much of an upgrade. We have the same teal patina weathering on the Titan, yet there isn't much else to accentuate the sculpt further since the addition of silver or gunmetal paint could help even further. I mean, they added some bronze around the ankles, but that barely helps as much as the lighter grey feet and teeth do. 

Optimus Prime can ride on Grimlock, and while you will have to pull the truck nose kibble further away to make room, it is at least in scale this time than with the old Leader next to this new Optimus (who was shorter then the old Voyager from TLK). There is a peg for the flight stand port to tab into, making this much more secure than it normally would with just sitting him on there. 

Transformation is a whole lot more involved than I expected, but once again, most of the work goes to the upper body. The Dino head splits in two so we can get a generally symmetrical design for the shoulder pads, and while we have a few similarities with the old Leader from the head and leg transformation, the Titan thankfully has a few more steps so it's more than just "straighten the legs out". However, the tail contributes in the form of partsforming. The robot mode is just as massive and bulky as Grimlock should be, but maybe the upper body looks undersized? It's almost like they prioritized the dino mode proportions that the robot mode is partially altered, making the legs appear larger while most of the upper body mass was to make the dino mode more proportionate. It makes the waist area appear blockier when it really isn't. That said, the design is at least translated well from the front, because the proportions being slightly off doesn't bother me as much as the back kibble execution. I get they were trying to mimic the back flaps reminiscent of some skirt armor some knights would have, but the result looks more like he is mistransformed from the back, with the bottom piece looking like it should be placed over the back while the other pieces look more like overly spread out ass cheeks. So the robot mode is able to live up to the size we should expect from the leader of the legendary warriors, but the kibble management should be better handled. At the very least, the dino feet can somewhat pass as robot feet by folding the toes and bringing the spikes out, but it's another case of the old Voyager having the most accurate feet out of the normal transforming Grimlocks Hasbro made.

Articulation consists of a seemingly ball jointed neck, though he mostly stays looking down, ratchets used for the shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. Swivels are used for the biceps, thighs, and wrists, and the fingers are on a single hinge for the base knuckles. Considering the budget of a Titan figure meaning more room to add things smaller figures wouldn't normally have, it it hard for him to have as much finger articulation as some Commanders and Leaders? Then again, some of those figures are inconsistent with their finger articulation anyhow, and that's not to mention Voyagers either including it or not. That said, the mace and wrecking ball are able to tab into the pals and cover the hand completely, respectively. The ball lacking paint sucks and takes points away, but the mace's handle is not only split in a few parts, but there are metal pins running through them for better durability. 

The mace can be held with both hands provided the tabs align with the position of each arm since you can't rotate each piece on the pegs. Both weapons can peg on the backs without issue, though. 

Here we have Grimlock towering over his 2018 Leader counterpart and Optimus Prime. Whole we already know how the scale should be for a Titan, yet he appears a little undersized if the scale charts dictate that Optimus should be at the middle of the knee spikes. And maybe that would explain why Grimlock is shorter than Star Convoy, the first Titan to be shorter than what we already got with the likes of Tidal Wave and everyone before him. I don't have Devastator and Predaking, but I believe they are also known for shorter than the likes of Metroplex and Trypticon also from a decade ago.

Overall, I really want to say that this Grimlock is a slam dunk for our first and long overdue Bayverse Titan, but I can't do that when there are a handful of issues keeping me from fully recommending it. The size is already one checkmark, and the articulation in bot mode is already good, and I like that the transformation is generally different from the Leader, but there was so much wasted with the dino mode articulation, the deco is barely an improvement and in some areas sorely needs paint, and the kibble management is pretty underwhelming from the back. The worst issue comes in the form of the price. Titan prices have fluctuated over the years, starting with $125 for Metroplex back in 2013 all the way up to $200 for Tidal Wave in 2024. The price decrease for Star Convoy was okay, even if it's because of Hasbro shrinking the figure even more. To tell you the truth, I was hoping Grimlock would be $150, and I understand he is also engineered differently from Star Convoy, but he goes for more than what SC did last year. Hasbro can use things like Paramount licensing and the state of the economy or tariffs, but it's all an excuse for people to blame everyone else for the issues of the budget but themselves. I still want to get the other Dinobots, and having Scorn for next year sounds awesome, but I will have to be cautious with the final result. Until then, get Grimlock on sale or wait for a bootleg to do even better than this. I don't know if Titans ever got bootlegs in the past, but I know some other figures in the third party market are better than this.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Titans Return Six Shot review

