The bad news is that I have now lost a bet and owe a friend five bucks. The good news is that the bet that I lost was my guess that the Hot Toys Amazing Spider-Man Movie Masterpiece Series figure would be delayed into 2014! After countless delays and the figure not even being shown at San Diego Comic Con 2013, I thought it was very possible the Amazing Spider-Man Hot Toys figure would fail to make it out before the end of 2013. But I was wrong–it’s taken quite a while, but the Hot Toys Amazing Spider-Man MMS 179 figure has now been released overseas!

It’s been a long, tedious year and a half wait for collectors, but The Amazing Spider-Man Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series figure was finally released today in Hong Kong! As usual, the ever-reliable Hong Kong blogging community has been posting impressive photos of the figure in droves.

If you already own a Hot Toys Raimi Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire), you may be wondering how different this one is and if it warrants a fresh purchase. With one quick comparison glance, you can see that the Andrew Garfield Hot Toys Amazing Spider-Man is monumentally different from the Tobey Maguire Hot Toys Spider-Man…

The new Hot Toys The Amazing Spider-Man sixth scale figure’s proportions are vastly different and smaller than the old Spider-Man trilogy MMS figure, and the costume is fundamentally changed. The basic idea and motif may be the same, but this is way different from the “old-time” Spider-Man.

The Amazing Spider-Man movie costume looks much better from the back than from the front–I really dig the stylized red Spider-Man logo on the blue of Spidey’s back.

Maybe my favorite little detail of this whole Movie Masterpiece Series Amazing Spider-Man 1/6 figure is how detailed and accurate the bottoms of Spidey’s boots are! It seems sort of weird to me that Peter Parker went to such trouble designing the undersides of his boots, but they look really cool in person and like something a teenager would design.

Hot Toys made a strange choice coloring the rims around Spidey’s eyes black, whereas in the first “The Amazing Spider-Man” movie they’re actually blue. A lot of fans will welcome the change, as they’re more classic and will define the gold eyes a bit better, but I think I would have preferred the authenticity of blue eye rims.

Unfortunately, a little rain must fall on the otherwise sunny day that is this Hot Toys Amazing Spider-Man MMS179 figure. Hot Toys has done pretty much everything imaginable to avoid publicizing and displaying at event the Andrew Garfield Hot Toys head sculpt, and now we know why: it’s because it’s really, really bad. As in, “I don’t know who this guy is, but it sure ain’t Andrew Garfield.”

Usually Hot Toys Marvel head sculpts turn out to be at least a pretty strong likeness, but that just isn’t the case here. Considering that Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker was my favorite part about “The Amazing Spider-Man”, it’s a massive disappointment that the Peter Parker Andrew Garfield Hot Toys head likeness is so far off the mark. I think Diamond Select did a better job with the Marvel Select Amazing Spider-Man figure’s Andrew Garfield head, to be honest.

Overall, I’m “okay” with the Hot Toys The Amazing Spider-Man Movie Masterpiece Series figure, but not nearly as impressed or blown away by it as I had hoped to be. With a year-and-a-half wait for this figure, I was expecting Hot Toys to really knock my socks off, and instead we get a movie Spider-Man Hot Toys figure that’s merely “pretty good”.

If it wasn’t for the depressing reality that it will probably be another two years before we get a The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Hot Toys figure, I would probably pass on this, but I don’t know that I’d be happy waiting another two years for a modern Hot Toys movie Spider-Man sixth scale figure.

BBTS still has discounted $189.99 Amazing Spider-Man Hot Toys 1/6 MMS 179 figure pre-orders available if you want to add this latest movie Spider-Man to your Hot Toys collections. Sideshow Collectibles also has the Hot Toys Amazing Spider-Man sixth scale figure still available for order themselves, but they’re charging the full retail of $204.99 (unless you’ve got some Sideshow points racked up you want to kill, anyway).

What do you think of Hot Toys’ first swing at the Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Hot Toys collectors? Will you be adding this to your Hot Toys Marvel Movie Universe, or are you holding out for a more-classic “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” Hot Toys figure?