Let's start things off with the Green Goblin. Right off the bat, this guy manages to nail the shackled state of the suit as it appeared in No Way Home. While some will point out the slight gut that he has betraying his fit, the rest of the body at least looks good. It's no surprise Hasbro tends to put a lot of attention on the MCU shit as history reminds us, and moreso than most of their comic figures, but it is nice to see them also apply the same treatment towards those who were not originally in the MCU. The green is metallic with not as much marbling as I hoped, the paint apps are applied appropriately, and design elements like the cloth on the torso combined with the belt and strap harness on him match the movie perfectly. Those added details, combined with the original suit design, make for the perfect way of homaging the comics while adding to the downward spiral of Norman Osborn's mentality, showcased with the damage on the suit and the blade now deployed without a retracted look.
The head sculpt captures the evil essence of Norman Osborn under the influence of the Goblin, with a grin and hairdo to match his appearance in 2002...with a hing of Jerma985 somehow. Adding the goggles and hood over the head as well as adding the sole pumpkin bomb in his right hand, the articulation consists of a ball jointed head and disk for the neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, double-jointed elbows, wrist rotation, inward wrist hinges, a diaphragm joint, a reverse ab crunch joint, ball-jointed hips, thigh rotation, double-jointed knees, and feet that can hinge as well as pivot.
If you want, you can use the included Green Goblin helmet if you really want to display him in a look closer to the old suit, but the lack of a proper neck piece for the rest of the suit makes the skin tone stand out. The inability to remove the cloth details and the harness without disassembling the toy also keeps you from making a closer vanilla Goblin look. We'll probably get it retooled to look more like the proper suit, though the glider may be the same as the one we got. So far, the paint apps on it are mostly for thepurple areas, and it's mostly cast in a vaguely metallic gray plastic to keep Hasbro from having to splash out and paint it. Some assembly is needed for the foot attachments, which grant rotation to go with the rest of the glider's hinges for the Goblin to turn in either direction. While the sculpted details are great as always for a Marvel Legends figure with a higher price tag, paint is still lacking, sadly.
This pic should be a decent-enough demonstration, though the flight stand we have is the one Hasbro comes up with for their Legends figures, such as last year's Hawkeye. That one's stand got loose rather quickly, but this one is very tight by comparison. We'll see how loose it'll get. For a size comparison, here we have him next to Spider-Man, who is a noticeably shorter figure despite the fact that the heights of their actors are very close (5 feet, 9 inches for Willem Dafoe and 5 feet, 8 inches for Tobey Maguire). While I never liked Hasbro's Tobey Spidey, I am afraid the Figuarts version is even shorter. I am tempted to see if the MAFEX version would scale better, as it is 6.29 inches rather than the Figuarts' 5.91 inches (or Hasbro's simple 6-inch size). This version of the Green Goblin is generally great, though I feel there is still room for improvement when it comes to the accessories as well as there requiring paint for the glider as well as alternate hands in case we don't always want him to hold the pumpkin bomb (though I don't geel comfortable removing the right hand with how tight the peg is).
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Up next, here we have Doctor Octopus, or Doc Ock for short. I tried taking pictures of him without the tentacles getting in the way since they are non-removable. The trenchcoat he's seen wearing throughout most of the movie is forest-green to homage the prominent outfit his comic-self usually wears. I do like that there is another coat inside the green coat, which likely goes well with the gloves he's seen wearing. Everything appears to be new tooling, even if one could say that one of the trench coats is reused from another figure (the arms could be seen as reused). While there isn't much else to say with the clothes beyond me wishing they'd have some more paint beyond the buttons to make them appear dirty, especially the shoes, I do like that the waist harness that holds the tentacles is sclupted with a decent bit of paint work for the lines.
His head sculpt is what adds to the personality along with the tentacles, as it decently represents the de-aged Alfred Molina likeness we saw in No Way Home as an attempt to capture his 2004 counterpart seen in Spider-Man 2. Speaking of, it's interesting how he is labeled as a SM2 figure while the Green Goblin and the carded figures are part of the No Way Home line. Perhaps that is because the movie Otto appeared in turned 20 this year, and Hasbro likely didn't want to go through the trouble of making a NWH version of the character with Nanotech Tentacles just to later paint them gunmetal. Speaking of, the articulation is mostly the same with other Legends beyond the torso and elbows, but the tentacles stand out because of their bendy-wire capabilities as well as the ability to swap the claws, giving you either articulated, curled, or flat claws depending on how you pose him.
The tentacles are very stiff, and making him stand on the flattened claws is a chore if the surface area you use isn't practical enough, but it is possible. Oh and he has alternate fists. I kind of wish we can display him without the shades since he was seen at times without them. Even if there are some things I find could be tweaked, like the tentacles not being as stiff or how much of a chore it is to have him stand on two, but he manages to hold up fine enough. And hey, he found his own Peter!
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
And finally, here we have the Sandman, albeit in a "naked" look that is due to the character remaining stuck in a completely sandy look because of the way he's mutation later rendered him permanently unable to revert to normal. The real-world reason is due to the actor, Thomas Haden Church, likely being unavailable for filming given COVID restrictions at the time or limited availablility. As a result, we get what could almost pass off as a unique reference to human anatomy in an action figure. I'm reminded of the blank Figuart bucks for both genders that depict them with no revealing details from the front yet they have defined butts whenever I look at this sculpt, even though the texturing here is rougher while the feet are less defined than the hands. Sandman's not entirely just a flat beige color, as he also has a bit of dry-brushing throughout the body in order ot make him look closer realistic, though perhaps it could be present a little more than it currently is (it's a YMMV sort of thing).
His head is able to capture a somewhat melancholy look to Flint Marko in this permanent mutation, with a little bit of paint work here and there to better define the facial details. Could be done better, but it looks mostly fine. The articulation is the same as with the standard Legends figure, though much like with numerous Iron Man sculpts, female Legends figures, and a majority of Black Series figures, the diaphragm joint is the sole torso joint we have for this figure. One could say it's likely due to the need to keep the torso anatomy from being broken up. He has forearm sleeves and giant fists hands meant to make his forearms much larger and organically transformed for combat and dynamic display options.
Here he is next to Spider-Man with regular fists this time around, and the webhead has enough abuse in this review, it seems. While Sandman isn't that great of a figure compared to the Deluxe duo, he still manages to be better than Raimi Trilogy Spider-Man somehow. Sandman's a figure I recommend you can get at a cheaper price if you're not invested in a naked-looking guy at $25.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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