I had been searching for it for a month, at least. Through countless Walmart, Target, and Toys R Us isles. The SpiderMan with the grinning half-mask extra head and the hands that apparently do a perfect handstand. I had seen countless Superior SpiderMen, Spider Girls, and Spider Women. Even a few Anti-Venoms, but none of the original red and white suit with that mask pulled up to consume a plastic piece of drippy-cheese New York Style pie.
Then, after a fuck-all terrible day of hunting -remember that Force Friday piece?- there he was. Just hanging on a sparsely populated peg behind a few of the usual suspects. I almost died right there. I scooped him up, looked around as if some stealthy figure hunter would be waiting behind the Power Ranger figures to ambush me and take it, and found my wife an aisle over trying desperately to find where they had hidden all of the Star Wars figures.
“Look what I found!” I said
“That’s Spiderman. He wasn’t in Star Wars.” She said defiantly. “We’re looking for Star Wars figures.”
“Yes, and we have done great with that, haven’t we? Do you realize this is the rarest figure in the current Marvel Legends Infinites line?”
A blank stare.
“He’s going for up to forty bucks on eBay.”
Another blank stare. “If you get that, we’re done for the month.”
Who’d she think she was playin’ with here? I said, “That’s fine!” and moved on with life. So, here he is, the one, the only, the now fairly common PIZZA SPIDERMAN!!!!!
With everything you see above: Two heads; one regular, one half-masked; two extra sets of hands, for a total of three sets (Two fisted, two open/handstand/pizza holding, and two “THWIP” hands.); and the leg of the new Hobgoblin.
Capable of multiple poses due to its 24 points of articulation, including shoulder joints and double-jointed knees, this Spidey, while not as flexible as his 32+ point brothers, is still quite posable. Though the “McFarlane” Spidey was a bit more articulated, this Spidey gets away from the anorexic, withered Spidey look of past figures and leaves our favorite Webhead looking sleek, lean, and muscular.
My favorite part of this figure, though, is the “spirit” of it. The overall paint and color scheme are more indicative of the one-liner slinging, banter driven, bounce and trounce Spidey that I love. The Peter Parker that, though he has problems, chooses to fight through and grab a slice of pepperoni on his way to battle the hordes of the Green Goblin or to deliver snaps of himself to the Bugle. He brings me back to happier days when I watched the Wall Crawler webswing his way through my afternoons on television, teaching me lessons about how to be a cool guy, despite my problems. The web lines are painted on, with precision and care, rather than sculpted in, making for a sleeker, more “simple” and “cartoony” style reminiscent of the 90s cartoon Spidey. The eyes are big, wide, and symmetrical (Something so many Spidey figures get wrong.). The interchangeable head and hands make for a ton of options in “mood” poses like the now famous Spidey-Shrug, the Spidey facepalm, and a first for any Spidey figure, heck, any figure I know of: The unassisted handstand. That’s right. This Spidey figure, thanks to the solid construction and splayed hands set, can do a handstand, and remain upright without the assistance of a stand or superglue. This feature is something I have never seen before, and possibly the coolest since the first figure I owned with a toe bend or articulated fingers (I’m lookin at you, McFarlane Spidey.).
Now, to the important part. Is this figure worth plopping a twenty plus tax down on the cash register stand: HELL yes! With the old school paint job, articulation enough to get some cool classic poses, the half mask head, two extra sets of hands, and that danged piece of pizza, this figure is only missing one thing. Webs. I recently learned, though, how to make those from simple twist ties. They are quite sturdy and easily crafted. If you folks express enough interest, I just might post a DIY. I digress. This figure is by far my favorite since the McFarlane Spidey and it is going to take a whopper of a figure to dethrone it. It’s just so damned cool all around, and it looks so nice sitting up on your shelf or swinging from your ceiling by a strand of web while eating its drippy slice of pizza. Go out now and grab one, they are becoming more common every day on shelves, before all the specialty store owners snap them up from under your nose!
Geektrospective 