I have never been to so many Walgreens so often! I gotta say – I’ve become converted to an “online” collector. I used to like going out toy shopping. Hitting the stores. Knowing what days trucks arrived. I swear there were times I could smell what I was looking for from the parking lot. It was awesome. Now? Well, getting boxes in the mail is pretty fun.
Don’t get me wrong. I am ecstatic to see a retailer like Walgreens – there are six within 20 miles of my house – get in on the exclusive figure action. And to do wish such a splash – the better of two Tyrion figures, the Prototype Boba Fett in 6” form, and now a cancelled Marvel Legends figure: Agent Venom.
I’m not entirely certain why I wanted this figure so much when I first saw it. I am a fan of the Symbiote Costume, moreso than Venom himself (when I do enjoy Venom, it’s usually pre-tongue). I have not read a single issue of this current Venom, now Flash Thompson in the symbiote and working as a government agent. But the design calls to me. Maybe it’s just that it’s a tactical version of the classic symbiote suit. And, of course, there’s no tongue.
Even better is than the idea is the figure itself. He looks fantastic. His origins as a cancelled regular figure probably saved him from more parts reuse then deserving of a retailer exclusive and the figure is better for it. There is some reuse, but a lot of the figure is new: the boots and kneepads, the gloves, and the armor/shoulderpads for sure. The belt and head also appear to be new, but I’m not as up on every single ML part. The main trunk of the body is reused, but it’s well dressed under al the new bits.
That base ensures most of the great ML articulation is present on Venom here as well. There are ball-joints at the neck, shoulders, hips, and inverted ankles; swivels we the biceps, forearms, waist, & thighs; double-hinges at the elbows & knees, and the ab crunch. The only thing missing is any type of wrist articulation. The swivels are present in the forearms, but any gun-totin’ figure could use some hinges in the wrists, so the figure does seem lacking in that one regard. The included articulation all works well and the bulk of the armor and gear hardly confines the figure from deep poses. Continue to Page 2…
I, too, hate the tentacles. I haven’t read all the appearances of Agent Venom, but I don’t remember his use of the symbiote to be as fluid as the classic version.
I do love this figure, though. Not as much as I had thought I would (probably due to is using a 7 year old base body), but it’s still pretty nice. I really like the tactical design of Agent Venom, and this figure is a really nice representation. He’s missing the paint on his left balljoint. I thought maybe it was just mine, but I’ve found by looking online that it’s on all the figures. Weird.
What I did realize, though, since he can only hold two of his guns, is that I can give the other two to Black Widow. I do wish, though, that his hands were molded to hold the guns better.
I’ve only read the first 4 or 5 issues of this Venom, but the more traditional aspects of the suit (like the tentacles or the spiky parts) appear when he needs them or loses control of the symbiote. He’s even flashed a toothy grin in the early issues.
The belt is actually a reuse from an Ultimate Captain America ML they did a while back. Otherwise, I do believe the head is indeed new.
My biggest issue with this guy as others have mentioned I’ve seen, is the hands. I feel he should have hands better molded to hold the guns he comes with, or should have came with alternate hands.
Otherwise, he’s a pretty cool figure. I just haven’t really read any modern comics in a long time, so I’m on familiar with the bare minimum knowledge about Agent Venom.
I just picked this figure up last night, and so far really like him. I had decided not to go hunting for him, but would wait and see if I just stumbled across one. Then the other night on a candy run for the movie night I found 16 of these on an endcap in our neighborhood store. Also, walgreens.com has a store inventory check, and all of the walgreens in my area now have these.
Most of them had paint issues but I got one that I’m happy with. I actually want to use the tentacles but the dang things want to fall out at the slightest breeze, so I guess they’ll go in a drawer for now.
Thanks for the info about the inventory check! I had been searching far and wide for white Fett (since I already got an Agent Venom last month). This saved me many trips!
16 on an endcap??? I have seen ONE…and that wasn’t “really” one:
http://snakeandboris.blogspot.com/2014/09/scalpers-can-suck-it.html
It was the old switcheroo.
That is super lame. Well, the word is out and scalpers are losing their lunch on these things. There are some on ebay BIN shipped and everything for about $25.
Had mine for a bit. Have posed staring at one those Rabbid toys in confusion on why it has a plunger on its face. I uave read on appearances so when heard original news I was in glee. If wanna find some check out Spider Island that was my first intro to Flash Venom.
Actually was on a call list for mine so got the call and went out. They went back and got one for me when got there. It did have paint issues but very minor to me. (Finally popped on SpOck yestarday) Seems mine works pretty good and never thought about giving the smaller guns to Widow till mentioned it here. Now for an odd readon I’d like an off duty Flash. Wheel chair bound an all. Just good that he can fit with the GoTG, Secret Avengers, and Thunderbolts displays.
A great review again.
I love this guy. He looks great posed with all of my old Spawn figures too. Something about superheroes all kitted up with guns….