Six Shot's one of those characters who may be mostly remembered best for the way his gimmick or toy works rather than his character, let's be honest. That said, for as faulty as the Japanese G1 trilogy was (and moreso than the original G1 cartoon), I can at least say that the character development for him was fairly deep. He was known as a ninja consultant Decepticon Dinobase Ninja Commander (Dinobase referring to Trypticon, though Shout Factory called him a Phase Six Decepticon Officer), and while he may come across as the seemingly difficult villain to kill before the series ends, his interaction with Daniel Witwicky changed his viewpoints on the war, with the eventual decision to change sides coming through before going in self exile at the end of the series. It's typical for some Japanese kids' media to have a side villain eventually redeem himself or herself, but the headcanon idea that he was reformed as Greatshot wouldn't be official until the Legends manga. After all, the toy was retooled heavily, the character was said to right wrongs of the past, and we still have the word -shot in there. Even before it was canonized, it always makes more sense than the lousy wishful thinking Bayverse haters had towards wanting Scourge to be a corrupted Optimus Prime. Anyways, let's take a look and see how well Six Shot holds up a decade later! 

Here we have Six Shot in his armored car mode. It's an okay mode, but clearly blocky and almost comparable to one of the builds you would get in a Lego set. I like that the car is half purple and half green with the white in the middle, though the black does also take up most of the purple anyhow. The windows are opaque, but that's fine since Titan Masters can sit on top. No idea what purpose the middle piece on the top is meant to represent, some kind of weird Arcee antenna thing? On the flip side, it rolls alright, but it's pretty boxy on the whole.

Turning him into his tank mode is pretty straightforward, as you rotate the front wheels around so they can serve as something similar to hover pieces while what was the front of the car mode now turns into a tank turret. The feet vaguely resemble cannons, but you will need the assistance of the guns to make it look more convincing. The tank mode is a little more effective at resembling a sci-fi military vehicle, almost like something the Clone Army would have used (either the standard fighter tank mostly seen in the CWMMP-related games or the stun tank used in the Filoni Clone Wars show). Wold mode is a case of turning him into robot mode but on all fours, with the wings somewhat present and the beast mode head in place. The more I look at this mode, the more it resembles the beast modes from the Decepticon Clone duo Pounce and Wingspan. Almost like they're related, yet he knocked them out in the show.

As for the totally-not-an-upside-down-gun-mode, Hasbro claims that this is a submarine. It looks more like a poor attempt at trying to be a Star Destroyer, the Republic version from the Prequel Trilogy, to be exact, because the bridge and the front are designed differently from the OT counterpart. What could have made this altmode work better is if it were labeled as a cannon since it's already in the shape of that mode, and while you have no trigger to roleplay with, at least it's better than looking at what's basically a car wreck.

The spaceship mode has a cool trick where the guns are tabbed on the wings, and we have a decent wedge to represent the nosecone, but this and the gunmarine mode are the worst of the altmodes Six Shot comes with. Here, he looks more like a robot folded up, like that McDonald's Animated Starscream toy. I get that this is trying to be accurate to the old toy, and I guess there isn't much you can do if this was the first time SS got a toy since the 80s, but I know there could have been more effort.

