Some pretty bizarre things have happened to Peter Parker over the years, including growing six arms and also turning into an anthropomorphic Man-Spider (both in the same story!). But one of the absolute most wildly unexpected occurrences has to be when Spider-Man gained the semi-phenomenal cosmic powers of Captain Universe! And now, Spidey’s most powerful form is immortalized forever as a 6″ figure–the Hasbro Marvel Legends Cosmic Spider-Man figure is now available!

The Right:

Literally the only thing I can ever remember purchasing from FAO Schwarz in my life (back when FAO Schwarz was a thing) is the obscenely-cool Toybiz “Spider-Man Strange Transformations” figures two-pack that contained 5″ Captain Universe Spider-Man and half-symbiote-covered Spider-Man figures.

To this day, I think those are two of the most “fun” Spidey variants ever made as toys, but I wasn’t sure we’d ever see a Hasbro Marvel Legends of either.

But–! Likely largely than to the appearance of an alternate universe Captain Universe Spider-Man in the epic “Spider-Verse” crossover, an official 6″ Cosmic Spider-Man Marvel Legends figure has become an actuality! Is he any good…?

There are two primary things about this figure that really jump out at me as exceptional. First, the best thing about Captain Universe: the costume! Hasbro went with a slick ultra-metallic blue paint that looks absolutely gorgeous with the white “cosmos” of stars painted on.

Paired with the pearlescent white plastic used on the body, the color scheme on this figure just pops. Hasbro absolutely nailed the best possible combination of color choices for this figure. Beautiful stuff!

The other most awesome thing about this Marvel Legends Cosmic Spider-Man figure is that it comes with not one, not two, but three interchangeable heads!

A Spider-Man Captain Universe masked head was obviously a must, but I was truly surprised that Hasbro opted to gift us both non-Spidey Captain Universe and bearded Peter Parker heads with this figure!

The Peter Parker with beard head is based off the Spider-Verse alternate reality Peter Parker who held onto the Captain Universe powers, and is just a straight-up great-looking sculpt.

The non-Peter Parker Captain Universe head is a bit boring-looking, but hey–this character is never getting redone by Hasbro, so might as well release the head needed to make a standard Captain Universe here too, right?

Articulation-wise, ML Cosmic Spider-Man had the standard amount of poseability that we’ve come to expect from a male Marvel Legends figure (although less than what we’re used to from recent figures of Spidey himself), including the double-jointed knees and shoulders, ab crunch, ankle rockers and swivel waist/thighs/biceps/calves.

The Wrong:

Ordinarily I would keep my fat mouth shut and not complain about the lack of extra accessories for a figure that already comes with three interchangeable heads, but this time I’m going to make an exception.

To me, the yellow atom-shaped energy swirls that form around Captain Universe’s hands are pretty much synonymous with the character visually. We’re in desperate need of a new mold for energy effects after seeing the previous two used over and over and over for the past year-plus, so not making up new ones here when they’re so important to the character’s visual signature is a missed opportunity, in my opinion.

If Hasbro didn’t want to tool up new energy effects for this Cosmic Spider-Man Marvel Legends figure, I could have probably even tolerated some recycled energy effects. But none at all is a definite disappointment.

My other qualms with the ML Cosmic Spider-Man are mostly small things: limited range-of-motion in the hips; lack of butterfly swivel shoulders for better posing; some very aren’t blue paint slop on the white parts of the body.

Overall: While I’ve still got my usual nitpicks about this figure, make no mistake: I love me some Marvel Legends Captain Universe Spider-Man. This is one of the most unique Spidey variants that still needed to be made in ML form, and I’m thrilled that he came out as well as he did. The blue paint and white plastic look stylin’, and all three heads included are worthwhile and spot-on. I would’ve liked energy effects, a slightly larger range of motion and cleaner paint apps, but even without those things this is still a really nice Hasbro Marvel Legends figure. Recommended.

GRADE: B+