Not really a huge fan of comics figures, as I don’t really collect comics. (Not Marvel & DC, anyway, and anything I do pick up is either niche or Trade Paperbacks.)
But I have to chime in on the retailer exclusives. It’s fine for you lot, living in the States. Now since Woolworth’s went down the tubes in 2008, there’re no local places to get exclusives in Britain. You pretty much have to scramble for them online, which is what I have to do with just about every toy line I collect now, anyway. Either that, or take a cross-country train trip into a big city where the Toys R Uses and Forbidden Planets reside.
Man, living in Ohio was great for shopping. You wanted an exclusive, you practically just reached out and plucked it from the nearest outlet. Oh, sure, sometimes the scalpers beat you to it, but with enough perseverance, you could find just about anything you wanted. Here in Wessex? Worst shopping in a developed nation. Last time I had any great success in the shops was in 2008, when a 70-mile round-trip to Plymouth to audition to be an extra in “Alice in Wonderland” (didn’t make the cut) yielded the very last Toys R Us A-Wing with pilot.
}Sigh.{
I agree. Getting any of the figures from the lines I collected here in Northern Ireland became very tough and was one of the factors that made me decide to give up collecting.
yeah, but you don’t have to hunt high and low for DW stuff, either. Over here it’s mostly a few scarce e-tailers and evil-bay.
There is a lot of DW stuff easily available but it’s something that never really interested me that much. I tried to get into it but I couldn’t. Although Character options did a good job on the toys. I owned a 7th Doctor and a couple others as a lot can be found very cheap here for around two-three pounds.
Au contraire, Brainlock. I haven’t seen a Doctor Who figure in the shops for literally years. Literally. Like, since late 2011. You know where I’ve gotten my last few Doctor Who sets? Big Bad Toy Store! And a lot of what has been released since then has mostly been race-the-scalpers-at-Forbidden-Planet-websites challenges!
Seriously, you have no idea how bad it is for retail, toy or otherwise, here in Britain. Especially in the Westcountry. The nearest Toys R Us is a 70-mile round trip to Plymouth, and what we pay for fuel over here, it ain’t worth it. The best chances you get nowadays are in supermarkets or those catalogue stores where you fill in a slip of paper with the general product code of what you want (say TransFormers Deluxe figure), and hope they bring you what you want out of the back.
Yeah. It’s THAT bad, even with Doctor Who stuff.
Oddly enough I was in TRU today looking for a present and there was a few Doctor Who toys in. There was a couple two packs of Doctors with a Dalek.
We only have two TRU stores in Northern Ireland. One at the top north west of the country in Londonderry and the other at the bottom south east over 70 miles away in Belfast.
The selection of TMNT, Transformers, Star Wars and Marvel Legends is awful. In fact there is zero of the later.
Yeah, I remember a lot of those Dalek packs in the Plymouth TRU. But that was 6 years ago!
Really? There are still shops around the UK selling the first Tenant series figures. The 2 pack with McCoy was interesting.
Last time I had any great success in the shops was in 2008, when a 70-mile round-trip to Plymouth to audition to be an extra in “Alice in Wonderland” (didn’t make the cut) yielded the very last Toys R Us A-Wing with pilot.
I remember trying to get one of those off of eBay… The only one I found that was going for less than a Hutt’s ransom didn’t even include Green Leader’s helmet, so now Commander Farrell is flying it…
I got mine the other week, after haunting one of the “local” stores for weeks on end, but at least they had TWD and the GOT exclusives. I turned around from not finding anything and nearly got clobbered by a stock guy with two cases of these on his shoulder. I got first pick, but I should have looked them over, first, as my white paints were THIN and had plenty of package rub on them. ah well.
I got a bunch of Doctor Who Toys at Walgreens this week. They were even running a buy one get one half off sale.
I am not near many WG, but will pick one up if I come across it. No time to search and stalk these days. I have seen several people online looking to trade after they have cleaned out 5 or 6 of them from the store, which is annoying.
Well, I have to say that persistence pays off. I found both Agent Venom, and White Boba at two different Walgreenses.
Mostly though, I’m commenting to say that everything you have read is true–about stores just getting 3 figures unless they specifically order a whole case.
The store with Boba got 3 figures, and had just set them out when I walked in. Two Bobas and one Sandtrooper.
Also, the Walgreen’s that had Spider-Man had a full case with an interesting case assortment: two Carnages, two Black Cats, one Electro, three Agent Venoms, and I didn’t pay attention to the Spideys because they are still everywhere, after all.
I read a lot of interesting content here. Probably you spend a lot
of time writing, i know how to save you a lot of work, there is an online tool that creates readable, google friendly articles in seconds, just
type in google – laranitas free content source
I think sculpt wise the Marvel Select version is better.
The Movie Version Winter Soldier can be reused for Zartan, Movie Stealth Suit Captain America can be reused as Sigma Six Duke, Movie Black Widow can be reused as Scarlett and The Baroness, and Agent Venom can be reused as Snake Eyes. Bring on the Marvel Legends-sized G.I. Joes!