Transformation is mostly a case of straightening the limbs out as well as bringing out the robot head and the chest fins. Nothing to write home about considering what we're dealing with, and while the toy mostly has a basic transformation, I can at least say the toy is focused more on the 6 modes as a play feature specific to this character. As for the robot mode, it's pretty much a parallelogram type of design. He's fully straight up and down, with the designs of the limbs combined with his blocky torso, and it doesn't help that the wings point upwards. You could argue that it fits someone who's pretty attentive before going into the ninja attacks, but it does have an issue I brought up in the past with some Titans Return and Power of the Primes figures being G1-With-Knees. On one hand, that still rings true with how close he is to the old toy without being a full-on Missing Link (though I would be fine with the old toy getting the Missing Link treatment since we need Decepticons), but on the other hand, I think of one of the third party Six Shot figures that looks far more dynamic, and it was made by Mastermind Creations (Terminus Hexagon?). Regardless, Six Shot's one of those designs that looks fine; it's just that maybe the torso could be more refined. I will say this: for all of the G1 toy influences used throughout the Titans Return line, we don't have the stickers for the chest fins.

Head sculpt is at least accurate to the character design, and I am fine with the white plastic on the head being unpainted since there isn't enough detailing that gets washed out. At the very least, the Titan Master is painted to stand out from the rest of the helmet. Articulation consists of a neck swivel, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, hinged elbows, ratcheted hips moving front and back, loose outward leg movement, thigh rotation, even looser knees, and ankles that are on pretty heavy indents, making them only good for standing still, posing them at full splits, and in-between. If there is something I will agree with other fans on, we should expect better for the articulation of this figure, especially for a Leader Class, as well as the tolerances.

The Titan Master gimmick works a little differently for this Leader specifically; while Optimus Prime/Ginrai and Godbomber have helmets that go over the heads, the Titan Master named Revolver, who is not only designed after Chromedome's old friend, Jack, but there is a bandana that matches up with the ninja theming of Six Shot with a kanji appropriately standing for "six". Not to mention the whole approach with a name like "Revolver" making sense given they shoot six times. You can keep the head inside the helmet at all times, but keep in mind that the wolf head will need to be filled in.

There is a bonus mode dubbed "Wingwolf", which was first seen in the Japanese media, as one would expect, and it's basically the jet mode reversed with the wolf head pointing forwards. It's about as goofy as you can get, but to its credit, this was another reminder of the many fan modes that were possible with a toy like this. After all, we know Japan likes going for the mid-tier or base modes that don't always look as good on some toys.

As far as prior reuses are concerned, the Legends version goes for a Headmasters-accurate deco, meaning the sea green is closer to a teal, the stickers are ditched in favor of paint apps, and the Titan Master is better painted than the Hasbro version (aka superior color break-up). The best part is the rims being painted.

Up next, we have Quickswitch, who is the Autobot son of Six Shot, but being a retool instead of a new mold does lead to a couple of things: while the jet, puma, and not-an-upside-down-gun submarine were the same with the old toy, there should be a hovercraft instead of a car, and the tank needs a drill. At least the robot mode has better proportions from being as fit as his dad. Also, no Sixknight retool was made. 

And finally, we have Greatshot, who is not just retooled with a new face, helmet, chest, beast head (a rhino instead of a wolf), but he has a much more heroic color scheme that feels like a patriotic cowboy. I would not be surprised if this were given a retool for the New Legends line if Six Shot received a later, modern figure in a later line.

For a robot mode size comparison, here he is next to the bot he killed: Ultra Magnus. It's wild to see how much of a Leader Class figure from 2016 is as tall as a Commander Class figure made in 2023. I don't mind them having a similar height; I just find it wild that despite this fact, one cost far less than the other. 

