My first foray into the new era of plastic-free packaged Marvel Legends figures was a bit of a disappointment, as I thought the Spider-Man Homecoming Marvel Legends Peter Parker & Ned Leeds two-pack was a mite mediocre overall. But I had high hopes for today’s review of a costume that’s somehow never been done officially in the long-running series: the comic-based Marvel Legends Iron Spider figure has swung in! Is it worth its lofty deluxe price-point…?

While I’ve lost track of how many MCU movie Iron Spider Legends figures Hasbro has released at this point, I’m a bit flabbergasted that they have never released a comic book styled Iron Spider before as part of an official series of Marvel Legends figures.

But there’s a first time for everything, and Hasbro seemed to think the 60th Anniversary of Spider-Man would be perfect for this thing! Let’s take a look…

As is the new normal for non-Retro ML, the new 6” Iron Spider figure comes in a fully-cardboard box. The box feels rather cheap and flimsy to me, and with no window on its front, Target felt free to just plaster a huge barcode sticker across the front of mine. Yuck.

Given the “deluxe” $30+ price-point of this figure, I’m somewhat unimpressed with the very cheap-looking packaging. But as usual, that’s just going in the recycling bin for me, and it’s what’s inside that counts.

Within the cardboard box, we find one tissue paper-covered six inch figure, a pair of extra hands wrapped in paper and three mechanical arms held in cardboard. Seems like there should be more at this price-point, but it is what it is.

I heard and saw numerous horror stories of collectors ransacking box after box of this figure and finding badly-painted Iron Spider-Man figures in every box, so I had trepidations about getting a bad one myself. I needn’t have feared, however, as my figure is painted immaculately.

It’s actually quite beautiful, with the deep red plastic wonderfully complemented by the metallic gold paint. This is a gorgeous figure, so it’s a real shame some fans have gotten poorly-painted ones.

There’s no unmasked Peter Parker portrait head or open hands, but Iron Spider does at least include fists and web-shooting hands. More options would certainly be welcome at this MSRP, though.

The remaining three accessories are unpainted gold mechanical arms that plug into Peter’s back. I can’t blame Hasbro for not painting these, as they’re a solid color in the source material comics as well. All three fit firmly into the holes on the back of the figure and unlike past Doc Ock figures, I never had one of these arms fall out at all while I was posing and fiddling with them.

While I was initially dismayed that each arm only has two hinge joints (plus a “swivel” at the base where it’s inserted), I quickly discovered I could achieve almost any pose I wanted with them anyway, and without the worry of extra joints being loose or making a whole arm unstable. Ultimately, I think the engineering of the arms is fantastic, and they work exactly as I would hope.

Speaking of loose joints—I can’t find a single one anywhere on this action figure. Instead, every joint feels solid and sturdy and moves as smooth as butter. If nothing else, the joint construction feels fitting of a “premium” figure.

And that’s fortunate, because this Spider-Man Legends Iron Spider has ample articulation built in everywhere, including:

• Ball-Hinged Head and Shoulders (plus butterfly swivels on the shoulders)
• Swivel Waist, Biceps, Mechanical Arms, Boots and Thighs
• Upper Torso Ab Crunch
• Double-Hinged Pin-Less Knees and Elbows
• Two Hinges per Mechanical Arm
• Hinged Ankles with Ankle Rockers

I worried the mechanical arms would mess up the balance and ML Iron spider would constantly be tipping over, but was surprised to see no issues at all with getting him to stand stably with the robot arms all over the place, making this toy tons of fun to enjoy messing around with.

Overall: Despite the semi-wild retail price on this 60th Anniversary Marvel Legends Iron Spider figure, I ended up being blown away by the overall quality of the figure. The paint, articulation and engineering are all outstanding, and this ends up being one of my surprise favorite Marvel Legends 6” figures of 2022. A few more accessories or a lower price would’ve earned this figure the ‘+’ on its grade, but it is all-around excellent nonetheless. An Iron Spider worth waiting for.

GRADE: A