Hasbro Marvel Legends: Spider-Man No Way Home: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Action Figure Review

This is going to be a fun week of reviews. Dan's ToyBox is pretty excited to bring you our thoughts on the new Hasbro Marvel Legends Spider-Man No Way Home Three Pack! We took a vote on our Facebook group and the consensus was to review each of the three figures individually. I'm very happy that was the result because I think each of these figures deserves their own featured, undivided attention.

In 2002, Spider-Man swung onto the silver screen for the first time. Sure, we'd had a televised version in the late '70's but due to legal wrangling and property rights, the web slinger waited a long time to get the full Hollywood treatment. Tobey Maguire was selected to play the titular role and his portrayal of both Peter Parker and Spider-Man quickly became a fan favorite. He followed this success with two sequels, of which Spider-Man 2 is roundly praised as one of the best superhero movies AND movie sequels of all time. In 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home brought Tobey back in his role as the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Fans were thrilled to see him back in the webs and his performance in the film, alongside the other two silver screen Spider-Men, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland, was incredible. The concept of the multiverse enabled fans of all three actors to enjoy seeing them on screen together and the story in and of itself, was a joy to behold. (I may be a bit biased as I like all three actors and their respective portrayals of the web-slinger.) When Hasbro announced this three-pack, there was a lot of excitement from collectors. I also feel like there was some trepidation given that Hasbro has, of late, been dropping the ball with QC issues and, well, lazy craftsmanship. While I do have some issues with this figure, I'm very pleased to have it in my personal collection.

As regular readers well know, Dan's ToyBox reviews four categories when considering action figures. Accessories, Appearance, Articulation, and Affordability. Each category will receive a score on the zero to 10 scale, after which the figure will receive an overall grade, also based on zero to 10 ToyBoxes. So, without further ado, let's discuss the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man from Marvel Legends No Way Home Three-Pack.

ACCESSORIES

Unlike the new PS 4 Gamerverse Spider-Man, this figure actually comes with three full sets of hands. One pair of fists, one pair of thwipping hands, and one pair of wall crawling hands. He also comes with the looped web line we've seen repeatedly. I've made my opinion on the webbing pretty clear in the past, so I'm not going to beat that particular drum. I do like that it's a translucent white and is reflective of the webbing in the movies. My only real issue with the hands for this particular figure are the very short, stubby fingers. I'm really not certain how this happened, but the wall crawling hands look pretty bad. Oddly enough, the web thwipping hands look better, even though when held back-to-back to the wall crawling hands, the fingers are roughly the same length. As you can see in the picture above, his fingers are terribly proportioned to the rest of his hand, and even body. The fact that he does come with three sets of hands is always a plus and even a tired, overused web effect is better than none. With that in mind, the Friendly Neigborhood Spider-Man receives a just above average 6 out of 10 for accessories. There's nothing truly special about the accoutrements, but at least they are complete sets of hands.

APPEARANCE

Stubby fingers aside, I actually like the look of this figure, personally. Now, we do know that this version of Spider-Man's costume is more muted and subdued on screen. For me, though, the vibrancy of the red and blue helps him stand out more. We also know that on film, the web pattern on the costume is black, but is fairly reflective. Hasbro leans more toward this silvery-gray which helps the lines stand out and pushes the spider-emblem on his chest out to the forefront even more. The issue comes into play when looking at his hands. Because of the odd size of his hands, the silver tends to blur together a bit more, muting the red somewhat. All things considered though, the fact that both the spider emblem and his eye lenses are black and stand out just fine tells me that the webbing pattern could have also been darker so as not to appear so bright and silvery. My other main issue is the design of the spider on his back. I understand that Hasbro tried to line the legs up so that when posing the figure there is consistency. However, if Spider-Man's torso is tilted forward, even slightly, there appears to be an extra leg on either side, giving him the look of having ten legs, rather than eight. In order to properly hide those extra paint details, Spider-Man needs to have that upper joint tilted slightly further back (which is, incidentally, good posture.) The eye lenses, long a source of discussion, have a silvery-white look to them, which is more in line with the movie appearance as well. Overall, though the paint apps are solid, there are some areas where the silver is blotchy or slightly missing which means seeing gaps in the web pattern. Thankfully it's not a consistent problem throughout the figure, but it is just enough to be mildly irritating. The sculpted detail is actually very well done. You can feel all of the web lines along the surface of the figure, but of even greater note is the "dad bod" look. The muscles aren't highly defined which is more screen accurate to the age of the character that was portrayed in the movie. This looks like a Spider-Man who has reached middle age but is still active enough to retain muscle tone, but not defined enough to look like a swimmer or runner. Overall, from an objective standpoint, muting the colors a bit more and changing up the silver web lines to a darker look would have probably made this much more screen accurate. However, from a subjective standpoint, I do like how this figure looks, quite a bit. It's tough but to try and be fair, I'll give him a 7 out of 10 for appearance.

