{"id":24806,"date":"2013-09-09T00:02:22","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T05:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=24806"},"modified":"2013-09-09T00:02:22","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T05:02:22","slug":"marvel-select-venom-review-18-pics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=24806","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Select
Venom Review (18 Pics)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Marvel Select has been a pretty good toy line for probably over a decade now, but it hasn\u2019t reached into my wallet too often over the years. It was a mixture of a few things, my once-preference for DC Comics, the general 7\u201d scale of the line, and the early figures with limited articulation & bulky dioramas not really appealing to me at the time (despite some good sculpting). <\/p>\n

Occasionally, I\u2019d pick one up when it was a character or look I really wanted to have like the Black Costume Spider-Man & Spider-Woman. Or if it was an oversized figure that would fit in great with my Marvel Legends collection like Thanos (& Uatu, but I don\u2019t think I ever got around to him). In recent years, I\u2019ve been more tempted, particularly as the articulation increased with little sacrifice to the great sculpts. The jury is still out on the Rhino release from earlier this year, but one figure I knew I wanted right away was the Classic Venom. <\/p>\n

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Now, I\u2019m not a big Venom fan really. I am a HUGE Symbiote Spider-Man fan. I fell in love with that costume when I saw the Secret Wars figures. My parents tracked down the comics and I\u2019ve compulsively bought it ever since. The old 5\u201d line. Famous Covers. Legends. The aforementioned crappy Select one. Animated versions. Squashdown versions. Minimates. I\u2019m reminded I still need to go back and get the Medicom one. And that LEGO has forsaken me with an SDCC exclusive (can I pay $150 for a LEGO Minifigure??) Anyway, hey, yeah\u2026 Venom. <\/p>\n

As you might gather, while Venom simultaneously represents a huge perversion of my favorite Spidey look, he also sports it. So, hey, I like the guy enough, particularly in that narrow window when he was a big, scary-toothed alien and not a crazy-tongued thing. So I don\u2019t normally buy Venom figures, but when I do… they don\u2019t typically have a tongue. It doesn\u2019t happen often. <\/p>\n

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But Marvel Select took Venom-figure making to a whole new level. This figure tried to cover as many bases as it could. The basic figure itself is pretty awesome, I\u2019ll get to that in a minute, but the accessories knock this figure out of the park. Three heads. 8 hands. Clip-on back-spawn with articulated arms. Two extra half-arms. That\u2019s a lot and with it, you can have my preferred toothy Venom, the more popular crazy-tongue Venom (the tongue is also removable), a mid-transformation Eddie Brock, and then a crazy-looking child-spawning Venom using all the extra attachments. Those options alone are pretty impressive and that\u2019s not counting that the four of the spawn-heads are articulated as are four extra arms, featuring swivels at their base and their wrists, as well as hinged elbows on the larger two. <\/p>\n

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All that extra stuff is fantastic. There\u2019s the obvious play value, but even display-only collectors can get in on the action choosing their favorite look or switching between the looks whenever they choose. While the Eddie Brock & crazy tongue heads are well-sculpted & well-painted, and I have the option of pulling the tongue out of the screaming head, my Venom will be keeping his old school McFarlane head on my shelves for the foreseeable future. <\/p>\n

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I\u2019m a little out of order talking about the accessories first, but the main body is as well-sculpted as any of the add-on pieces. The guy is massive first-of-all. Topping out at 8\u201d, I think he might be a little too big to even be in-scale with other Select figures, but it hardly matters. We could chalk this up to artistic interpretation and the variable size of the symbiote, but he still a little large. I, personally, don\u2019t mind tossing him with my Marvel Legends \u2013 though he does look a bit silly when he\u2019s paired off with Iron Monger or someone else that should be larger. I love it though, and if I didn\u2019t have affinity for that old ML Sabretooth-repaint Venom, this guy would take over his spot in my display instead of having to share it. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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Scale aside, the sculpt is fantastic. That\u2019s always been Marvel Select\u2019s hallmark, particularly when they don\u2019t have to do a human face (I\u2019m still bummed about their classic Thor figure, I really wanted that one to be good). The figure is crawling with detail. Striations & veins cover the figure to give it a fantastic & rare organic look, the symbol is sculpted in, as are the webshooters, and again, the aforementioned heads are all well-sculpted. There are figures that don\u2019t have one well-sculpted head. This guy has three. <\/p>\n

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The paint work is almost great. A lot of it is sharp or at least sharp enough. The symbol is bright and in good contrast to the black plastic. The various teeth, drool, Eddie Brock\u2019s exposed face, there are a lot of places to find top notch paint. But there\u2019s also slop to be found too. A lot of it can be written off as part of the figure\u2019s overall organic look, but the black smudges or thin white paint on some of the eyes can be just killer when they\u2019re noticed. It\u2019s minor compared to how much is good, but those eyes are a sore sport. <\/p>\n

Articulation is both the figures greatest boon and its greatest weakness. On paper, or in this pics, it looks amazing. The ball-jointed neck works fantastic on all the heads. There are also ball-joints at the shoulders, swivels at the biceps, wrists, waist, & thighs, hinges at the elbows, knees, & ankles, the hips we traditionally see on Mattel or Four Horsemen figures, and some torso articulation, though it has little range. And then there\u2019s the aforementioned fourteen points of articulation on the add-on pieces. He\u2019s loaded. <\/p>\n

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But, as is sometimes the case on hyper-articulated figures, not all the joints are as tight as we need them to be. Venom\u2019s lower half articulation could be a little tighter (or racheted considering all the weight those extra pieces add on) overall, but it\u2019s the ankles that make the figure aggravating. I hope not all the Venom figures out there are as bad as mine, but he has a tendency to topple. It\u2019s primarly his right ankle, but the left doesn\u2019t do him much favors. He does stand and can hold plenty of fun poses, but the ankles just aren\u2019t as tight as they need to be. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already covered most of the accessories, but there are a few more: the hands. Venom sports eight different hands. Now, this makes, sense as there are six arms overall, but Marvel Select also wisely made the hands all swappable. Now, the two smallest arms also have small hands that couldn\u2019t hold a Whopper on the normal body, but you can do it if you want. The other three pairs are the highlight though with fists, open hands, and outright claws. All these swap great and only enhance an already great figure. <\/p>\n

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Now, Venom did come out a bit ago, February, I think and he\u2019s been on a table in my toy roo- office pretty much the whole time. He almost always get a little play, but he hasn\u2019t gotten reviewed since most of my Marvel figures are still out in the garage (you\u2019ll notice in the pics I couldn\u2019t turn up a regular ol\u2019 Spider-Man figure). I was reminded of him by a brilliant reader over the weekend and realized I absolutely had to get his review up because I intend to nominate him as a figure of the year on the annual Poppies this year. He\u2019s got a top-notch sculpt, tons of options, and is really the, forgive me, ultimate Venom figure for fans of the character. The paint could be a little sharper and those ankles are driving me nuts, but those just aren\u2019t sufficient enough to detract from the rest of the figure\u2019s awesomeness. So he\u2019s getting my nod. He\u2019s easily one of the most fun figure\u2019s I\u2019ve bought all year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \t

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