Overall, while I am happy to get a version of Six Shot without waiting for another update (hell, the size alone next to Magnus makes me happy enough with him), that doesn't mean he is a flawless toy. The modes being whack, I can be fine with, because at least it's in his character to make multiple modes without worrying too much about how some of the execution turned out on each. The tolerances for some of the joints, however, are annoying as hell for a larger toy, especially at the knees. I would rather have seen some ratchets used for the knee joints, but on the whole, he's a figure that I think is good but could be better. Let's see how well a new version would turn out, but I'll probably be done collecting by that point.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

S.H. Figuarts Gamerverse Spider-Man vs Mess Toys Black Suit Neighbor review

The Gamerverse is going beyond Marvel Legends and making its presence in S.H.Figuarts! If you're already a fan of the Marvel Legends multipacks as well as the larger-scale Juggernaut and Gargantos, then you should be interested in their lineup of characters (or at least the ones Hasbro didn't get to yet). I already own the X-Men 97 version of Cyclops and have no need for the Tamashii version, but I can't say no to a new Spider-Man with a specific place in my collection. Perhaps this time, I could replace Renew Your Vows as my definitive comic Spidey, right? That said, the timeline it took for this review to be made was even more interesting than the figure itself. Originally pre-ordered, then canceled near the end of 2025, and later regaining interest after looking through some reviews and coming to my own conclusion with the good and the bad, the day came when I won an eBay auction with this and Mess Toys' Black Suit Neighbor for around a reasonable price for both of them. IIRC, it was around $135, so I basically paid about what it'd cost for both figures for their normal MSRPs, or I paid for two figures of equal value if the price was cut in half per Spider-Man. I'll get into the history behind Mess Toys, but it's almost close to a Revoltech if you're interested in seeing why I would make a versus review. Let's see if the battle within decides which figure beats the other: the newest Figuart of this great character versus a high-quality bootleg that turned out to be a genuine surprise.

Here we have Spider-Man in-hand, and while the Cyclops figure made before him was a bit generic in terms of design, this at least matches the sprites used for the Capcom-collab games, albeit to a fault. Some people talked about the differences between what they should or shouldn't look like when we compare sprites to promo art, and it's a case where one doesn't match the other or how bright the colors are (on top of the web lines not being black but instead a slightly darker red), and while I am grateful he isn't colored to be pixelated, I still would like to see a happier medium between what the sprites look like and the promo art where the darker colors and web lines are present. As for the mold itself, it looks mostly good. I love the bulkier proportions as well as the reasonable level of musculature (even if it's a bit soft like on the McFarlane COIE body used on Superman). He doesn't have a slim torso, nor is his head of average size like on a cosplayer. The waist area as well as the upper thighs and hips, however, have been a bit of contention for many; if you remember the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man they made, it had a broken-up waist area where there were some panels near the crotch to allow the hips to move better while trying to preserve the sculpt despite the visual compromise. I think this move worked better for FNSM because of the darker colors combined with the textured sculpt. In fact, while I like the recessed web lines and appreciate they tried to make a sense of flow between the hip plates and the ends of the thighs, the lighter blue as well as the softer musculature don't exactly help with the waist area from standing out badly. To sum it up, I like the figure for the most part; it's not as awful as people make it out to be, yet I wish there would have been tweaks in either the aesthetics or having the colors work better. At least they didn't forget to sculpt the ass in different areas.

As for Black Suit Neighbor, this is a either a copy of one of the Revoltech Amazing Yamaguchi molds or a modified version of the body to appear less anime-esque or look more "normal" with a smoother surface instead of having the texturing of symbiotic goo moving around him. One positive about him is that he has a matte finish, which works better for him, whereas someone like Venom could be with or without one and still look fine. As for the proportions, while still not overly exaggerated like the AY, this is still more muscular than the average Hasbro Legends figure. Of note, the figure has a mix of gaps for certain joints as well as discrepancies that don't normally fit for the costume, like the ridges on the boots that would make sense mostly for the commonly bootlegged Parker Industries suit. Also, the torso looks more broken up because the pecs can now "flex" while the figure hinges the arms in front or behind the torso rather than using the butterfly joints found on most action figures. Once again, this would normally make sense for a suit of armor versus living alien goo pretending to be a spandex suit, but at least being predominantly black helps hide this discrepancy. And hey, it solves a problem most Hasbro Legends suffer from where the pecs appear smaller due to the integration of butterfly joints! Honestly, apart from the shoulders, upper torso, and boots appearing weird, this is still able to mimic the comic aesthetics perfectly fine and thankfully has little to no paint blemishes, which would be more forgiving on an unofficial figure priced around $30 than a Hasbro item. And while he may appear more broken up than the MvC figure, it thankfully has no issues with the waist area. 

