It had been a long time since Hasbro was able to unveil a whole upcoming series of Marvel Legends action figures that hadn’t been fully leaked or at least heavily rumored all over the internet, but the Hasbro Marvel Team managed to accomplish that very feat at this week’s Hasbro Pulse Marvel Fan First Monday stream! The 2022 Marvel Legends Spider-Man Retro Series 2 figures are now up for order—including the first-ever Spider-Armor Mark I and Hammerhead, new versions of Shocker, Ben Reilly Spider-Man and Hobgoblin, and more!

Individual Figure Links:
Symbiote Spider-Man ► Entertainment Earth ► Amazon
Hobgoblin ► Entertainment Earth ► Amazon
Ben Reilly Spider-Man ► Entertainment Earth ► Amazon
Hammerhead ► Entertainment Earth ► Amazon
Spider Armor Mark 1 ► Entertainment Earth ► Amazon
Shocker ► Entertainment Earth ► Amazon

When Hasbro premiered the new Retro Symbiote Spider-Man figure a few days back in advance of this week’s Fan First Marvel Monday livestream, I really wasn’t sure what to think. We’ve gotten so many standalone releases in the 90s Spider-Man vintage packaged series that it was entirely possibly (if not even likely) that the new black costume Spidey was going to just be another solo release.

But it turns out that was not to be the case! We are in fact getting a whole wave comprised of a half-dozen new Retro Spider-Man Marvel Legends figures, including a couple things Hasbro has never officially done before! Let’s have a look…

We saw extensive photos and video of the new ML Vintage Symbiote Spider-Man figure last week, so it was no surprise seeing it during the stream today. We did get to see it packaged for the first time during the stream, though, and seeing a black costume Spider-Man on that 90s Toybiz Animated cardback again definitely put a smile on my face!

The second figure Hasbro revealed for the Retro Wave 2 Lineup was one that’s divided fans a little bit, even though it’s a character a lot of collectors were ardently asking for: Marvel Legends Retro Hobgoblin!

While fans who missed Hobby a couple years back have been clamoring to see him reissued, those same collectors weren’t necessarily enamored when they saw the Hobgoblin Retro Series figure today and realized it was going to be in bright, saturated animated series colors.

I think it’s fun to get a proper animated Hobgoblin figure without chain mail on his costume and in 90s-riffic bright colors, although I totally understand fans who are displeased about the head sculpt and/or wanted a more muted color scheme.

We’re getting a non-Peter Parker Spidey in this wave as well, as a Retro Ben Reilly Spider-Man Legends figure is swinging in! This was near the top of my list of Spidey costumes I wanted to see updated to the new body mold (right next to the white Future Foundation Spider-Man costume), so seeing this put me on cloud nine.

Ben Reilly will be taking over for Peter Parker in the current Marvel comic books (for a while) this fall, so it’s great to have a figure of Ben back in circulation, even if it is in his classic Sensational costume and not the new costume he’ll be wearing in the comics shortly.

We won’t be getting those sweet Spider-Carnage pieces with this Ben Reilly 6” figure like we did with the one in the Rhino Build-A-Figure series, but we will be getting all the must-have interchangeable hands at least.

Fists, web-shooting hands and wall-crawling hands. What else do you need (besides an unmasked Ben Reilly head), right?

Next up on the villains front is a character who has never had an official figure released by any company (unless I am somehow forgetting something): Marvel Legends Hammerhead!

We got a Hammerhead alternate head portrait with the Chameleon figure a few years back, but that body mold’s proportions weren’t correct at all for Hammerhead. This Spider-Man Retro Series Hammerhead uses the Happy Hogan mold, which is broader and a much better match for the character. His suit is also covered in pinstripes from neck to ankle, just the way it should be!

Along with awesome brass knuckles on his left fist, Hammerhead comes with the “Maggia Slugger” baseball bat, which is a nice little accessory for the character. I’m hopeful that we may see some mafia thug underlings as Hasbro Pulse Exclusive army-builders someday. Would definitely be cool to have a bunch of underworld goons for dioramas.

The third and final Spidey variant in this wave is one that Hasbro has never done before: a 6” Marvel Legends Spider-Armor Mk I figure, based off the infamous 90s armor that debuted in Web of Spider-Man #100 in 1993!

I have bad memories of the Toybiz 5” release of this armored figure gathering dust en masse on store shelves in the 90s as one of the biggest peg warmers of the time, so I am not stunned it’s taken Hasbro this long to get to this particular outfit for Peter Parker.

This Marvel Legends Spider Armor Spider-Man is a 100% new mold, and even comes with two new “web splat” effects pieces that can be used to “web” enemy guns and weapons to the wall! I am always jazzed for new effects, so bravo to Hasbro for giving us these with an action figure that’s already loaded with new tooling.

Rounding out the wave, we have a character I was honestly not sure we’d see Hasbro revisit: a classic Shocker figure! We got a modern Marvel Legends Shocker in the 2017 Sandman Series, but fans (and I) wanted to see the classic comic book version as well.

While the 2017 Shocker just had lines painted onto the yellow portions of the costume, this time out there’s actual sculpted “quilting” lines on Herman’s costume. It would be nice if these also had paint in them, but I’ll take sculpted lines over purely painted ones any day of the week.

Marvel Legends Spider-Man Retro Shocker comes with the “same old” concentric circle Havok cosmic energy effect pieces as the previous release did, but this is genuinely the best use for these pieces other than on Havok himself, in my opinion. I hope and pray every day for more new energy effects pieces, but the “cosmic rings” remain okay for a Shocker figure.

Shocker features double-pinless arms and legs, and is another 100% newly-sculpted figure. Hasbro is definitely ready to kick off 2022 spoiling Spidey collectors! His forearms also pop off at the ends of the gauntlets for a seamless interchangeable design between the types of hands.

All six figures in the Marvel Legends  Spider-Man Vintage Series 2 lineup will be up for order at 1PM EST on 9/14/2021, and the whole assortment should be available as individual figures (as well as a set for those who want all six). All six figures here are must-haves for me, personally, and even with the complaints about Hobgoblin, I can’t see him selling badly. I fully expect this to be one hot series for Hasbro!

What do you think about this surprise Wave 2 of the Retro Spider-Man Legends series, Marvel collectors? Is this wave as much of a hit with you as it is with me, and what characters are you planning to snap up from it? With the announcement of this series, what characters (*cough* Lizard Rhino *cough*) are you hoping to see added down the road?