REVIEW: Hasbro's Spider-Man Series: LIZARD

Did you know that they recently released a third Spider-Man movie? With the media blackout surrounding it, you might not have. But it’s true! And as befits such things, the fine people over at Hasbro have released a series of action figures depicting characters from this movie. Not only that, but they have released a number of other Spider-Man-related characters, at the same scale and in very similar packaging. In fact, the only real difference in the packaging of the Spider-Man 3 line and the plain ol’ Spider-Man line is the simple omission of the number three. It’s easy to miss; hopefully, nobody has been thus misled into thinking that the new movie features Kraven, Rhino, Lizard, and so on.

The really odd thing about this dual line is that it is at the 5” scale. Previously, the Spider-Man lines, both cinematic and comic-based, have been on the 6” scale, same as Marvel Legends, the X-Men line, and the like. This meant that all of your Marvel figures could interact, as though they existed in the same universe. Now, however, the new Spider-Man figures can only hang out with your other Marvel folk if you assume the Spidey characters have been hit with a shrink-ray. What’s more, the new movie figures are similarly incompatible with the old. To partially make up for this, the new line has movie versions of Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. But we won’t really be reverse-compatible until we get 5” scale versions of Mary Jane and J. Jonah Jameson. Anyone care to make a friendly wager as to when that’s going to happen? Come on, Hasbro, do it!

In any case, today we shall discuss a figure from the new Spider-Man line: Lizard. A sort of quasi-scientific reptilian lycanthrope, Lizard has one of the best motivations of any Marvel villain: He hates mammals.

PACKAGING: The packaging for the Spider-Man line is nearly as big as the Marvel Legends packaging, which is odd for such small figures. The card is basically blue with some white; on the viewer’s right, there is a web-motif that involves both illustration and the shape of the card, and on the left, skyscrapers stretch upwards in a curvy sort of way. This latter is a remarkably artsy move, for action figure packaging. It’s a perfectly okay package overall, neither particularly beautiful, nor repellant. The figure is plainly visible and excitingly posed, so that’s good.

The back of the packaging has the usual bio and pictures, and these are just fine. We also get pictures of three other figures from the line – Kraven, Rhino, and Green Goblin, in this case. It perhaps would have been nice to get a full account of the other figures in the wave somewhere here, like Hasbro does with Star Wars and Marvel Legends. Without such a guide, this is kind of a hard series of which to keep track.

SCULPTING: What we have here is a redesign of Lizard. His head is taller, and almost Godzilla-esque; his feet have grown upwards, giving him a dinosaurian posture; his scales have become jagged and spiky. It’s really a very nice-looking design, and very well-sculpted; your humble reviewer was eager to get the figure out of the package so that it could start assaulting his other figures. One does wonder why the redesign was felt to be necessary, though; the classic comic Lizard is a great-looking character. Actually, all of the characters in this line appear to have been redesigned to some degree; perhaps these are meant to be ‘cinematic’ versions of characters yet to appear in films. The fact that the only versions of Green Goblin and Doc Ock in the line are movie versions might bear this hypothesis out.

There are two main problems with the sculpt of this figure. One is that the head is pointed downward, ever downward, and there is no articulation to change this fact. So the Lizard is always sulking, or looking for his contact lens. The other is that the stability of the figure is terrible. Throughout this review, you may see pictures of the figure, apparently standing up well enough; please be assured that the toy had to be repositioned, at some great length, for each and every shot. Hasbro has seen fit to put holes in the feet, for figure stands – why here? Why now? Why not in the Marvel Legends? – so that’s good, but still, there is a lot of room for improvement here.

PAINT APPLICATION: The paint job on this figure is quite good. It is especially satisfying that the pants are purple, as they assuredly should be. (Do Drs. Curt Connors and Bruce Banner shop at the same menswear store? Maybe it gives discounts to PhDs with alliterative names.) There is no appreciable bleed, and there is some very nice shading to the scales. One odd thing is that the white lab-coat and shirt have a brownish, staining sort of effect, which is perhaps appropriate for a guy who spends so much time in the sewers; however, this effect is entirely absent, conspicuously so, from the shoulders. Strange, and not totally wonderful.

ARTICULATION: The Lizard figure has 18 points of articulation, not counting the tail, which we’ll discuss in a second. This is okay for a figure at this scale, but no better than okay. Indeed, were there more, the problems mentioned above with the downcast head and the ease of fall-down might have been alleviated. The jaw opens and closes, which is great, but it’s loose, which means it’s always hanging open a little, which is not great. The arms are loaded with articulation, so that’s pretty good.

The Lizard figure has what the package calls a “Slashing tail smash attack!” What this means is that you can pull the tail – which, at rest, is curved forward and right – straight back, and then let go, at which point you may thrill to its whipping back forward motion. Such an "action feature" identifies this as a figure aimed at the children’s market, rather than at adult collectors, and perhaps this is somehow the reasoning behind the smaller scale. Who knows? As action features go, it’s a perfectly good one; it’s especially nice that the tail has multiple joints to put toward this tail-whipping goal. It’s also good that the feature has been included without sacrificing articulation elsewhere in the body, though it does, of course, spell the end of useful tail-articulation. And that’s too bad; many would have preferred the articulation to the action feature.

ACCESSORIES: Lizard has two main accessories, which are listed on the packaging as “web-cuffs” and a “web-muzzle.” The web-cuffs go over the hands, to bind them together, or to keep them toasty warm in wintertime; the muzzle goes over the snout. Both appear to be made of Spidey’s webbing, and both are well made, good-looking, and a pretty good idea for a pair of accessories. The cuffs only cover the tops of his hands. They’d be even better if they covered the whole hand, but they’re still pretty good.

At the top of the packaging, in a red field, we learn that this package “includes (a) Spider-Man peel-off sticker.” Which is fine. Maybe in the post-apocalyptic future, Spider-Man stickers will be nigh-impossible to come by, and so the person who controls stickers such as this will be like a god. In the meantime, well, it’s not really a big deal.

COST & OVERALL IMPRESSION: In spite of the obscurity of the new Spider-Man movie, these tie-in toys are plentiful, going for about eight dollars in most places. Lizard here is somewhat difficult to come by, however, and you might wind up having to spend a good deal more than that on the secondary market.

This figure is an excellent example of a very good toy, brought low by just a handful of serious mistakes. Though the sculpt and paint are quite attractive, the downward-pointing head and totally unstable legs, make the whole affair bad-looking and frustrating to handle. Ironically, this figure might be best for those who do not take their toys out of the package. Ironic because it seems to be a toy aimed at children, who rarely engage in such behavior.

Review and photos by Matthew Kessen