ARTICULATION

I'm having a love/hate relationship with the articulation/engineering on this figure. I do feel that with each new iteration of Spider-Man, Hasbro is making tweaks to try and improve the articulation, however, I had some gummy joints and several very stiff joints on this figure. All three figures in this package received a significant hot water bath, which was very helpful. I do still have some concerns with this figure and will share them shortly. I'm quite pleased with the head movement, though I do wish he could look up just a bit higher. He can turn side to side easily, does have some upward and downward movement, has decent head tilt, and can be fairly expressive when using this articulation. The shoulders will raise the arms out to above a T pose, which is also very nice as having that type of range for dynamic posing is essential. The shoulders will rotate a full 360 degrees and the butterfly joints, while useful, really have limited range, which is disappointing. The upper bicep cuts work fine and the pinless double-jointed elbows have fantastic range, allowing for a very tight bend. Those joints were very stiff, out of the box. The wrists on each pair of hands hinge and pivot easily and aren't limited in their range either. The upper diaphragm joint was frustrating as it was very gummy and I was concerned that if I moved or forced it too much, I'd snap it. Thanfully, the hot water bath really helped. The joint will pivot and tilt side to side fairly deep, the back bend is good, but the forward crunch is pretty limited. Thankfully, there is a lower diaphragm hinge which allows for much deeper crunch, when combined with the upper joint. There is no waist pivot, as this lower hinge precludes that type of joint. Another area of concern is in the legs. The hips do feel like like they have drop down joints, which should allow for greater range. However, the right leg on mine was also very gummy initially and I was concerned about moving it around. Again, hot water worked wonders and regular joint rotation has helped keep it mobile. Unfortunately, his legs won't split as far apart as we might like, but at least with the drop down the range is a little bit better. Forward kick is about 90 degrees and works fine and the upper thigh cuts allow for decent rotation. The knees are also pinless, double-jointed and were very, very stiff on mine. Once loosened though, they bend in very, very well, bringing him heel to backside. There is no boot cut or rotation at the shin. Ankle hinge and pivot is solid, allowing for good foot movement. Right out of the box, I was concerned with the mobility of the figure, but as mentioned, once I was able to loosen up the stiff and gummy joints, the figure is easy to get into good poses. I would have liked a bit more range in some areas, but it's really not as bad as I anticipated. I'm sufficiently pleased enough with this figure to give it a solid 8 out of 10 for articulation.

AFFORDABILITY

I purchased this three-pack on Hasbro Pulse for $89.99, plus tax and shipping. At base price, that puts each individual figure at just under $30.00 each. As a figure with three pairs of hands and one web line accessory, that individual price is 20% higher than what single packed Marvel Legends retail at ($24.99). This is very disappointing because if these were single packed, I think we'd all expect them to retail for the base price, but the question is would they end up selling retail at $29.99 each? If so, that is really a blatant rip-off of the consumer. Hasbro really needs to set the base price and then entice us into buying these multi-packs with a small discount. At base price, these three should be $74.97 if bought individually, with the accessories included. Hasbro is throwing an additional $15 cost on this... for what? It's exploitation of their customers and rates a terrible 3 out of 10 for affordability. Quit screwing your customers, Hasbro.

Overall, I really do like this figure. I'm angry at how Hasbro cheats their consumers by jacking prices on figures they know people want and that will, unfortunately, reduce the end score. The Hasbro Marvel Legends No Way Home Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man receives:

6.75 out of 10 ToyBoxes

While the figure itself is fairly well done and a pleasure to have in the collection, pricing continues to be a negative. The three-pack is worth having, but only if you are comfortable paying the price. Check back next time when we discuss the Andrew Garfield Amazing Spider-Man offering from this set. Until then... GEEK OUT!