Earlier this week, pre-orders popped up half-expectedly for the 2016 Marvel Legends Spider-Man Absorbing Man series. At the time, we only had grainy, low-res images to make our ordering decisions based on. But if you were waiting for hi-res photos to make up your mind, Hasbro has now sent out gorgeous official images of the whole wave! From Spider-Carnage to Spider-Gwen to Speed Demon, the gang is now all here in lovely, official hi-res image form!

To say that I’m very pleased with the last few years of Spider-Man Legends figures would be an understatement. Hasbro has been bringing us a stellar mixture of classic and modern characters, including characters like Misty Knight and White Tiger that nobody ever would have expected to see produced–and that trend continues in 2016!

While the Build-A-Figure choice for this first wave of 2016 Marvel Legends is a little peculiar (as Absorbing Man isn’t exactly widely regarded as being a mortal enemy of Spidey), this wave is loaded overall…

First up, we’ve got the character that’s the headliner whenever he appears in any series: the 2016 Marvel Legends Venom figure! While we got the obscure, short-lived Superior Venom figure in the previous wave of Spider-Man Legends, this time Hasbro is going classic and old-school all the way!

While this figure lacks the sculpting detail of the phenomenal Marvel Select Venom figure released a few years back, it’s far more articulated and in a better scale for a ML 6″ collection.

And this just may be the first Hasbro Marvel Legends 6″ figure to ever come with four heads: two for Venom (one with tongue out and one without), and two for the Absorbing Man Build-A-Figure (one powered-up and one non-transformed)!

Next up, let’s talk about the figure that’s going to be the true headliner of this series for many fans. The packaging may say “Edge of Spider-Verse”, but we all know her better as Spider-Gwen!

Spider-Gwen has turned out to be a worldwide phenomenon, and as a result, we’re getting a Marvel Legends Spider-Gwen 6″ figure less than two years after the character’s debut! That’s one of the faster turnaround times in Hasbro Marvel history! This figure easily earns my pick for what’s going to be the hardest-to-find figure int his series at retail.

You get three accessories with this figure: the (recycled) Ball and Chain for Absorbing Man, an alternate Gwen Stacy head, and a “pulled-down” hood to be displayed with the extra head. I’m not in love with the Gwen Stacy head, but I’ll never be displaying this figure with that head anyway, so I suppose it’s no big loss.

The other Spider-Man Legends Edge of Spider-Verse figure features my absolute favorite Spider-Man costume ever, the Sensational Spider-Man costume worn by Ben Reilly! Poor Ben is always doomed to sacrifice himself in any dimension, but that just makes the character more tragic (and lovable) to me.

The Marvel Legends Ben Reilly Spider-Man 6″ figure will come with six interchangeable Spidey hands, two interchangeable Spider-Carnage clawed hands, an extra Spider-Carnage head, and a pair of Absorbing Man Build-A-Figure arms. Whew! That’s a lot of accessories!

Ben will be double-packed in the first cases of this wave that ship, and then single-packed (in favor of Venom) in the revision cases.

Next, we’ve got the first of two Marvel Legends Villains of the Night: Jack O’ Lantern! Jack O’ Lantern is one of my favorite-designed villains who almost never gets toys, and this is easily the most high-quality Jack O’ Lantern action figure likely to ever be released.

I’m totally in love with the cool aesthetic of the translucent plastic around Jack O’ Lantern’s pumpkin head, and I think that this figure just might subvert this year’s Ghost Rider’s position as the coolest looking Hasbro Marvel Legends figure. Amazing work here by Hasbro, and a great reuse of the Ghost mold!

Marvel Legends Jack O’ Lantern includes Absorbing Man’s left leg, a translucent pumpkin bomb, a scimitar and a flaming torch… thing.

The other of the “Villains of the Night” is a bit more classic and recognizable than poor Jack: Morbius, the Living Vampire! Morbius comes with an alternate cape and a pair of transformed hands for the Absorbing Man.

While Morbius is on the lower-end of the spectrum of popular classic Spider-Man villains, a quintessential 6″ Marvel Legends Morbius figure was a must for the rogue’s gallery, and I think this one fits that bill nicely.

The last two figures making up the first wave of 2016 Marvel Legends figures is another pair of the Superior Foes of Spider-Man! I doubt we’ll ever see Overdrive released to complete the team, but I’d be very surprised if we don’t get a new Shocker figure in 2016-2017.

The first of this new duo is the modern female Beetle. While she’s not the most complicated or popular new villain on the block, the Marvel Legends Beetle figure is needed to complete the Superior Foes of Spider-Man lineup. And hey–it gives Hasbro a chance to reuse the wings they molded for this year’s Wasp figure (the real reason we’re getting this figure)!

Marvel Legends Beetle comes with the right leg of Absorbing Man. And as a sidenote, you can’t skip any of the figures in this wave and still complete Absorbing Man: none of the characters come with the same pieces (although both Sensational Spider-Man and Morbius come with different pairs of arms for him).

Finally, we’ve got a figure that I feel like I’ve been waiting my entire life for: Marvel Legends Speed Demon! I was a big fan of Speed Demon back in the days of the classic “Deadly Foes of Spider-Man” series, and I’m beyond psyched to see him released now as part of the Superior Foes of Spider-Man lineup.

Speed-Demon comes with alternage “karate chop” running hands, as well as the torso for the ML Absorbing Man BAF. But wait–there’s more! He also features perhaps the craziest accessory in Legends history: the severed head of Silvermane on an RC Car body! And yes, this is canonical–if you haven’t read the “Superior Foes of Spider-Man” comic book series, you really missed out.

Silvermane’s head is removable from the radio-controlled car, so you can pop it on an extra Coulson/Chameleon body and make your own Silvermane Legends figure, FYI.

Finally, we’ve got the Absorbing Man Build-A-Figure itself. This seems like one of the odder Build-A-Figure selections by Hasbro, as Crusher Creel has next-to-nothing to do with ol’ Spidey and isn’t a particularly highly-demanded characters to build an entire wave of Legends around. Unless Crusher is going to make a totally unexpected appearance in the Captain America Civil War movie next summer, I’m not sure that I really get this pick.

As far as the Absorbing Man BAF itself goes, though–well, it’s a pretty nice figure. The three transformation arms (particularly the steel arm) look awesome, and I like Absorbing Man’s transformational head as well. His non-transformed head, though… yikes! I, uh, imagine not many people will be choosing to display Crusher with that head!

The Marvel Legends Spider-Man 2016 Wave 1 Series is now available for order, and is expected to be released to online retailers in late December 2015/early January 2016. It’s probably going to be a few extra weeks before brick-and-mortar stores stock these figures, however. As I needed two Spider-Man Ben Reilly figures in order to have both Spider-Carnage and Sensational Spider-Man displayed at once, I wanted the whole case. I ordered from EE, personally, as they offer free shipping on whole cases.

Now that we’ve seen the really nice, final packaged photos of this series, what do you think of the first Spider-Man Marvel Legends Series of 2016, Marvel collectors?