The head sculpts for each figure are good for what they are each aiming to match, with Gamerverse, of course, matching the Capcom era of arcade games featuring a handful of Marvel superheroes with the Street Fighter cast and then some of Capcom's other characters (Mega Man, Morrigan, etc), though he still has that McFarlane influence. Black Suit Neighbor, on the other hand, is more of a standard shape associated with when the costume first appeared in Secret Wars. We'll get into the options momentarily, but let me say this about the masks: I'm happy that both of them at least are shaped with the mindset of a human head underneath them thanks to the subtle tip of the nose, because it could have been easy to make them look balloonish or basic.

The accessories for each of them are a mostly good spread, though Black Suit Neighbor could be a bit better at the total than Gamerverse. On the left, we get an alternate head with slightly larger lenses, four pairs of hands, an adaptor for the spider-sense effect piece, a spatula for the back piece to pry out, a single web line, an L-shape clear peg, and a web shield. On the right, we also have an alternate head, a pair of alternate hands, an extra pair of alternate hands (5 vs 4), two web lines, a pair of web blasts, a flight stand, and a bendy crane with a clamp. Surprised they would go as far as using the logo for the stand, considering how protective Disney is with their IPs. Then again, they would go after a man who just wanted to put a character they never made on a kid's grave yet say nothing on the Lightning McGroomer saga.

For Figuarts, the articulation consists of a double ball jointed neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movements, butterfly joints that blend in better than the average Hasbro Marvel Legends figure yet have mediocre range (or at least one of them does), bicep rotation, double jointed elbows, wrist joints that are on two pegs with a hinge in the middle for universal range, a diaphragm joint that is very fluid in contrast to a lower torso joint that barely hinges forward thanks to a terrible design flaw where the joint is at an angle, requiring that the socket is also at a similar position while filling in the lower back with a panel that could have easily been scrapped if the lower torso was designed like a normal action figure. They make the hip area much more logical in comparison, because at least there, they move normally on the swivel pieces while the outward leg movement goes even higher than normal Hasbro Legends. Just keep in mind that there is a risk of the waist splitting, so be careful with that (even then, they should fix this before releasing the figure to an already skeptical group of consumers). Thighs swivel, knees bend at two points, and the feet can swivel, hinge, and pivot with a cap system that keeps the joint from breaking up the sculpt and proportions, all while keeping the range generally good. He even has toe articulation placed where it should be. For anyone wondering, you can do the idle pose generally close enough, but balancing the figure or using a flight stand is recommended given there are no peg holes on the feet. In addition to the thwip hands complementing the pose, I like the web shield in terms of sculptwork and size, though it should use some paint.

There is also the Spider-Sense display piece that looks pretty weak, let's be honest. It's only yellow on one side and white on the other, and you have to adjust it at the peg whenever the head is facing a specific direction, as I failed to do in this pic. Also, to access that, you need the trusty spatula to pry the middle part of the back logo off. I wish that could have been used for a peg with a flight stand, especially considering how often we see this figure marketed in jumping poses at times.

And while not as plentiful in length options, the web line is at least great for him to use if you want him to go with either a swing or throw, though we have no option for a web ball pose or for him to be posed shooting the web. I think they went with the swing and throw because those are some of the more common ways he would attack other opponents in the games, though once again, a flight stand is greatly needed.

Finally, you get a pair of cardboard backdrops if you want to recreate the Hyper Combo Finish, but keep in mind that it's not that particularly great looking for most toy photography angles, and it would have been more effective if it was either a giant web piece or had it on a clear plastic piece so it wouldn't be stuck on a black background. My copies are thankfully not bent, but these are still less effective than the backdrops in Studio Series when they were a thing.

