Absorbing Man Week!
Marvel Legends Spider-Gwen Review

With that out of my system, let’s move on because there’s good stuff here. She has enough accessories for a coupe different looks: masked & unmasked. In full gear, you’ve got the hood and the masked head. I’ve mostly stuck with that on my shelves. There’s also the unmasked head which creepily looks like Emma Stone. She was Gwen Stacy in the movies recently, so I get it. But it’s still weird. It’s not like the movie Cap looks like Chris Evans, y’know? Zing!

The neat part about the unmasked head is that the last accessory is the hood folded down. I love this. It’s the kind of little detail that you want and that lets you know someone up at Hasbro cared for a few minutes. I do wish we got some alternate hands here. She’s kinda stuck in that zone where Spidey used to be where we’ve got to get the fist & thwip hand locked in. It’s frustrating because there are other hands on the figures that share this buck. If they were all just removable?

The articulation is the one way the buck frustrated me a little, mostly at the ball-jointed hips. They work fine, but I just have trouble for some reason. Lots of good articulation elsewhere: ball-joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and inverted ankles; swivels at the thighs and boots, double-hinge knees, and the torso joint. She can’t quite pull off as many good poses as Spider-man can, but there’s plenty of fun to be had.

The paintwork was probably the most important. Gwen has a 21st century digital costume and there was a lot Hasbro needed to get right. The webbing in the crimson areas for one, that’s on the higher difficult side. So was keeping the white white and the black black. But the purple overspray on the eyes was crucial. And Hasbro got all of it. They nailed it.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with getting the figure and happy with how well it was executed. It is the right buck despite my misgivings, the articulation is useful despite the limited hips, the newly sculpted pieces are spot on – even the unwanted Emma Stone likeness, and the paint work is near phenomenal for a mass-produced toy. And extra points to Hasbro for getting the figure out so quick. May Spider-Woman live on forever.

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13 thoughts on “Absorbing Man Week!
Marvel Legends Spider-Gwen Review

  1. For me, the Spider-Women could have their own line and it will go a few waves at this point. We really need a redo on that Julia Carpenter, and Jessica’s new duds! (I’m sure they’re waiting on hers right now until AFTER the baby, but…which Barbie had the hideous removable/pop out belly with a baby INSIDE???!! yeah.

    Or just a She-Force ML sub-line? they could even market it the “the pink aisle”, like Mattel is doing with the new DC cartoon set at an all girls school or whatever that is.

    Anywho…great result on a fast tracked character. I mostly bought her to custom the classic Gwen with the unmasked head, as I’m not too familiar with this version. Most of the decos were on the upper half of the figure and the feet and they came off well. I’m still not sure about the purple/reddish highlights around her head, then the teal footpads, but I didn’t design her.

    The hood has been noted as being too thick and shallow in back, so only the “bald” heads can fit into it. I popped mine on a Wasp, and Janet’s face is sticking absurdly far out.

    I do have to wonder about Spider-Gwen’s sudden “success”, as many are clamoring for her, but I recall there were many vocal opponents to X-23’s similar rush into the line. Then again, that figure was gangly and fugly, and that was just the better looking version! Yet she has found her fanbase and I haven’t seen any objections to her taking over the role of Wolverine. Many are even expecting that “Wolverine” slot to be her in the upcoming X-men wave, over front runners like Old Man Logan or even another all-silver version to represent Logan’s current status as an adamantium statue.

    1. There’s “A-Force” in the comics, which I think could make a pretty good sub-line to introduce updated versions of characters that might need it. She-Hulk could use a refresh, Medusa was only ever available as a SDCC exclusive, Nico’s never gotten a figure (nor have any of the Runaways). I’d like a figure of Captain Marvel’s updated costume, but it would require a lot of new tooling that I’m sure Hasbro wouldn’t pay for. Painting on all the detailing would not look good.

      I’d be down for a new Julia Caprenter, in either her Spider-Woman outfit or her Arachne duds. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, so Julia was “my” Spider-Woman for many years. It took me a while to warm up to Jessica when they brought her back and sidelined Julia.

      On the subject of Jessica’s new “costume,” however, I’d be fine if they never made a figure of that. And did away with it in the comics. I am not at all a fan.

      1. I’ve heard about “A-Force”, but most casual fans/parents would have no clue what that is. “She-Force tells you it’s an all girl team, and it was used by ToyBiz for an exclusive wave of 5” repaints/redecoes back in the 90s.

  2. Ok, that last pic is perfection – well done, sir 🙂
    And I have the sneaking suspicion, it’s part of why I somehow just stopped being a huge Spidey fan …

  3. Face sculpts are something Hasbro seems to very wildly on. Movie Cap and Star Lord look nothing like Chris’ Evans and Pratt but Iron Man, War Machine and Black Widow are pretty dead on in their likenesses. Han Solo, Rey and Finn look pretty good but Poe looks like mud. There are times when they do a pretty good job and others like they aren’t even trying. Its weird. That is a pretty good Emma Stone likeness, I think I like the figure even more now.

    Im glad they made a Spider-Gwen now lets do Squirrel Girl!

  4. “I … still don’t have a 6” Forester.”

    I am hoping beyond hope that the next Target 3-pack with be Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.

  5. I really like the teenage girl buck. I wish there were mroe than one, because every teenage girl Hasbro’s put out in the last few years has the exact same body, but I’m just really glad they put the effort into creating a representation for a human female with even slightly realistic proportions.

    I also really like Spider-Gwen (she is called Spider-Woman in-story, but since Jessica Jones has been kind of big the last few years, I guess they didn’t want to call the book that), but I lament what could have been. When she was introduced, it seemed like right out of a “What-If” type of scenario: What if Gwen Stacy had been bitten by the spider instead of Peter Parker?” But once they gave her an ongoing, they started to make other broad, sweeping changes to other characters in her version of the Marvel U. Frank Castle is an NYPD detective in good standing. Matt Murdock is an enforcer for the Kingpin. There’s a Captain America who isn’t Steve Rogers, and Rogers was never Cap (if I recall, he was killed before the experiment and another soldier took the serum to fight off the Nazi agent). Harry Osborne is a SHIELD agent, and on and on. I liked the idea of “change this one thing and see where things go,” but it’s a vastly different world in almost every respect. Even Gwen herself really only resembles the classic character in name and appearance (physical, not even fashion-wise). Instead of an uptight popular preppy girl, she’s the drummer for an all-girl punk band called the Mary James (MJ is a punk singer in this world, so she’s not too similar to her 616 counterpart, either).

  6. Well picked of the Edge of Spiderverse book and it hooked me. Peter became the Lizard and “died”, Matt Murdock works with Kingpin (thats a big twist) and Gwen and MJ are in band called the Maryjanes. Its quirky yet fun. Now.Spiderverse won’t spoil but Peter FLIPPED when she was alone with a couple other spidergirls and Silk I wanna say fighting a flock of Goblins.

    On the hunt for her, I only wish some extra hands would come with her.

  7. Knew I wanted this one from the moment I saw it! Just had to…look up who she was. But I didn’t need info to love that beautiful design! I’m a toy fan, first and foremost, and that’s a DANG find lookin’ toy! You don’t see those colors together normally, outside of the Negative Zone.

    *Ahem* Now, to find the figure.

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