I spent the months leading up to this year’s Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie lamenting the fact that we were getting so few quality action figures for the movie–particularly in the form of a Marvel Select Amazing Spider-Man 2 Electro figure. But fate has smiled upon me–it turned out that I utterly hated Amazing Spider-Man 2 and wouldn’t want another toy of that movie Electro anyway. But what I would still want is a classic version of Electro, wearing my favorite green-and-yellow spiky mask. And what do you know? Diamond Select Toys read my mind–the Marvel Shop exclusive Marvel Select Electro figure has now been revealed and put up for order!

Electro is one of my absolute favorite villains in the entire Marvel Universe. No, it’s not because I’ve read some particularly outstanding or fascinating Electro stories–I can’t name even one. In Electro’s case, my love is all about his awesome yellow and green costume (and particularly the goofy-ass spiky Electro mask). So when the Ultimate Electro design debuted I was instantly bummed out, and vastly more so when I learned that the “blue” Electro was the design chosen for the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie.

But boy, I sure am glad that Marvel Studios picked the Ultimate Electro costume now–it helps me to disconnect my idealized Electro from any character that appeared in that awful, awful movie.

Where I really lucked-out, however, is that Diamond Select Toys couldn’t get approval to produce an Amazing Spider-Man 2 Marvel Select Electro figure! As a result, they’ve created this shared exclusive Marvel Select Spider-Man vs. Electro figures box set, containing the excellent 7″ Electro figure that I’ve been waiting for (and a Spider-Man figure as an “accessory”).

The set definitely has its drawbacks: the exclusivity factor (you can only order it online for now), the high price-tag (which is actually the standard for two Marvel Select action figures), and the illogical choice of stock art for the packaging that shows Electro in a different costume altogether.

Even so, this Electro Marvel Select action figure looks totally classic, a totally 100% new sculpt overall, totally goofy (as he should), and totally worth the purchase to me. As with last year’s Marvel Select Winter Soldier figure exclusive, I’m ecstatic that Diamond Select Toys opted to give us the Marvel Comics version of Electro instead of the movie version that could have been.

The Marvel Select Electro vs. Spider-Man Figure Set is now available for order exclusively through the online Marvel Shop. If it follows the patterns of past Marvel Select online exclusive sets, the Spider-Man vs. Electro Marvel Select set should eventually turn up at the Disney Store as well, but that’s not very useful to those of us whose local Disney Stores have all gone out of business.

Despite the high price tag for the Marvel Select Electro action figure and his Spider-Man figure accessory, I took the plunge and ordered this set to get a great figure of one of my favorite Marvel villains. What about you, Marvel collectors? Will you be ordering this exclusive Marvel Select Electro and Spider-Man box set?