You’ve seen dozens of the Marvel Legends Civil War Spider-Man movie figure prototype photos and in-hand photos right here on Marvel Toy News, and read my impressions all along the way. But now, at the risk of burning you all out on this movie Spider-Man toy, it’s time for my own photos and full review of the Civil War Marvel Legends Spider-Man figure! The Marvel Legends Spider-Man 3 Pack is available exclusively from EE until August–should you get one?
The Right:
It wasn’t a terribly long wait, but it was still excruciating waiting to get a movie version Spider-Man action figure in-hand after seeing how amazing (no pun intended) the character was in Captain America: Civil War!
I was torn a little bit on whether to review this three-pack as a set or as individuals, but ultimately decided to give each figures its due by splitting the set into three reviews. Spider-Man (obviously) is getting the spotlight first.
Due to complicated licensing agreements between Sony and Disney, no Civil War Spider-Man merch can be released outside of multipacks at this time, which is why the only CW Spider-Man movie toys we’ve seen have been in 3-4 figure multipacks from Hasbro and Funko, and why Spidey is always posed holding Cap’s shield in the packaging.
It would have been easy for Hasbro to shove in repacks of Captain America and Iron Man and force us to buy them again to get MCU Spider-Man, but they took the high road and gave us battle-damaged repaints with new accessories instead. Thanks, Hasbro!
I’ll talk about Cap and Iron Man in their own reviews, but the Spidey action figure itself is definitely a great one.
Rather than trying to kitbash us this movie Spider-Man from existing tooling and the new teenage Spider-Man mold used for the comics-based figures, Hasbro went out and created a 100% newly-tooled body for this much-anticipated character.
As a result, this Civil War Spider-Man Marvel Legends figure is properly scaled to be slightly shorter (as a young high school student should be) than other 6″ Marvel Legends figures, and also has an extensive, near-perfect articulation scheme.
What kind of articulation a I talking about here? Well, how about a ball-hinge neck, upper torso ab-crunch, swivel waist, swivel shoulder-blades (!), ball-hinge shoulders, double-jointed knees and elbows, swivel-hinge wrists, ball-jointed hips, swivel thighs and ball-hinge feet with ankle rockers.
One of those articulation points doesn’t work as well as I’d like (and I’ll get to that in a bit), but this is an outstandingly poseable figure overall that you can get into tons of fun and dynamic poses. I don’t use flight stands with my figures, but those who do are especially going to have a blast with this Spidey.
The webbing on Spidey’s costume is fully sculpted rather than just being paint-on. I know some folks would have preferred the webs only be painted, but I really appreciate the sculpting detail personally. Your web-slinging mileage may vary.
Quality-control on this Marvel Legends Spider-Man Civil War figure is also excellent, with all of the joints feeling right and solid, and the paint deco being cleanly applied and looking great (though I’m not a fan of the red joints on the inner arms).
The effort put into this ML Spider-Man six-inch figure definitely shines through, and it is absolutely a notch above the repaints with new heads that we usually end up getting as store exclusives.
The Wrong:
The most glaring issue with this figure is that the costume isn’t quite accurate to the Civil War Spider-Man costume, with the most obvious error being that Spidey’s chest spider symbol is incorrectly sized.
I’m certain that this is due to the costume being changed from the reference materials Hasbro was sent months before the movie was released, so I can’t blame Hasbro for developing this figure to the best of their abilities with the resources they had at hand. However, it’s definitely still disappointing that what is likely to be the only Marvel Legends Civil War Spider-Man figure ever isn’t completely screen-accurate, though.
As for the flaws in the toy itself–while the articulation is fantastic overall on this figure, CW Spider-Man has simple ball-jointed hips and not the ball-hinge hips we’ve come to expect. As a result, his leg articulation is more limited than I’m used to with a smaller range of motion. His legs can only spread to a V-Shape, so no splits for this Spidey.
Finally, I would have liked a couple of alternate interchangeable hands for this figure. One web-shooting hand and one fist are a decent pairing, but I always prefer extra hands when possible.
Overall: Hasbro does a lot right with this movie Spider-Man figure–a lot–from giving him a 100% newly-tooled body to giving him the best possible shoulder articulation (and near-perfect articulation overall) to making him properly scaled as slightly shorter than your standard 6″ Marvel Legends figures.
Even so, the inaccuracies on the costume (particularly the chest symbol) and the limited hip articulation bring this figure down a notch. It’s a fine figure that’s likely to be the only 6″ Civil War Spider-Man we ever get, but be aware that while it’s pretty good, it isn’t perfect.
GRADE: B+
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Given how big a deal the Civil War chest symbol is, I’m surprised that they got it completely wrong….
I can’t imagine why Cap and Iron Man would need their own reviews.
They should get one for no other reason than the new paint apps.
Again, it probably changed between the time Hasbro got concept images to make there figure from and when the finalized version was physically made and filmed with. This costume went through a LOT of changes back and forth from Marvel and Sony.
Yeah, the webs should only be painted. This is a C effort. The biggest change in this movie version spider-man, costume wise, was that the webs were not embossed or engraved…they were flat. Not worth the price tag on the 3 pack. Plus I do not like the movie version MLs anyway so I am a hater.
The Homecoming costume looks exactly the same, so hopefully that figure will have the right logo.
So can they not make Homecoming figures? Or is the deal only for Civil War?
I’m not sure I agree that battle damaged figures are ever “taking the high road”. I know that you’ll accept any old figure a toy company releases (minimates, for example) and find something to like about them. But I can’t imagine discerning toy collectors being thrilled about having “Iron Man… only dirty”. Or “Captain America… in need of a bath” in their collection. Like “Poo Splattered Batman” from the Fists of Clay 2 pack… who honestly wants this? Who’s happy that they now have less room in their “what the Hell am I supposed to do with this?” box? Battle damaged figures serve what purpose, exactly? I know people who legit threw away the Batman from the Knightfall 2 pack. And I can’t say that I blame them.
I prefer the V hips not ball. Ball hinged hips always look goofy and are always loose and awkward to pose. Aesthetically ugly. Also the hands easily pop off and can be replaced with the old movie Spidey hands from the Spiderman electro wave from a few years back. I just gave it a dull wash of black over it and it matches perfectly webbing slightly different but looks pretty good.
The inside arm red pegs need their own review under the heading “Garbage that Ruins the Aesthetic and Film Accuracy”
It’s so lazy that they keep doing the Spiderman figures with the wrong colored pegs.
You do realize they mold the arm pegs to match the outside part of the costume, which is red, right?
On first look I am not a fan of this figure at all. The fact that the web lines were sculpted into the figure ruins it for me in two ways. First, it gives the appearance that the costume is padded. Like the black lines are the seams on a quilt or something like that. Also, the black lines are too tick and dark and make the whole head and shoulder area look to muddy to me.
Just me opinion, but I don’t like it. Maybe a C grade for me. That’s it.
This could pass as a new comic version spider IMO, too bad it’s not a single pack fig, I have no interest in movie figures plus the rest of this box sucks.
Plus I love the sculpted lines.
The only things good about this box is the accessories and the alternate heads. I really want the battle damaged shield. Because, in the movie it gets pretty damaged. I wish they would have put that one and along with the Iron Man affects piece’s in the BAF Giant Man Civil War figures. That would have been the right thing to do Hasbro!!
HATE the sculpted lines. Looks nothing like the smooth movie costume.
My biggest gripe is that the suit is too dark! Marvel did a good job of lightening the color of the CW suit back to the royal blue used in the comics. The figure is navy.