As for the Black Suit Neighbor, his articulation is wilder than on Gamerverse. Once again, we have a double ball-jointed neck, but we have an extra joint within the base of the neck. The shoulders have even higher range at the cost of an ugly crevice for the shoulders. That said, you can move the arms front and back, with the butterfly joints providing even better range than the average butterfly range, even the Gamerverse Figuarts. Biceps rotate, though the joints are at an angle; the elbows bend deeply at the revolver joint, slight rotation at the forearms, and the wrists are on ball hinges. The torso uses two ball pegs, meaning you get much better range than Gamerverse. The hips have worse range moving to the sides, and the offset swivel has you working its way into making a straight kick thanks to the revolver joints and thigh swivels. The knees bend at a single joint, though some odd knee pads look like random spikes. The boots can rotate and hinge, while the ankles have just about as much range as Gamerverse (but with a small lump for the toe joints). All this means you can get better posing potential than with any other import figure, and especially Marvel Legends.

I prefer having double the pairs of web lines, which is at least better than one, in spite of there still being no deco or bendy wires. The alternate head he comes with has narrower eyes sometimes associated with this suit.

The figure needs no thwip hands considering he does his own style of hand gestures while shooting web. I would like to see more figures do a similar trick since half of the time, we get the same web-thwipping hands on other Spider-Man 1:12 releases. I know sometimes he does the same hand gestures, but not as often in Earth-616, at least to my knowledge.

To identify what hand should be used, remember that a small hole near the middle of the white area is what lets you do the web-thwipping. Also, a bonus alternate head not originally included with the set is a more McFarlane-style lens design courtesy of PVC Bakeshop. Honestly, the fact that I got this head with the two figures for nearly $140 makes it feel like a surprisingly good deal (since I believe the custom head went for $75). Considering how McFarlane/Bagley the MvC style looks, I would love to go with this option.

For a size comparison, here we have the two unofficial figures with their Legends counterparts, with Gamerverse sandwiched between Amazing Fantasy 15 and Renew Your Vows. Meanwhile, Black Suit Neighbor stands next to the Secret Wars figure. While figure scales are all over the place depending on who you ask, I don't mind that the Gamerverse version is between the heights of AF15 and RYV, with the latter said to go slightly over the normal scale. I'm not sure if there is supposed to be a consistent scale between SHF and Mess Toys, but at least it won't be as bad as reusing the RYV mold for a Spider-Man in the middle of being enveloped by the symbiote, which means he scales poorly with the full black suit figure from a year ago. I would like to see Gamerverse Spider-Man with black web lines and the same shades of red and blue we have with RYV; pretty sure we had that as an alternate skin for the old games as well as the promo art.

Overall, much like Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3, I have a bit of a battle within, so to speak; to sum it up in a few words. Black Suit Neighbor is better than I thought, while Gamerverse Spider-Man is so close to perfection. Let's go into slightly more detail on each figure: Gamerverse has the overall suit aesthetics and proportions I want for a more adult Spider-Man, and while the lenses are specifically for the game, they are still pretty close to the McFarlane/Bagley style. That said, I am mixed on the execution of some accessories in addition to the hybridization of the sprites and promo art (whereas having him match the promo art would help him appear less "cheap" at first glance). Most have complained about the broken-up hip area, yet I have more issues with the lower torso joint having less range than I would appreciate. The accessories range from good to executed at a less than ideal rate. Mess Toys are a third party company, so standards will vary depending on how much they want to do better or worse than the official brands. That said, unlike MAFEX bootlegs, they have no issues to speak of when it comes to using the Revoltech line as a basis as well as modifying the sculpt rather than directly copy it (at least for Black Suit Neighbor). Not only that, but the quality for Black Suit Neighbor far exceeds MAFEX bootlegs, and it may also do better than Gamerverse in terms of value for money and possibly even quality. So while I would recommend you get Gamerverse Spidey at a lower price, Black Suit Neighbor is one I recommend even more.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