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Faced with more powerful villains than ever before, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN powers up with the abilities of incredible, bio-engineered Cyber Spiders to beat the bad guys and save the day!

ELECTRO has enhanced his lightning blast attacks with Otto Octavius’ diabolical spider-science.  Luckily, Spidey has just the thing to show the shocking Super Villain who’s boss on the streets of the city.  The friendly neighborhood wall-crawler’s newest Cyber Spider charges up his webs to resist the powerful blasts, and stick it to ELECTRO.

It’s Saturday morning!  Saturday mornings are great for cartoons!  This week’s installment of Gotta Have It! Figure Edition takes a look at an offering based on the fan-favorite cartoon series with The Spectacular Spider-Man: Spider Charged Spider-Man!

Product Line: The Spectacular Spider-Man
Company: Hasbro
Released: July 2009
Packaging: Blister Card Packaging
Where to Buy: Pretty much any retail store with a toy department.
Price: US $5.87 (Target, Clearance)
Points of Articulation: 19
Height: 6 inches

Paint Job: Spidey is made of blue plastic with the remainder of his costume painted in red and black.  In some spots, the red bleeds onto the blue.  The webbing effect on his costume is actually grooves in the plastic, painted black.  His eyes are painted in almost a faded, day-glow yellow.  Why, I do not know. The swivel part of his neck is made of blue, and they failed to paint it red.  It looks kind of tacky, if you ask me.  Maybe it is cold and he is wearing a blue ski mask underneath?

Sculpt: True to the animated adventures, this Spider-Man is pretty scrawny.  At least in the legs he is, but he doesn’t look ridiculous.  Solid for the most part, his left arm is hollowed out and contains a spring where you can insert and shoot webs.  His left hand is permanently fixed in shooting position.

Durability: This Spider-Man’s bending joints are somewhat rubbery.  They can be moved, but do not hold, in ways that they shouldn’t.  It kind of feels like he’ll break if I keep monkeying with it.  As I mentioned, his left arm is hollowed out from the elbow down, and there is a peg hole in each of his boot heels.

Poseability: Spider-Man’s poseability is not really spectacular.  It is average at best.  He is capable of standing up straight and holding his balance pretty well.  With his left arm fixed in a shooting position, there is really not much you can do with that one.  There is really nothing special about posing this one.  Stand him up straight or kneel him.  That’s about it.

Accessories: This Spectacular Spider-Man comes with two Launching Webs! The camera washes out the texture in the pics above, but they are very detailed.  One is a wide “burst” and one is a web “ball.”  They insert into the hole in his left arm.  You pull back on the part that sticks out the other end of his elbow and let it go!  Instant, spring loaded, web shooting action!  He also comes with a Cyber Spider.  I really don’t know why he does, but he does.  Kinda icky.  This one happens to be silver, but I’ve seen other figures with other colors of spiders.

What’s Awesome: Umm…well…the cartoon is awesome.  The fact that this figure is pretty accurate in looking like the Spider-Man from the cartoon is awesome.  That’s about all I can think of at the moment.

What Sucks: I think it sucks that his left arm is pretty much useless unless you want to pick him up and shoot a silly looking web.  Also, the exposed off-color joints are a little annoying too.  It also sucks that this Spider-Man, or even this whole set, is not compatible size-wise with the other action figures out there on the shelf.  They kind of stand alone.  Where’s the fun if this Spider-Man can’t pal around with his boy, Daredevil?

Overall: 2 out of 5.  I give this not so spectacular Spider-Man only two thumbs up.  I’m just not impressed with this version.  True, he is one of the more regular versions of Spidey with a gimmick, so he does have that working for him.  The Spectacular Spider-Man: Spider Charged Spider-Man.  Gotta have it?  No.  I wouldn’t recommend it.  If you have to have the Spectacular version for your shelf or desk, there is a more standard version out there that is more user friendly.  I suggest that one, if you can find it.

Spectacular, spectacular Spider-Man!  Spectacular, spectacular Spider-Man! Spectacularrrrrrrrrrr!

Aron White
aron@comicattack.net